Sponsors (2)
The bill increases platform transparency and FTC authority to curb illicit online markets and strengthen consumer protection—potentially improving public safety—but does so at the cost of greater privacy/surveillance risks, higher compliance costs, and regulatory uncertainty that could burden users, small platforms, and service providers.
Law enforcement agencies (federal, state, and local) will have reliable 24/7 U.S.-based platform contact points and standardized referral/response metrics, speeding investigations, emergency responses, and interagency coordination.
All Americans — including journalists, regulators, and everyday users — gain clearer, publicly available information about platforms' law-enforcement procedures and comparative reports on content removals and referrals, improving transparency and accountability.
Victims and consumers (e.g., trafficking and child-exploitation victims, patients exposed to counterfeit/fentanyl advertising) may face fewer exposures to illicit online markets and see stronger enforcement as platforms are pressured to report referrals and remove dangerous content.
Users (including immigrants and ordinary account-holders) face increased privacy and surveillance risks because platforms must disclose contact/operational details and may increase data sharing with law enforcement, creating potential mission creep into broader speech monitoring.
Platform operators, websites, apps, nonprofits, and common carriers will incur new compliance, reporting, and 24/7 staffing costs that could be passed to users, reduce investment in services/features, or shrink nonprofit offerings.
Online services and carriers will face regulatory uncertainty because of a broad platform definition and FTC discretion to expand coverage, and expanded FTC jurisdiction may increase litigation and enforcement costs for covered entities and taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Introduced February 19, 2025 by Richard Lynn Scott · Last progress February 19, 2025
Requires social media platforms to set up and publish a U.S.-based, 24/7 law-enforcement portal within 90 days, and to submit standardized, public annual reports to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on monitoring, referrals, and responses related to illicit content (including counterfeit substances, fentanyl, human trafficking, and child exploitation). Establishes an FTC advisory committee to design reporting metrics, makes platform noncompliance an FTC-enforceable unfair or deceptive practice, and extends FTC enforcement to include certain common carriers and nonprofits.