Immediate Bipartisan Fixes for Social Media

Make platform enforcement of terms of service visible and appealable. The platforms reveal what they choose in transparency reports, but there is rarely detail about which policies are enforced, on whom, and at what rates. A “black box data recorder” and access to the data is necessary to allow auditing of enforcement practices. Also, there should be an efficient and transparent appeals process. Facebook’s recently revealed Content Distribution Guidelines—which outline types of content that receive reduced distribution—is an adequate first step, but such transparency efforts should be guaranteed and standardized across the industry.

Enforce third-party audits of terms of service enforcement that are routine and publicly available.

Insist that AI and algorithms targeting children provide greater transparency standards and higher levels of explainability and justification, in keeping with FTC enforcement of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

Criminalize the unauthorized disclosure of intimate images, and users should be notified when they are viewing a deepfake video or other piece of altered media.

Allocate funding for law enforcement training to tackle online abuse and for investigating and prosecuting online sexual harassment, stalking, and threats.

Deploy a circuit breaker:

• Implement a tool to limit the exponential amplification of content, until human reviewers can determine whether the content violates platform policies or poses a risk to public safety (e.g., trigger of # of interactions on platform/cross-platform in 12 hours).

Replace “dark patterns” that manipulate users with designs that support transparency and choice. By default, users should be able to avoid:

• data sharing, with opt-ins to grant third-parties data collection permission;
• being tested or micro-targeted for ads; and
• having a newsfeed or timeline sorted for the user without meaningful options.

Build the “PBS of the Internet” as civic infrastructure:

• Enable action and norms to incentivize engagement with accuracy and disincentivize accuracy-disruptors.
• Support a wide range of public digital media applications and content producers—including independent journalists, local governments, nonprofits and educational institutions—to increase the volume and diversity of local civic information.
• Use open protocol standards and APIs to let consumers mix and match the content they want amplified from a wide variety of sources.
• Insist on data governance grounded in human rights and ethics.

Get “Interoperability” so users are not locked into individual gatekeepers:

• Require interoperable, standard APIs.
• Require portability of data to help users switch to new platforms and foster greater competition.

Catalyze a new international effort to bring platforms to the table to share information and implement best practices to prevent such content – with auditing and reporting.

Introduce nutrition labels to provide users information on the content in their newsfeed. Fake or automated accounts should be labeled as such. News stories should contain information about who funds their outlet, where to find the outlet’s standards, and whether the article claims to be news or opinion.

Pass the Honest Ads Act and mandate that online platforms implement Know-Your-Customer rules for political advertisers.

Ensure platforms have a robust, transparent system for archiving political advertisements that is searchable and sortable through an API.

Update civil rights laws – just as discrimination is prohibited in public accommodations that exist in the offline world so should they be in the digital realm – both the ADA and the Equality Act contemplate platforms as public accommodations.

Prohibit voter suppression online as it is offline.

Direct platforms to implement Know-Your-Customer rules for those who use their systems to sell goods or services – with information easily accessible to the consumer.