United States of America: Introduced Language-Inclusive Support and Transparency for Online Services Act of 2023 (LISTOS Act/ S 1801) including content moderation regulation

On 1 June 2023, the Language-Inclusive Support and Transparency for Online Services Act of 2023 (LISTOS Act) was introduced to the US Senate. The Act applies to platforms, including websites, internet applications, or mobile internet applications, that allow users to create, share, view, or search for and access user-generated or third-party content and have at least 10’000’000 monthly active users for 3 or more of the past 12 months within the United States. In particular, the Act would require that any content moderation processes be consistent for languages in which the platform generates revenue. Furthermore, the platforms will be required to provide an annual report on its content moderation processes. In the case of the use of an algorithmic content moderation tool, information must be provided on the consistent consideration of non-English languages. If content moderation is executed manually, the report must provide information on the staffing and specify if the content moderation is carried out in the original language of the content or previously translated. Finally, the tools for reporting content for review would be required to be available in all languages in which the platform offers its services.