United States of America: Passed act amending Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes (HB 2017) including protection from harmful content

On 8 May 2024, the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania passed the Act amending the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes (HB 2017). The Act would amend Title 50 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, which addresses the protection of minors on social media platforms. Among its provisions, the amendment seeks to implement protection from harmful content. Under this provision, social media platforms would be required to establish and maintain a transparent and easily accessible system for users to report incidents of hateful behaviour. Additionally, these platforms would have to have a clearly outlined policy that is readily available to users and details how they will respond to and address reports of such incidents. Non-compliance with this requirement would result in fines of up to USD 1000 per day for each violation by the social media platform.