California SB 771, which is now on Governor Newsom's desk for signature, would add a new statute that provides the following (some structure added):
(a) A social media platform [that has >$100M in annual revenues] that
- violates [California Civil Code] Section 51.7, 51.9, 52, or 52.1 through its algorithms that relay content to users
- or aids, abets, acts in concert, or conspires in a violation of any of those sections,
- or is a joint tortfeasor in a violation of any of those sections,
shall … be liable to a prevailing plaintiff for a civil penalty for each violation sufficient to deter future violations but not to exceed [$1M for knowing violations, and $500K for reckless violations, potentially doubled if the platform knew, or should have known, that the plaintiff was a minor].
(b) (1) For purposes of this section, deploying an algorithm that relays content to users may be considered to be an act of the platform independent from the message of the content relayed.
(2) A platform shall be deemed to have actual knowledge of the operations of its own algorithms, including how and under what circumstances its algorithms deliver content to some users but not to others.
To explain (with some oversimplification) the statutory cross-references,
