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Proposed US Bill May Allow Social Media Users To Disable Algorithms

By  |  November 9, 2021

A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the US House of Representatives has introduced a bill that would require internet platforms like Meta’s Facebook and Alphabet’s Google to allow users to see content not chosen by algorithms, reported Reuters.

The legislation, introduced by Representatives Ken Buck, a Republican, and David Cicilline, a Democrat, and others, would require big internet platforms to show consumers information not directed to them via algorithms, putting them outside what the lawmakers called the “filter bubble.”

The House measure is a companion to a bill introduced in the Senate in June. That one is also bipartisan.

Related: New Bipartisan Senate Bill Seeks To Limit Big Tech Deals

Cicilline is chair of the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, and Buck is the top Republican. The panel wrote a big report unveiled last year that sharply criticized big tech companies, including Amazon and Apple.

“Consumers should have the option to engage with internet platforms without being manipulated by secret algorithms driven by user-specific data,” Buck said in a statement.

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