SB3454 104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB104 19087 SPS 32532 b

104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2025 and 2026
SB3454

Introduced 2/5/2026, by Sen. Sue Rezin

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

New Act
815 ILCS 505/2MMMMM new

Creates the Better Social Media Feeds Act. Provides that a covered online platform that deploys an algorithmic recommender system shall prominently and conspicuously provide on its website, service, or application: (1) a list of each algorithmic recommender system in use by the covered online platform; (2) a description of each input to each algorithmic recommender system; and (3) the weights used in each algorithmic recommender system. Provides that, for all services, products, and features where a covered online platform makes use of an algorithmic recommender system that uses personal data, the algorithmic recommender system shall be configured, by default, to maximize one or more long-term user value metrics. Sets forth provisions concerning covered minors and long-term assessments. Provides that a violation of the Act constitutes an unlawful practice under the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. Amends the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act to make a conforming change. Effective January 1, 2027.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning business.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Better Social Media Feeds Act.

Section 5. Findings. The General Assembly finds and declares:

(1) Every day, billions of people scroll through social media feeds, search results, and streaming recommendations that shape what they see, read, and watch.

(2) The business interests of some tech companies incentivize them to gain as much of users' time and attention as possible, in order to generate more advertising revenue.

(3) As a result, many online platforms design their algorithmic systems not to optimize user satisfaction, but rather to maximize predicted engagement to manipulate users into spending more time on their platforms than users would otherwise choose.

(4) This approach has been linked to a range of individual and societal harms, for all consumers but especially children, including problematic overuse, increased rates of depression and anxiety, and increased polarization.

(5) Without transparency around what platform algorithms are optimized for, independent experts are unable to provide the information consumers need to make informed decisions about what online services to use.

(6) Publicizing the metrics online platforms use to evaluate their product teams would allow consumers to see what high-level objectives platforms' algorithms are designed to serve, without requiring disclosure of the large number of highly technical metrics platforms may use to evaluate their algorithms.

(7) Requiring the disclosure will incentivize platforms to incorporate employee and team evaluation criteria that better align with user value, resulting in products that better serve consumers' interests.

(8) Mandating that platforms conduct, and disclose the results of, assessments of the long-term effects of algorithmic changes to user value and well-being is important for the public to be able to determine whether product changes are being made to serve their interests or undermine them.

(9) For transparency to be meaningful, however, consumers must have genuine options.

(10) Requiring platforms to provide users with default algorithmic recommendations optimized for users' own long-term value, rather than engagement, prioritizes what consumers value, while retaining their autonomy to choose alternatives if they wish.

Section 10. Definitions. As used in this Act:

"Accessible user interface" means an interface that requires minimal user interactions, such as clicks, or taps, for a user to input data, make a choice, or take an action while using a covered online platform.

"Algorithmic recommender system" means a computational process used to determine the selection, order, rank, relative prioritization, or relative prominence of items provided to a user on an online platform, including search results, ranking, recommendations, display, or any other method of automated selection.

"Covered business" means a sole proprietorship, limited liability company, corporation, association, or other legal entity, including as a joint venture or partnership composed of businesses in which each has at least a 40% interest in the joint venture or partnership, that owns, operates, controls, or provides a covered online platform, except that a federal, State, or unit of local government in the ordinary course of its operations shall not be considered a covered business.

"Covered minor" means a user who a covered business knows or should have known, based on knowledge fairly implied under objective circumstances, is a minor. "Covered online platform" means an online platform that:

(1) conducts business in this State; and

(2) uses one or more algorithmic recommender systems to determine the selection, order, rank, or relative prominence of items provided to a user in whole or in part based on the user's personal data, unless the data is:

(A) based on user-selected settings or technical information concerning the user's device; or

(B) A search query, provided that the query is not associated with the user in the online platform's data storage and is only processed to convey items in direct response to the user's search.

"Default" means a preselected option adopted by a covered online platform for a specific service, product, or feature.

"Engagement" means a user interaction with items on a covered online platform, including clicks, taps, comments, reshares, watching, dwelling, indications of approval or disapproval, such as likes, dislikes, upvotes, or downvotes, or any other form of interaction.

"Engagement data" means information that a covered online platform collects about engagement on its platform, not including user survey data.

"High-value data" means any user-provided data or predictions from user survey data made by a covered online platform.

"Holdout group" means a group of users of a covered online platform that are exempted from the application of algorithmic recommender system design changes.

"Item" means any media eligible for display by a recommender system, including individual posts, accounts, groups, pages, channels, products, advertisements, text, images, videos, or audio files.

"Long-term holdout assessment" means a process in which a covered online platform maintains a holdout group for a duration of at least 12 months.

"Long-term user value" means outcomes that align with individual users' deliberative, forward-looking preferences or aspirations as expressed to a covered online platform through high-value data.

"Long-term user value metrics" means the metrics a covered online platform uses to measure long-term user value.

"Online platform" means a website, online service, online application, or mobile application.

"Personal data" means any information, including derived data and unique identifiers, that is linked or reasonably linkable, alone or in combination with other information, to an identified or identifiable individual or a device that identifies or is linked or reasonably linkable to an individual.

"User" means a user of a covered online platform who is located in this State. "User" does not include the operator of a covered online platform or a person acting as an agent of the operator of a covered online platform.

"User-provided data" means any of the following categories of information collected by a covered online platform:

(1) information expressly and explicitly provided by the user, including user preferences, settings, search queries, prompts, and any other information expressly and explicitly provided by the user that is not engagement data;

(2) user survey data;

(3) indicators or ratings expressly and explicitly selected by the user that are not engagement data; or

(4) other categories of data or more specific definitions of the above categories of data as may be defined by the Attorney General by rule.

"User survey data" means user responses to questions that a covered online platform or a third party acting on the covered online platform's behalf poses to users.

"Weights" means the individual numeric settings that control the output of a recommender system at a high level across a covered online platform's user base, such as the relative contributions of different factors to an item's ranking.

Section 15. Applicability.

(a) The requirements of this Act are in addition to and shall not limit or restrict in any way the application of any other law of this State. If there is a conflict between this Act and another law, the law that affords the greatest protection to consumers shall control.

(b) Nothing in this Act should be construed in a manner inconsistent with the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or 47 U.S.C. 230.

Section 20. Design transparency.

(a) A covered online platform that deploys an algorithmic recommender system shall prominently and conspicuously provide on its website, service, or application:

(1) a list of each algorithmic recommender system in use by the covered online platform;

(2) a description of each input to each algorithmic recommender system and the source of the data of each input; and

(3) the weights used in each algorithmic recommender system, categorized into quartile groups according to each weight's relative importance in contributing to the system's output.

(b) The Attorney General shall adopt rules to further clarify the information required to be disclosed under subsection (a).

(c) On an annual basis, a covered online platform shall disclose the high-level objectives, key results, and performance metrics it uses to evaluate product teams responsible for algorithmic recommender system design.

Section 25. User choice and defaults.

(a) For all services, products, and features where a covered online platform makes use of an algorithmic recommender system that uses personal data, the algorithmic recommender system shall be configured, by default, to maximize one or more long-term user value metrics.

(b) A covered online platform shall provide an accessible user interface that enables users to expressly and unambiguously communicate their preferences about the types of items to be recommended and to be blocked in the output of the covered online platform's algorithmic recommender systems. The covered online platform shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that the output of its algorithmic recommender systems is consistent with those preferences.

(c) A covered online platform shall not withhold, degrade, lower the quality, or increase the price of any product, service, or feature, other than as necessary for compliance with the provisions of this Act or any rules or regulations promulgated pursuant to this Act, to a user due to the user's exercise of any rights contained in this Act, including the user's selection of any algorithmic recommender system option or expressed preferences about types of items to be recommended or blocked.

Section 30. Covered minors. Any algorithmic recommender system that uses personal data and is provided by a covered online platform to a covered minor shall be configured, by default, to maximize one or more long-term user value metrics applicable to minors.

Section 35. Long-term assessments.

(a) Subject to the rules adopted under subsection (c), a covered online platform shall maintain at least one holdout group and make all changes to the design of an algorithmic recommender system subject to a long-term holdout assessment.

(b) On an annual basis, a covered online platform shall make publicly available, in a location that is easily accessible, a long-term holdout assessment disclosure that includes:

(1) the covered online platform's long-term user value metrics;

(2) the aggregate, anonymized measurements of each metric across the holdout group;

(3) the aggregate, anonymized measurements of each metric across the rest of the user base of the covered online platform.

(c) The Attorney General shall, on or before January 1, 2028, adopt rules for the operation of long-term holdout assessments as required under this Section, including:

(1) the construction of holdout groups when carrying out long-term holdout assessments under this Section;

(2) the requirements for long-term holdout assessment disclosures as required under subsection (b); and

(3) in the Attorney General's discretion, exempting from the long-term holdout assessment requirements in this Section any change to the design of an algorithmic recommender system that serves to reduce or prevent direct and immediate harms to users without increasing user engagement or revenue for the covered business.

(d) A covered business operating a covered online platform shall, at its own expense and at least once a year, obtain an independent audit of the long-term holdout assessments on its platform and the long-term holdout assessment disclosure. To comply with the requirements of this subsection:

(1) the independent auditor preparing reports under this subsection shall follow inspection and consultation practices designed to ensure that reports are comprehensive and accurate; and

(2) the covered online platform shall provide to the independent auditor full and complete cooperation and access to information and operations required to ensure that the report is comprehensive and accurate.

Section 40. Enforcement. A violation of this Act constitutes an unlawful practice under the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. All remedies, penalties, and authority granted to the Attorney General by the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act shall be available to the Attorney General for the enforcement of this Act.

Section 90. The Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act is amended by adding Section 2MMMMM as follows:

(815 ILCS 505/2MMMMM new)

Sec. 2MMMMM. Violations of the Better Social Media Feeds Act. Any person who violates the Better Social Media Feeds Act commits an unlawful practice within the meaning of this Act.

Section 97. Severability. The provisions of this Act are severable under Section 1.31 of the Statute on Statutes.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect January 1, 2027.