S. 3540 — LISTOS Act of 2025

This section establishes the short title of the Act as the “Language-Inclusive Support and Transparency for Online Services Act of 2025” or the “LISTOS Act of 2025” and sets forth the table of contents.

This section states the sense of Congress that (1) substantial investments across languages are essential to protect online user safety and ensure equitable digital access; (2) online platforms have under-invested in non-English content moderation and detection relative to English, with little transparency on efficacy; (3) uneven enforcement has proliferated illegal and harmful content and targeted non-English communities for fraud and harassment; and (4) online safety reforms must ensure equitable language investments to promote economic opportunity, public health, and civil rights.

This section requires operators of covered platforms to ensure reasonably consistent processes for detecting, suppressing, and removing illegal content or content violating platform policies across languages in which the platform engages in monetization practices. Enforcers must consider factors such as staffing levels, language proficiency, and automated system effectiveness. Exceptions apply (1) to end-to-end encrypted messaging services and (2) to languages used by fewer than 100,000 U.S. users for nine or more of the past 12 months; it also prohibits requirements for specific actions on individual content items or classes.

This section requires operators of covered platforms to submit to the Commission, and make publicly available in machine-readable format, annual reports on manual and algorithmic content moderation activities. The Commission must issue rules specifying report contents, including (1) content moderation staffing numbers (aggregate and by employee location, assigned region, and language proficiency), plus descriptions of training, support services (e.g., mental health), and any differences by region, language, or employment type; (2) for algorithmic processes, performance metrics and safeguards for consistent behavior across languages; (3) languages used for monetization and revenue percentages by language; (4) percentages of manually reviewed content handled in original language (vs. automated translation) by monetized language, plus related policies; (5) languages reviewed without translation, and for others, translation/review processes and differences from original-language review; (6) content takedowns and average response times to user requests, by monetized language; and (7) other Commission-determined information.

This section requires operators of covered platforms to (1) make all user tools for reporting content for review or automated action accessible across all languages in which the platform offers its service; and (2) post all platform policies and other information concerning acceptable use of the platform in the same manner for all such languages.

This section establishes an Advisory Group on Language-Sensitive Technologies, to be created by the Commission not later than 360 days after enactment of this Act. The group provides consensus advice and guidance to the Commission on best practices for private enterprises and public entities using covered technology—defined as technology for (1) detecting and processing input language from sources such as analog text and audio into machine-readable formats (e.g., speech and optical character recognition); (2) processing or generating machine-readable language (e.g., natural language processing, including large language models); (3) detecting and processing images and videos into machine-readable formats or processing such formats; and (4) making automated decisions related to content removal, ranking, or presentation on online platforms—to ensure nondiscriminatory application. Membership, appointed by the Commission, includes diverse viewpoints and backgrounds such as federal employees, representatives of communities impacted by harmful non-English content, content moderators, and covered platform employees. The Commission must publish the group's findings, recommendations, and best practices on its website; the group is exempt from the Federal Advisory Committee Act; and such sums as necessary are authorized to be appropriated.

This section establishes Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state enforcement authority for violations of sections 3, 4, or 5. **(a) FTC Enforcement**—Treats such violations as a violation of a rule defining unfair or deceptive acts or practices under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the FTC Act (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)) (i.e., FTC trade regulation rules promulgated via notice-and-comment rulemaking). Applies all applicable terms of the FTC Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) to FTC enforcement, including penalties, privileges, and immunities; preserves other FTC authorities. **(b) State Enforcement**—Authorizes state attorneys general to bring parens patriae civil actions in federal district court for injunctions, compliance, damages, restitution, or other compensation on behalf of state residents, subject to (1) written notice to FTC (or immediate notice if infeasible) prior to filing, with complaint copy; (2) FTC rights to intervene, be heard, and appeal; (3) prohibition on state actions against FTC-exempt persons; (4) bar on state actions during pendency of FTC civil or administrative actions against the same defendant for the same violation; and (5) venue in appropriate U.S. district courts (28 U.S.C. 1391) or state courts of competent jurisdiction, with nationwide service of process. Also authorizes other designated state consumer protection officers to bring such actions under the same terms and preserves state investigatory powers and ongoing state proceedings.

This section directs the Commission to promulgate, pursuant to Administrative Procedure Act notice-and-comment procedures (5 U.S.C. 553), (1) regulations to implement sections 3 and 4 of the Act and (2) such other regulations as necessary to carry out the Act. The Commission must begin the rulemaking process for sections 3 and 4 not later than 120 days after enactment.

This section establishes effective dates of 120 days after the Commission's promulgation of implementing regulations for sections 3 and 4 and 120 days after enactment for section 5.

This section defines key terms for the Act, including (1) Commission, as the Federal Trade Commission; (2) covered platform, as a website, internet application, or mobile application that enables users to create, share, view, or search for user-generated or third-party content (e.g., social media platforms, online search engines, or messaging services) and that has had at least 10 million monthly active users in the United States for three or more of the past 12 months; (3) monetization practices, as any revenue avenues for a covered platform, including compensation for displaying or amplifying specific content or for businesses to find, charge, or communicate with customers; and (4) platform policies, as any terms, conditions, or community guidelines governing a covered platform's contractual relationship with users or user conduct on the platform.