Democrats unveil bill to ban online ‘surveillance advertising’

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Democrats introduced a bill on Tuesday that would ban the use of digital advertising targeting on ad markets hosted by platforms like Facebook.

Digital advertisers are not allowed to target ads to users under the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act. It allows for broad location-based targeting. It would be possible to have contextual advertising that is specifically matched to online content.

Eshoo, the bill's lead sponsor, said in a Tuesday statement that the business model of snooping is based on the collection and use of personal data. This practice allows online platforms to chase user engagement at a great cost to our society and it fuels a lot of harms. The business model for advertising is broken.

The business model for advertising is broken.

The bill would change the business models of both Facebook and Google. Lawmakers have debated ways to regulate the tech industry on issues like privacy and content moderation. Eshoo and her co-sponsors argue that the tech industry's current advertising models encourage the spread of harmful content and encourage them to amplify damaging posts to keep users on their platforms.

The Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general have the authority to enforce the new rules for ad targeting. It allows individual users to file lawsuits against platforms if they violate the law, giving them up to $5,000 in relief per violation.

Booker said that surveillance advertising is predatory and intrusive. The spread of misinformation, domestic extremism, racial division, and violence are all caused by the misuse of people's personal data.

Lawmakers have put out a number of new bills to regulate social media after Facebook's founder testified before Congress. Section 230 liability protections for platforms were stripped away by House Democrats last October if they were found to have recommended harmful content to users.

The leaks confirm that Facebook puts profits ahead of kids' online safety, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal at the first Senate hearing. He said that it chooses the growth of its products over the well-being of our children.