Sec. 5860. Multilateral agreement to establish an independent international center for research on the information environment
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Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall take such action as may be necessary to seek to initiate negotiations to obtain an agreement on a multilateral basis with countries that are allies or partners of the United States, including countries that are members of the Group of Seven (G7), to establish an independent international center for research on the information environment (in this section referred to as the research center ).
As part of the negotiations to obtain an agreement described in subsection (a), the Secretary of State should consult with— representatives from providers of prominent online platforms; researchers from the fields of information science, media studies, international data governance, and other similar fields; privacy and human and civil rights advocates; technologists, including individuals with training and expertise in the state of the art in the fields of information technology, information security, network security, software development, computer science, computer engineering, and other related fields; representatives from international standards-setting organizations; and experts in mechanisms for enabling access to online platform data which is compliant with data protection frameworks.
An agreement obtained under subsection
(a)should include provisions relating to the following: The purposes and functions of the research center, including its mandate to ensure the widest possible cooperation among member countries of the research center to ensure such purposes are achieved and such functions are carried out, including to— enable international collaboration to gain understanding and measure the impacts of foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States and countries that are allies or partners of the United States; enable international collaboration to gain understanding and measure the impacts of the content moderation, product design decisions, and algorithms of online platforms on society, politics, the spread of hate, harassment, and extremism, security, privacy, and physical or mental health, including considerations for youth development; conduct research projects with a focus on the global information environment that require information from or about multiple online platforms and multi-year time horizons; conduct research projects that explore the impact of published media, such as television, podcasts, radio, and newspapers, on so-ciety, politics, the spread of hate, harassment, and extremism, security, privacy, and physical or mental health, including considerations for youth development; facilitate secure information sharing between online platforms and researchers affiliated with the research center; disseminate findings to the public; and offer recommendations to online platforms and governments regarding ways to ensure a safe and resilient online information environment. The governance structure and process for adding and removing member countries of the research center. The process by which a researcher can become affiliated with or join the research center, including provisions to ensure the researcher is not working on behalf of a business enterprise. A proposed budget and contributions to be provided by member countries of the research center. An agreement obtained under subsection
(a)should include provisions relating to the following: Best practices regarding what types of information from an online platform should be made available, and under what circumstances, to the research center. A code of conduct for researchers working with information made available as described in subparagraph (A). The provisions described in paragraph
(1)should include the circumstances under which the research center will review a publication based on information made available to the research center prior to publication to determine whether the publication violates the privacy of a user of the online platform or other information outlet that made available the information or would reveal trade secrets of the provider of the online platform or other information outlet. The provisions described in paragraph
(1)should— ensure that the making available of information to the research center and the provision of access to the information by the research center do not infringe upon reasonable expectations of personal privacy of users of online platforms or of other individuals; and ensure that information is made available to the research center consistent with any applicable privacy and data security laws of member countries. The code of conduct included under paragraph (1)(B) in the provisions described in paragraph
(1)should require researchers described in such paragraph to commit to the following: To use information made available to the research center only for research purposes specified in the agreement establishing the research center. Not to re-identify, or to attempt to re-identify, an individual to whom information made available to the research center relates. Not to publish personal information derived from information made available to the research center. To comply with limits on commercial use of information made available to the research center or research conducted using such information, as specified by the research center. In this section, the term online platform means a service provided over the internet that enables two or more distinct but interdependent sets of users (which may be firms or individuals) to interact with each other. There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of State to carry out this section $10,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2023 and 2024.