House lawmakers want to force Meta and other social media companies to let their users turn off engagement-hungry algorithms, report says

• House lawmakers introduced a bill Monday aimed at reining in companies such as Meta, per Axios.
• The bill would force companies to offer versions of their services that don't use obscure algorithms to change what a user sees.

House lawmakers have reportedly introduced a new bill that would force social media companies such as Meta - formerly known as Facebook - to offer versions of their services that are free of obscure algorithms that decide what content people see.

Axios reported Tuesday on the bipartisan bill, which mirrors a Senate bill introduced in June. The House bill is sponsored by Reps. Ken Buck, David Cicilline, Lori Trahan, and Burgess Owens, per Axios.

According to a copy of the bill published by Axios, companies would need to give users the option of seeing "unmanipulated content" by allowing users to switch to a version of the service curated by an "input-transparent algorithm."

It defines an "input-transparent algorithm" as one that doesn't use any data from a user to determine what content the user sees.

It wouldn't affect companies with fewer than 500 employees, or with annual revenues of less than $50 million, Axios reported.

"Facebook and other dominant platforms manipulate their users through opaque algorithms that prioritize growth and profit over everything else," Cicilline told Axios.

"Due to these platforms' monopoly power and dominance, users are stuck with few alternatives to this exploitative business model, whether it is in their social media feed, on paid advertisements, or in their search results," he added.

Cicilline is the chair of a subcommittee responsible for an antitrust inquiry into Big Tech. He has been a vocal critic of Facebook in the past: In July 2020 he called for the company to be broken up, saying it had shown "classic monopoly behavior."

The bill comes after Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen told Congress that replacing algorithms that favor "engagement-based ranking" with a chronological news feed would counter various harmful behaviors on Facebook.

"One of the consequences of how Facebook is picking out that content today is that it's optimizing for content that gets engagement, a reaction, but its own research is showing that content that is hateful, that is divisive, that is polarizing. It's easier to inspire people to anger than it is to other emotions," Haugen told CBS 60 Minutes.

The Senate bill introduced in June said it would mandate "greater transparency to consumers and allow users to view content that has not been curated as a result of a secret algorithm." It gave the example of Twitter allowing users to toggle between an algorithmically curated timeline and a chronological one.

In a statement to Insider, a Meta spokesperson said Facebook's main platform gives users the option to switch to a chronological news feed. Meta also owns Instagram, which does not give users the option to switch to a chronological feed.

Facebook's algorithms have become a subject of intense scrutiny since Haugen leaked internal company documents to The Wall Street Journal. One document showed Facebook data scientists flagged to the company that a tweak to its algorithm in 2018 might amplify divisive, sensationalist content.

Meta did not immediately respond when contacted by Insider for comment on Axios' report.