Weaponizing Terms of Service: How Online Service Providers Use Broad Policies to Silence Conservatives

A report on how online service providers are weaponizing their terms of service to deny conservative organizations access to essential business technology. The report concludes with the following recommendations:

1. Legislation requiring Online Service Providers to publish the standards, including detailed definitions of all key terms and phrases, they may employ to deny or cancel services.
2. Legislation requiring Online Service Providers to provide written notice to a user when refusing to provide a service or cancelling a service based on the user’s violation of the terms of service. This written notice must specifically identify the users’ actions that violated the terms of service. The Online Service Providers must also request the user’s permission to post the refusal or cancellation on its public website and do so if the user gives that permission.
3. Legislation requiring Online Service Providers to publish an annual report on their public websites outlining actions taken to enforce their terms of service. This report must include the number of instances that the Online Service Provider denied or cancelled service based on the terms of service, and, for each instance, the specific provision that was violated, as well as the source for the alert of the violation.