Congress orders FTC to study how bots affect elections
H.R. 10775 — Bots Research Act · Filed by Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) · Introduced Oct 9, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
The bill tells the FTC Chairman to set up a task force. The task force has 90 days to start. It will study how bots affect social media, public talk, and elections. The task force will include experts from government, schools, nonprofits, and companies. It will figure out what counts as a bot and how many exist. It will study how bots are used and how to stop harmful ones. It must protect free speech while fighting bots. The task force must report to Congress within one year.
Who it affects
The bill does not create new rules or punish anyone. Citizens may benefit from research into how bots threaten elections and public talk.
One thing to notice
The task force will only study and report. Congress can choose whether to act on what the task force finds.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Oct 9, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Oct 9, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- bots — Automated accounts that post on social media without a real person controlling each post.
- task force — A group of experts brought together to study a problem and report back.
- FTC — The Federal Trade Commission, a federal agency that protects consumers and competition.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,513 characters) on Oct 15, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress orders FTC to study how bots affect elections” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr10775/simple Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.