Senators Manchin and Cornyn team up for 'See Something, Say Something Online Act' amid social media panic

Wisconsin Democrat Senator Joe Manchin and Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn announced on Monday their proposed "See Something, Say Something Online Act."

"Joe Manchin and John Cornyn team up to bring perhaps the worst government slogan ever to the internet," Ari Cohn wrote on Twitter.

"If You See Something, Say Something," was originally a slogan developed by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and then used under license by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to encourage people to report on any suspicious activity or circumstance they saw, on public transportation especially, but in general also. It has also been used for this new bill.

The bill itself is one of several proposed acts aimed at amending or weakening Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 has acted as a sort of liability shield for social media companies, allowing them to have free and open environments for the users without having to worry about being sued for libel, etc.

Section 230 states that social media platforms are platforms, and are not publishers, and that they can't be held legally responsible for content uploaded by third parties.

Of course, despite the protections offered by section 230, big social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter have been engaging in massive interventions based on their own criteria, which raises questions about why these protections exist in the first place.

The "See Something Say Something" bill proposes that there should be a minimum legal requirement for social media companies to screen for potential illegal activity on their respective platforms, and provide such to authorities as the case may be.