Even This Tiny Proposal to Limit Section 230 Looks Like a Huge Mess

Maybe more so than any other piece of technical school statute law , surgical incision 230 of the Communications Decency Act has really been carry a whipping by members of Congress as of late whether by Democrat who need to see it straighten out , or republicans who seem engrossed to repeal it completely .

A two-party bill seeking to narrowly reign in web site for failing to report illegal drug sale or threats of violence is the latest to open this historically messy and complicated can of worms . Creatively called the “ See Something , Say Something Online Act , ” thedraftis soon to be bring out by senator Joe Manchin ( D - WV ) and and John Cornyn ( R - TX ) as a way to hold platforms like Facebook and Google — or really , any site with some grade of user - sire substance — responsible for any illegal purchases that might be happening on their platform . Under the conscription , the party behind these sort of chopine would be required to report any potentially shady purchase to local authorities , or risk being defy apt for that failure .

“ The protections afforded to the tech sphere under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act have pay lift to innovation and the U.S. technical school sector , ” Manchin articulate in a financial statement . “ But it also has a glum side , shielding company from the proliferation of illegal content on their platforms . ”

Photo: Win McNamee (Getty Images)

“ It ’s time to amend surgical incision 230 to reflect the mode that the Internet impacts our society today — both good and bad — because even one opioid sold online is too many , ” he added .

To give a brief review of what Section 230actually entails , it broadly speaking isolate web site so that they are n’t nurse liable for what users mail on them . Effectively , it allow web site — particularly societal culture medium companies — to work without being action on the daily .

Manchin and Cornyn seem contentedness to leave 230 largely untouched . Butthe draftof the bill has a caution not only for illicit drug sales within a web site ’s substance abuser base , but also any acts of “ domesticated or international terrorism , ” or anything that can broadly be defined as a “ crimson criminal offense , ” which is defined per the circular as :

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an offensive that has as an element the use , attempted use , or threatened economic consumption of forcible force against the individual or property of another

White Nationalist andmilitant separatist groupson Facebook , for case , could become even more of a headache for the company under the bill , since “ threatening ” to utilise “ physical force ” against another group of people is jolly muchall they do . You could also argue that some of President Trump’spostsacross the program have actuate violence as well . What might happen to these companies if they lost the protective covering of surgical incision 230 remains an opened question .

Even if the broad voice communication around threats of violence was contract or removed , the basic proposition of account likely drug sale is it ’s own mess . away from the difficulty that goes into defining what a “ suspicious transmission ” since 2018 , Facebook , in particular , has struggledwith a chunk of its users necessitate to its various platforms in lodge to purchase and deal drugs . And despite swearing that it’scracking downon this exact practice , its success seems to belimited .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

It does n’t inspire trust that Manchin and Cornyn compare their anti - drug bill to therequirement of financial institutions to reportdeposits of $ 10,000 or more to the IRS . Even if Facebook or Instagram or Youtube could somehow automate a mode to find when a especial opioid - concern term is used on their website , there ’s virtually no way for easing tool to state the conflict between a potential sales event and arecovery groupwithout scaling up human oversight to an impossible stage .

This is n’t the first sentence that well - imply politicians have assay using banks as a roadmap to wrangle technical school companies . At the ending of August , David Cicilline , the Democratic chairman of the House ’s antitrust subcommittee , floated to Bloombergthe thought of potentially vamp the 1933Glass - Stegall Actas a way to potentially part up the tech giants the same way investing banks and retail banks were broken up in the backwash of the Great Depression . It ’s a right - faith attempt that nonethelessfalls apart at the seamsonce you realize that big technical school companionship and big banks simply are n’t structure the same way .

We here at Gizmodo dot com do n’t have a watch crystal ball to see into the future of tech insurance policy , but consider how popular it is tokick Section 230right now , it ’s unlikely that this proposal will be the last , or even the one that sticks .

William Duplessie