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NetChoice Raises Serious Privacy Concerns with the See Something, Say Something Online Act

Today, NetChoice raised serious privacy concerns with new legislation introduced by Sens. Manchin (D-WV) and Cornyn (R-TX). The bill would amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act such that online platforms could lose some legal liability protections if they don’t report content that could be related to drugs, terrorism, and violent criminal activity.

“This bill would pressure online platforms and messaging services to relinquish private information and chats of users to law enforcement,” said Carl Szabo, Vice President and General Counsel at NetChoice. “This bill would strongarm online platforms into sending the correspondence of Black Lives Matter or Pro-Life organizers and activists to law enforcement simply because platforms would need to take a better-safe-than-sorry approach to maintain protection from liability.”

“Social media should not become an arm of the police,” continued Szabo. “If the See Something, Say Something Online Act becomes law, this legislation would skirt Fourth Amendment protections and turn online platforms into a tool for law enforcement, upending privacy from government online.”