Current Events > If passed, new legislation would lead to mandatory message scanning in the US

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/earn-it-bill-governments-not-so-secret-plan-scan-every-message-online

I've made topics about EARN IT before, which most experts suspected was the US government's attempt at mandating the breaking of encryption. It turns out at least one of the future members of the rule-making committee that the law would establish has great ambitions:

NCMEC believes online services should be made to screen their messages for material that NCMEC considers abusive; use screening technology approved by NCMEC and law enforcement; report what they find in the messages to NCMEC; and be held legally responsible for the content of messages sent by others.

Would you like every message you write online to pass through government-mandated software that reports you to private organizations and law enforcement if it doesn't like what it finds? What the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children considers abusive and what is illegal are two different things. Known illegal material is already scanned for and automatically flagged and reported by the big cloud providers. Don't be fooled; this is about absolute social control. God only knows what the other 18 committee members--or Barr himself--will add.

This is actively working its way through the Senate right now, and with the coronavirus taking up the news cycle, you may not hear more about it until it passes in the Senate. Don't assume that the House will strike it down if it passes either: the bill has bipartisan origins in the Senate. Please, contact your senators and tell them not to vote for this.

lol imagine the government getting ahead of basic encryption

darkmaian23 posted...

Would you like every message you write online to pass through government-mandated software that reports you to private organizations and law enforcement if it doesn't like what it finds?

why are we adopting EU policies?

darkmaian23 posted...

Children

ah, yes, of course. nevermind. it's business as usual, i see

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Nice. This will reduce conspiracy theories against them, so everyone will be pure hearted. :)

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Not that I agree with giving the government all encryption keys, but

Known illegal material is already scanned for and automatically flagged and reported by the big cloud providers.

This isn't the case for everything, and there's surprisingly little info for how it's actually scanned for. Whatsapp, for example, doesn't have the encryption keys for the messages that pass through their servers.

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-51680410

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FBI: Yes, John? We intercepted a text, where you referred to President Trump as a "fat orange chongus"... we are going to need you to tell us what that means, so we can determine whether or not we should arrest you as an anti-government dissident.

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This is some ctOS shit up in here. Time to get dedsec on the case.

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@Evening_Dragon
So because not everything is scanned for known illegal porn, and because those methods aren't completely transparent to the public, you think that justifies government mandated scanning software going through everything everyone says online or posts, looking for something the police or certain private groups think is objectionable (not just illegal), is justified? Because that's what they intend to happen here, and this is why they say they need it.

Thinking that maybe completely unbreakable encryption might be bad for fighting crime is light years away from what this bill is and what its intentions are.

Well, one of them anyway. With 19 committee members and Barr at the helm, there is no telling what will be dreamed up.

008Zulu posted...

FBI: Yes, John? We intercepted a text, where you referred to President Trump as a "fat orange chongus"... we are going to need you to tell us what that means, so we can determine whether or not we should arrest you as an anti-government dissident.

Not yet, and probably not soon after this becomes law, but eventually. This is why we have the 4th Amendment, and why it is so vital that legislation like this doesn't pass.

Not that I agree with giving the government all encryption keys

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I already sent messages to my local governors and senators about it through Eff but that's about as useful as getting toilet paper to combat the Coronavirus.

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Superlinkbro posted...

I already sent messages to my local governors and senators about it through Eff but that's about as useful as getting toilet paper to combat the Coronavirus.

It's an election year, and so far only 10 senators have come out in support of EARN IT. Your effort isn't wasted. Thank you for fighting the good fight!

LepartialJury posted...

Huh, always thought you were British for some reason.

No I'm not British. I never left the United States.

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sylverlolol posted...

This is some ctOS shit up in here. Time to get dedsec on the case.

I guess life imitates art.

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EverDownward posted...

why are we adopting EU policies?

ah, yes, of course. nevermind. it's business as usual, i see

These seriously! This bullshit needs to be stopped in it's tracks. On the bright side.. Don't see this lasting very long with the courts.
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James xeno posted...

These seriously! This bullshit needs to be stopped in it's tracks. On the bright side.. Don't see this lasting very long with the courts.

Please contact your representatives and tell them not to vote in favor of EARN IT. The EFF has a link to take action without too much bother on your part. :)

They always use "For the Children!" as a shield so it makes it really hard to argue against this stuff but they don't give a shit about that, it's all about getting more and more control.

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sext while you can

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viewmaster_pi posted...

sext while you can

We joke now.. But given the level of control many in government and even some in society (elites) really want over the net as a whole.. We could very much find ourselves staring down a forceful push for a 21st century version of the 'Comstock Act'.. Only for the net and communication networks in general this time, instead of the US postal service.

It's one of the few issues where you'd find support from certain places on both ideological sides. It may be partly for different reasons/excuses, but the desired outcome and core intent is the same. Then just throw some "for the children/think of the children" onto it and it would be nearly unstoppable.

The normie masses with their current year 'moralism defense programing' would ensure that any dissent would get publicly crushed! Sadly, so many still fail to understand why the concept of "live and let live", tolerance of the repugnant, is... well was, so important to the fundamental health of free society. Why enforced moralizing and the very concept of social judgment, let alone punishment (especially on an individual level), for anything not directly and specifically harmful to others, is the literal antithesis to free thought and a free society! Once you open that door, there is no closing it! It's all or nothing! Which is why the standards need to be across the board, not pick and choose of things we like/agree with and things we find repugnant.
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Vyrulisse posted...

They always use "For the Children!" as a shield so it makes it really hard to argue against this stuff but they don't give a shit about that, it's all about getting more and more control.

And they're going to try to destroy all our freedoms, even though it's not possible to avoid all indiscretions. My parents used common sense to raise me when I grew up. You cannot be around your kid 24-7 and then you take precautions.

Nearly crushed myself with a CRT-TV because I thought it was a good idea to pull it off the shelf.

I succeeded. Except the SAFETY STRAP stopped it from crushing me.


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I climbed trees, I fell.

I never got near tires swings in motion.

I biked down roads, knew how to avoid traffic.

Metal slides existed, we all know that sliding down those, especially in shorts (it was hot) meant burning.

Seriously....

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I honestly don't care. They would have way more important things to focus on than busting me for petty crimes. I'm against it, but I also don't care enough to do anything with my opinion

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We don't need anymore spying on people.

Hopefully this bill goes up in smoke.

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MI4 REAL posted...

We don't need anymore spying on people.

Hopefully this bill goes up in smoke.

It wont unfortunately. Covid has drowned out everything else right now. No one will even notice it passed until it is too late.

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Duncanwii posted...

It wont unfortunately. Covid has drowned out everything else right now. No one will even notice it passed until it is too late.

Even without Covid, the bills demise is all but a pipe dream.

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When EU/UK started insane laws like this, it wasn't a challenge to one up them :(

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Mr Hangman posted...

Even looking at this cynically, it's by no means a guarantee that this passes. Powerful tech companies do not want this. They might manage to stop it.

I hope you're right.

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Who keeps posting and then deleting?

darkmaian23 posted...

Who keeps posting and then deleting?

Someone here is obsessed with necrobumping topics and they block a lot of people as well. I don't see the point. It's not annoying so it isn't to troll. It's not saving super important topics from being purged.

Guess it's just about being mental. A couple of posters (or all the same one) do it on the politics board as well. They never will respond when asked why they do it.

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