Current Events > If you care about internet freedom and privacy, please call your senators and...

(+) Yeah! (+)

...tell them to say no to EARN IT. The sooner we kill it, the better.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/06/tell-your-senator-vote-no-earn-it-act

EARN IT would give broad powers to the AG and a new commission headed overwhelmingly by those with a law enforcement background to shape rules for how the internet works. The initial draft of the bill specifies that the rules will at least have to include things like mandatory data retention and age gating for websites, and also for "rating" the severity of abuse material, which suggests the possibility of out and out censorship (possibly a swipe at regular porn?), and more. The bill tries to duck being an unconstitutional piece of garbage by claiming that the guidelines the committee makes (whatever the hell those will end up being) will be optional. But websites that don't comply with the "optional" guidelines lose Section 230 protections and are liable for everything users say and do.

The recommendations spawned by the EARN IT Act won't become law until they Congress approves them, but that approval is all but guaranteed because the resulting bill is to be fast-tracked per EARN IT, and would be all but impossible to vote no for. EARN IT gives the committee a huge level of freedom to make up any kind of rule it likes as long as they can say it would help protect children from exploitation. And we already know that the DOJ opposes encryption and the need for warrants at all for user data.

It is also worth noting that Section 230 has never protected providers from having to report child abuse material they find. In other words, his law has absolutely nothing to do with protecting children and helping stop child abuse, because every website is already obligated to, under penalty of law. EARN IT is just a giant power grab that doesn't stand up to any kind of scrutiny.