USA - EARN IT Act Will Weaken Online Privacy, Wins 22-0 Pre-Vote

[Aereldor]

 

Summary

In a new US Bill called the 'EARN IT Act', seeks to weaken online privacy, potentially forcing tech companies to create backdoors for Law Enforcement Agencies, purportedly to combat online child sexual exploitation. The bill, abeit less extreme than its previous iteration, would require all online companies - specifically social media companies - to implement surveillance and reporting methods that meet the standards of a third party - in this case, the already-controversial National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)

Albeit weakened, the bill still wrecks a bunch of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act,  "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider".

The bill won an extremely disturbing unanimous 22-0 consideration vote and must now be considered by a full senate. It has been spearheaded by the NCMEC , whose end goal appears to be to break end-to-end-encryption, purportedly to 'combat online child exploitation', which was basically the early version of the 'EARN IT' act.

The act seeks funding of upwards of $5 billion to combat online child sexual abuse. 

 

Quotes

Quote

"The new version of the bill voted on Thursday weakens language that could force companies to create encryption backdoors for law enforcement." 

"Early versions of EARN IT took aim at platform protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, threatening to revoke the protections for specific platforms if they did not meet third-party standards for the handling of child abuse imagery. It was met with skepticism from tech companies and trade organizations that feared the measure was an attack on encryption due largely in part to language that could give law enforcement access to users’ private conversations."

- The Verge

 

Quote

"The Bill—which is called the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (Earn It) Act 2020—eased through a consideration stage Thursday with a vote of 22-0 and must now be considered by the full Senate, officials said. The bipartisan legislation was introduced by Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) in March this year as a way to force the major tech platforms to "take online child sexual exploitation seriously."

- Newsweek.com

 

Quote

"The use of end-to-end encryption would prevent the companies or any third-party from detecting illegal activity occurring on their platforms, including the activity of people who use the internet to perpetuate online demand for graphic sexual abuse material of children."

"If this solution (End-to-end encryption) is implemented with no exceptions for detecting child sexual exploitation, millions of incidents of abuse will remain hidden, leaving these young victims without any help or protection from these horrific crimes."

- National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children

 

My thoughts

I think this is disgustingly cowardly, and pardon me, very American. Hiding behind child victims to further an authoritarian surveillance agenda? That's the lowest you can get. The NCMEC is no stranger to controversy, garnering worldwide attention in January for the same. It's unconstitutional and just plain wrong, and could overturn the landmark decisions made in recent years in favour of digital privacy. It sickens me that they would use victims of child abuse and kidnapping as human shields here. In addition to the EARN IT act seeking $5 billion in funding. The NCMEC is due for a $105 Million grant in 2020, and I just don't know how I feel about that anymore. What's next, we require all USB drives to be larger than a tennis ball, because they could be hidden in someone's pocket and used to transport child pornography? 

And there's the kicker - $5 billion in funding. Why do I get the feeling there's something very fishy going on here.

 

 

Sources

https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/2/21311464/earn-it-act-section-230-child-abuse-imagery-facebook-youtube-lindsey-graham
https://www.newsweek.com/senate-earn-it-act-encryption-privacy-aclu-human-rights-watch-eff-internet-freedoms-1515326
http://www.missingkids.org/theissues/end-to-end-encryption
https://gizmodo.com/new-earn-it-act-alternative-seeks-5-billion-to-hunt-ch-1843290551
 

@LinusTech @Slick in case you want to talk about this on the WAN show, I would like to hear your thoughts on this.
 

[Aereldor]

9 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Nice country

TFW when in its most populous state (Cali), a consensual relationship between an 18-year-old and 17-year-old can get the older in prison for several years and sex offender registration for up to eternity. The rabbithole with this article is mind boggling.

[PhantomJaguarr]

11 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

TFW when in its most populous state (Cali), a consensual relationship between an 18-year-old and 17-year-old can get the older in prison for up to 15 years and sex offender registration for the rest of his/her life. The rabbithole with this article is mind boggling.

Oh great, I think I just flagged myself looking up if my State has a Romeo & Juliet law just in case your comment was wrong. 

[jagdtigger]

54 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Is this the same country that said Huawei, of all Chinese companies, is a national security risk?

Yup, pretty pathetic.....

[Drama Lama]

58 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Is this the same country that said Huawei, of all Chinese companies, is a national security risk?

No It’s America 

the USA seems a bit to stand for freedom and authority at the same time 

internet corporations have a lot of freedom but encryption is „ banned „

[mr moose]

As much as the government is not helping itself with everything it does in the name of "security", this is also only from the media. It would be a fairly safe bet there isn't much truth left in the articles after they bend everything to make people want to read it.

[Tech Enthusiast]

1 hour ago, Aereldor said:

TFW when in its most populous state (Cali), a consensual relationship between an 18-year-old and 17-year-old can get the older in prison for several years and sex offender registration for up to eternity. The rabbithole with this article is mind boggling.

Not sure the OP or this reply is more upsetting to me.

 

Feeling sorry for my US friends, pretty much more every single day.

You guys really push hard to become the next dictatorship with zero rights for its citizens.

 

All the "Sex is illegal, but children shooting guns and killing people is fine!" - deal is just crazy, but honestly not even in the top 5 of problems you guys face.

Just amazing on how deep the once great nation has fallen.

[Hassan170]

If America does it will only be a matter of time before other countries start following them

[LAwLz]

49 minutes ago, mr moose said:

As much as the government is not helping itself with everything it does in the name of "security", this is also only from the media. It would be a fairly safe bet there isn't much truth left in the articles after they bend everything to make people want to read it.

If you don't trust the media you can go to EFF and read about it. 

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/new-earn-it-bill-still-threatens-encryption-and-free-speech

 

Unlike news media, EFF is a non-profit organisation mostly comprised of lawyers, attorneys and actual professional with degrees in journalism, history and technology fields. They are the definitive a reliable source for this type of info. 

 

They also tend to link to specific paragraphs to the legal documents the discuss and explain problems with them, rather than the typical generalizations done by news media. 

[Tech Enthusiast]

11 minutes ago, Hassan170 said:

If America does it will only be a matter of time before other countries start following them

Pretty sure THAT time is over.

At least germany stopped following US examples a while ago. Usually the EU follows germany and not the US anymore. 

Asia is following Chinas example for the most part.

 

Honestly, there is very little the US does that countries feel the need to copy anymore.

 

Apart maybe Russia,... they could learn a trick or two when it comes to staying in power and getting away with everything.

[mr moose]

6 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

If you don't trust the media you can go to EFF and read about it. 

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/new-earn-it-bill-still-threatens-encryption-and-free-speech

 

Unlike news media, EFF is a non-profit organisation mostly comprised of lawyers, attorneys and actual professional with degrees in journalism, history and technology fields. They are the definitive a reliable source for this type of info. 

 

They also tend to link to specific paragraphs to the legal documents the discuss and explain problems with them, rather than the typical generalizations done by news media. 

I don't trust the EFF either, they are a lobby group and just as bad.   Just because someone appears to have your best interests at heart doesn't men they aren't lying through their teeth.  

[Mihle]

1 hour ago, Hassan170 said:

If America does it will only be a matter of time before other countries start following them

I doubt it. Well, maybe UK does but other than that, nah.

[Sauron]

Remember this next time the US postures about Chinese surveillance and Huawei

[Zodiark1593]

Not often I see American politicians so united. Unfortunately, it had to be this, and not in the Pandemic response. 
 

Should this pass, I would like to see more development of FOSS peer to peer encrypted messaging. Pretty much legislation-proof unless they somehow make it illegal to run unvetted code. The decentralization of messaging should give the middle finger these old farts need.
 

Should also push Apple to open up iOS as well to facilitate this, as there would be a very legitimate need to do so. Heck, this is a pipe dream, but if Apple open sourced iMessage to give the gov the bird, I’d be rather thrilled. 
 

3 hours ago, Tech Enthusiast said:

 

Just amazing on how deep the once great nation has fallen.

Following the approximate trajectory of Rome, the Empire phase is due to start soon.

 

[RejZoR]

Quote

The act seeks funding of upwards of $5 billion to combat online child sexual abuse. 

The usual "think of the children!" argument heh...

[Doobeedoo]

So, there's encryption

But also there's backdoor. Yeah. Listen, we want to keep you safe. Accept it. 

[Bombastinator]

I’m worried the USA could lose Apple over this one.  Apple is a multinational.  They can just move to China if they wanted

[RejZoR]

2 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I’m worried the USA could lose Apple over this one.  Apple is a multinational.  They can just move to China if they wanted

Problem with these laws is if they want to operate in USA market they'll have to obey this crap.

[Bombastinator]

Just now, RejZoR said:

Problem with these laws is if they want to operate in USA market they'll have to obey this crap.

Yup.  USA isn’t looking like that great a market at the moment what with the Qanon people driving more Covid.

[cooltech6597]

oof

[wanderingfool2]

5 hours ago, mr moose said:

As much as the government is not helping itself with everything it does in the name of "security", this is also only from the media. It would be a fairly safe bet there isn't much truth left in the articles after they bend everything to make people want to read it.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3398/text

 

The bill itself.

 

*Not in response to moose just my own thoughts*

While the articles do blow it out of proportion (from my glancing over it, and I am no lawyer), there are some kind of scary concepts in there.  It should be clear that it looks like a "voluntary" program (except there is a provision that makes parts of it mandatory)

 

Quote

(3) MATTERS ADDRESSED.—The matters addressed by the recommended best practices developed and submitted by the Commission under paragraph (1) shall include—

(A) preventing, identifying, disrupting, and reporting child sexual exploitation;

The recommended best practices are created by a comitee (so there could be a lot less oversight, and they could create best practices that meet the requirement but completely mess up privacy)...except this is all good and well since it's "voluntary"...until it wasn't

Quote

“(B) SAFE HARBOR.—Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to a claim in a civil action or charge in a State criminal prosecution brought against a provider of an interactive computer service if—

“(i) an officer of the provider has elected to certify to the Attorney General under section 4(d) of the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2020 that the provider has implemented, and is in compliance with, the child sexual exploitation prevention best practices contained in a law enacted under the expedited procedures under section 4(c) of such Act and such certification was in force at the time of any alleged acts or omissions that are the subject of a claim in a civil action or charge in a State criminal prosecution brought against such provider; or

“(ii) the provider has implemented reasonable measures relating to the matters described in section 4(a)(3) of the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2020, subject to the exceptions authorized under section 4(a)(1)(B)(ii) of that Act, to prevent the use of the interactive computer service for the exploitation of minors.”.

Without really saying what a reasonable measure is...that essentially sets up any smaller company to comply or risk a costly court battle if anything happens.

[Sauron]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

I’m worried the USA could lose Apple over this one.  Apple is a multinational.  They can just move to China if they wanted

China might actually make them pay taxes so maybe not.

[Bombastinator]

3 minutes ago, Sauron said:

China might actually make them pay taxes so maybe not.

It’s something Apple execs would decide.  There are other issues as well.  Might be big enough to make them jump elsewhere though.

[Sauron]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

It’s something Apple execs would decide.  There are other issues as well.  Might be big enough to make them jump elsewhere though.

Well... can't say I'd care.

[Bombastinator]

6 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Well... can't say I'd care.

I would.  Apple is the one of biggest businesses in the world and america hast lost most of its businesses.  There isn’t much left except farming and that one has famous problems with commoditization.  Also there’s the the issue of climate.