A journal of my thoughts, longer than is appropriate for the Midnight Pub.
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I don't mean to get political, and I strive not to on this blog, but this is important.
Recently, a new version of the EARN IT Act was re-introduced in the Senate and the House of Representatives in the United States.
The bill was originally introduced back in late 2021, however due to public outcry against the bill, no further action was taken on it. Until now.
The new bill is even worse than the old one. While it's intentions seem pure and good (to deter child/human trafficking and abuse online), it hides much more harmful intentions.
The bill will severely undermine encryption on the Internet if it passes. Companies offering end-to-end encryption for their users (such as Signal, Telegram, etc) will be forced to stop offering it to avoid being legally liable, as that's what the bill does. It makes any company that offers encryption liable in court if someone does sue them.
On top of that, it removes certain protections that companies have under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 prevents companies from being liable for what their users posts on their sites. By removing Section 230 protections, companies will become liable for user-generated content. This will, inevitably, lead to even stricter moderation and censorship online, as companies will patrol for anything that could make them liable in court and delete it in seconds. Not ignoring the fact that removing these protections will make it insanely difficult for smaller blogging/social media platforms to grow, since these smaller sites often times don't have the legal teams nor the funding necessary to fight in court.
As someone who cares about online privacy a lot, this is serious to me. Borders do not exist on the Internet, so this law could not only affect people in the United States, it could affect anyone using a product, website, or service hosted in the United States, or that has any form of server or legal/physical/digital presence in the United States. This means potentially worldwide consequences. Other countries could also end up copying the United States and passing their own versions of the EARN IT Act, if they haven't done so already.
Please, take the few minutes out of your day to help protect privacy, encryption, and free speech on the Internet. If you live in the U.S., visit https://act.eff.org/action/stop-the-earn-it-act-to-save-our-privacy to learn how to contact your representatives and urge them not to pass this bill. If you don't live in the U.S., please forward this to your server, your friends, maybe even your family. Being passive about this is exactly how they'll get it to pass.
Seeing the government come right out and blatantly admit that they're willing to compromise Americans' privacy, security, and free speech on the Internet in order to stalk our every message disgusts me to my core.
The notion that "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" is incredibly dumb in more ways than one, if the PATRIOT Act taught us anything. As Snowden said, "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say."
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