EARN IT Act

The EARN IT Act (S.3398) is US legislation purportedly for "Online Child Sexual Exploitation Prevention, and for other purposes." It is sponsored by senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and supported by Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Kevin Cramer (D-ND), Josh Hawley (R-MS), Doug Jones (D-AL), Bob Casey Jr. (D-PA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Joni Ernst (R-IA). The stated objective of this bill is to create "...an Internet where the law required every message sent to be read by government-approved scanning software. Companies that handle such messages wouldn't be allowed to securely encrypt them, or they'd lose legal protections that allow them to operate." Among other things, it would remove protections under Section 230 of federal law, from companies that don't follow "best practices." This means that non-compliant companies could be sued into bankruptcy for no fault of their own. These "best practices" will be dictated on an ongoing basis by the new "National Commission on Online Child Sexual Exploitation Prevention" which this bill would form.

While the bill deliberately avoids saying that it bans end-to-end encryption, it essentially does so for companies, by requiring them to either stop using encryption, or add "back-doors" to their encryption so that all messages can be scanned by the federal government. It is clear that this bill is an attack on encryption, and by extension, privacy and security.

The "Invest in Child Safety Act" was proposed by Ron Wyden (D-OR) shortly after EARN IT. Although it is a supposed to be an "alternative" to the dangerous methods used buy EARN IT, ICSA still praised the EARN IT Act.