Title: What is the EARN IT Act? Bill Has Privacy Advocates Worried | Digital Trends
Headings: What is the EARN IT Act? The bill that has privacy advocates worried, explained
What is the EARN IT Act? The bill that has privacy advocates worried, explained
What exactly is EARN IT?
Why are people worried?
What comes next?
Editors' Recommendations

Content: Sen. Leahy’s amendment prohibits holding companies liable because they use end-to-end encryption, device encryption, or other encryption services. But the bill still encourages state lawmakers to look for loopholes to undermine end-to-end encryption, such as demanding that messages be scanned on a local device, before they get encrypted and sent along to their recipient.” According to the EFF, all 50 states would be able to craft their own laws, any of them capable of pressuring companies to weaken privacy protections like encryption. In that legal landscape, tech companies could err on the side of caution, gutting privacy protections to avoid running foul of state child sexual abuse material laws. The American Civil Liberties Union also took a stand against the bill in an open letter to the committee, saying “these legal standards could force platforms to undermine or weaken their own encryption and privacy practices in order to avoid legal liability because plaintiffs could argue that end-to-end encryption, itself, is reckless or negligent conduct. Such liability claims could be bolstered if the advisory committee’s best practices recommend that platforms create encryption backdoors or otherwise take steps to weaken the encryption of their services.” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), who has advocated for digital privacy before, criticized the new version of the EARN IT Act, saying that “by allowing any individual state to set laws for internet content, this bill will create massive uncertainty, both for strong encryption and free speech online.” What comes next? After unanimous approval by the Senate Judiciary Committee, the next step for the bill is a debate on the floor of the Senate. Blumenthal told Politico that he and Graham want to see the Senate take up the bill this year, and that the House would be developing its own version of the bill soon.