OTI Strongly Opposes Reintroduced EARN IT Act

This week, Senators Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) reintroduced the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act (“EARN IT Act”). New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) strongly opposes the bill. While the goal of combating child exploitation and curbing online abuse is extremely important, the EARN IT Act is unlikely to be effective in doing so. Instead, it would threaten both our constitutional rights and encryption, thereby also endangering the privacy and security of all internet users.

The reintroduced EARN IT Act has the same problems that tech experts and civil society advocates have repeatedly warned against: it would incentivize providers to over-censor and suppress online speech, and create encryption backdoors for law enforcement, undermining everyone’s cybersecurity.

The following quote can be attributed to Lauren Sarkesian, senior policy counsel at New America’s Open Technology Institute:

“The crisis of child exploitation material online is real, but EARN IT is not the solution. Rather than addressing the systemic challenges at the root of the crisis, the bill chooses to undermine encryption, a critical tool that we all rely upon for trusted private communications. This approach would sacrifice the security and privacy of all Americans, and threaten freedom of speech online, without meaningfully addressing the issue it claims to solve. We strongly oppose this bill and again urge lawmakers to seek effective alternatives to combat the crisis of child exploitation material online. Rather than rush this dangerous and ineffective bill past a busy Congress, lawmakers should take this opportunity to find a real solution.”