Graham, Blumenthal File Child Exploitation-Related Bill Amending Section 230
Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., introduced long-anticipated legislation Thursday (see 2002070052) that would alter Section 230, exposing online platforms to civil liability for violating child sexual abuse material-related laws. The Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act (Earn It Act) was introduced with Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. Additional sponsors are Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.; Doug Jones, D-Ala.; Joni Ernst, R-Iowa; Bob Casey, D-Pa., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.; and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
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Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Public Knowledge, Center for Democracy & Technology, Free Press Action and NetChoice announced opposition. The Internet Association raised “very strong concerns.” The legislation has support from more than 70 groups, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and National Center on Sexual Exploitation. The plan would create a national commission -- with members including heads of DOJ, the FTC and Department of Homeland Security -- to recommend best practices for countering exploitation. Platforms could be exposed to liability for not following them or reasonable safeguards.
DOJ, DHS and officials from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K. unveiled voluntary principles for countering child exploitation and abuse. They included suggestions for targeting online grooming and preparatory behavior; targeting livestreaming; and preventing searches of child sexual abuse material from surfacing. Asked about DOJ’s principles, Blumenthal told reporters the commission could adopt some of those guidelines. He said senators talked to House members about a bipartisan companion bill.
The Senate Judiciary Committee plans a hearing on the bill Wednesday. The legislation would amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to allow platforms to “earn” liability protection for violations of laws related to child sexual abuse material. It opens companies up to civil liability if they “choose not to comply with best practices or establish reasonable practices,” the announcement said.
Wyden called the bill a “Trojan horse” of Attorney General William Barr and President Donald Trump for controlling online speech. He plans to introduce legislation to address what he considers the real problem: lack of DOJ resources for prosecuting child exploitation. His bill would “drastically increase the number of prosecutors and agents hunting down child predators, require a single person in the White House to be personally responsible for these efforts and direct mandatory funding to the people who can actually make a difference in this fight,” he said.
Wyden’s encryption concerns “need to be addressed,” Blumenthal said: “The bill seeks to do so. It’s not an encryption bill.” Industry says stopping exploitation can be done consistent with encryption, so “we’re going to take the industry at its word and make use of its expertise,” Blumenthal said.
PK can’t support a bill “that could discourage the use of privacy-promoting technologies like end-to-end encryption” and enable backdoors for police, said Legal Director John Bergmayer. It could also put smaller companies at a disadvantage because of compliance costs. CDT said the bill threatens encryption, free expression and child exploitation prosecution. “Law enforcement agencies often lack the financial and personnel resources necessary to assess digital evidence and prosecute these crimes, and this bill fails to provide these needed funds,” said ACT | The App Association President Morgan Reed.
IA shares “the goal of helping to eradicate child exploitation online and offline,” said Senior Vice President-Global Government Affairs Michael Bloom. “We have very strong concerns, however, that the EARN IT Act as introduced may impede existing industry efforts.” By weakening encryption, the bill “would put children at risk by making phones, family photo storage, and internet-connected baby monitors more vulnerable to predators,” NetChoice Vice President Carl Szabo said. “Creating a new federal commission to second-guess how private Internet companies manage content and secure their users is not the best way to fight crime,” said Computer & Communications Industry Association President Matt Schruers.
The proposal is missing incentives for industry “to prevent predators from grooming, recruiting, and trafficking children online and as a result countless children have fallen victim to child abusers on platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok,” said National Center on Sexual Exploitation CEO Patrick Trueman.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., anticipates an internal briefing on Section 230. “I am aware of and concerned about efforts to reform Section 230,” he told us before the bill was introduced. “Whether that will produce a specific legislative effort by me, I couldn’t tell you at this point.” It’s important to strike the “right balance between innovation, competitiveness in the United States and better transparency, accountability around some trafficking” and other issues, he said.