If you were in a coma for the past 12 months, just came out of it, and had to figure out what had happened in the last year or so solely based on new bills introduced in Congress, you would likely come to the conclusion that Section 230 was the world’s greatest priority and the biggest, most pressing issue in the entire freaking universe. I’ve completely lost track of how many new bills have been introduced this year — in the midst of a pandemic — that try to undermine and destroy the open internet enabled by Section 230 of the CDA. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
Last week we had Lindsey Graham and his garbage Online Content Policy Modernization Act. Josh Hawley, the lying demagogue, has probably introduced half a dozen bills aimed at undermining Section 230, including one a few weeks ago. On Tuesday of this week we had Senators Manchin and Cornyn introduce their despicable and dangerous See Something, Say Something Act.
And then, on Wednesday, we got two more truly awful anti-230 bills. What’s going on over there on Capitol Hill? If you introduce 12 bills to destroy the internet do you get a 13th one free?
First up, we had Reps. Sylvia Garcia and Ann Wagner introduce the House companion to the Senate’s EARN IT Act. We’ve spent months detailing how this bill is a two-fer: it’s dangerous for both encryption and Section 230. And yet, it now has bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House. Garcia seems so proud of being a part of this nonsense that she didn’t put the press release on her own website (though she did have time to put up a press release for a bill to rename a post office).
Ann Wagner, you may recall, is the force behind the previous disastrous anti-230 bill, FOSTA, who has spent the years since passing that bill just flat out lying about what the bill did. She claims it’s been a huge success, and yet it has yet to be used successfully, has been shown to put women’s lives in danger, and has made it more difficult for law enforcement to find actual sex traffickers.
But, not surprisingly, Wagner is touting her “success” with that terrible legislation in introducing this new garbage:
“I’m proud to join with my colleague Rep. Sylvia Garcia in introducing the EARN IT Act, critical legislation that will hold accountable bad actors that facilitate child sexual abuse material,” said Congresswoman Wagner. “This bill is the natural follow-up to FOSTA, my Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, which amended section 230 to hold accountable websites that facilitate sex trafficking. As I have said many times, I believe that if exploitation is a crime offline, it should also be a crime online, and I’m delighted to continue working with survivors, advocates, law enforcement, and industry to protect children from online sexual exploitation.”
Yes, she keeps saying that “if it’s a crime offline, it should be a crime online” and it always has been. This bill, like her last bill, changed literally nothing about what was a “crime.” What it did was blame service providers for non-crimes, and made them less willing to host perfectly legal content. And, again, her bill has harmed survivors and made it more difficult for law enforcement, meaning it has done the opposite of protecting children from online sexual exploitation…
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