As your constituent, I urge you to reject the EARN IT Act (S. 3398).
The Graham-Blumenthal bill would give the Attorney General far too much power to dictate how Internet companies must operate. Attorney General William Barr has made it clear that he would use that authority to undermine our right to private and secure communications by blocking encryption.
The bill would create a commission tasked with creating “best practices” for owners of Internet platforms to “prevent, reduce, and respond” to child exploitation online. But far from mere recommendations, those “best practices” would be approved by Congress as legal requirements. The EARN IT Act’s structure would let Barr strong-arm the commission to include requirements that tech companies weaken their own encryption systems in order to give law enforcement access to our private communications. Companies could also be required to over-censor speech to comply with the government’s demands, or to bend to future governments’ political agendas in other ways.
Regulations relating to restrictions on speech must reflect a careful balance of competing policy goals and protections for civil liberties. Congress can only strike that balance through an open, transparent lawmaking process. It would be deeply irresponsible for Congress to offload that duty to an unelected commission, and especially not a commission controlled by unelected government officials.
Please publicly oppose the EARN IT Act.
