John,
With everything going on right now, everyone is talking about the EARN IT Act, legislation in the US Senate that would effectively ban end to end encryption, leading to mass surveillance and censorship of the Internet.1
This bill (S. 3398) poses an existential threat to our basic right to free speech. It would essentially let the government monitor everything we do on our phones and computers, whether we’re at a protest or just messaging with friends.
We are hearing that the Senate may try to rush this bill to a vote soon. But they’re watching public opinion cautiously. If we can flood them with opposition now, we can stop them from bringing the EARN IT Act up for a committee vote.
Will you chip in toward our rapid-response campaign to stop the EARN IT Act?
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The EARN IT Act is tricky. The bill’s sponsors claim that it’s about preventing horrific crimes on the Internet, like the exploitation of children. But that’s not what the bill does at all.
Instead, it would give the Department of Justice (aka Trump’s attorney general Bill Barr) the ability to force companies to break their own encryption in order to allow government surveillance. And it would let the government silence dissent too, by messing with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to give the Executive Branch the power to dictate what types of content websites are allowed to host.
The EARN IT Act is a sneak attack on Internet freedom and privacy. It’s an attempt by the government to spy on us and silence our voices. But we have a plan to stop it.
Click here to donate to our rapid response campaign and help us flood the Senate with calls and emails to stop the EARN IT Act from ever coming up for a vote.
Fight for the Future has stopped terrible legislation like this before, so we know what we have to do. First we need to raise awareness and get as many people as possible to understand what the EARN IT Act does. We’re already doing this with our petition, which has been signed by more than 400,000 people already!
Next, we need to drive thousands of phone calls to Senators, especially the bill’s sponsors Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). We have a phone-call tool that makes it really easy for people who sign the petition to make a call, but it costs us money to connect those.
And our campaigns team will need to keep generating content to spread the word on social media, contacting journalists to get articles placed in the right outlets, and keeping our members informed when there are key deadlines or moments to take action.
We refuse to let the government spy on us and silence our voices. We can stop the EARN IT Act but we need your help. Please chip whatever you can, whether it’s $5, $50, or $500, right now.
If you can’t donate, that’s okay! There will be lots of other ways to help. We’ll be in touch soon.
For basic human rights,
Evan at Fight for the Future
1. The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/interface/2020/3/12/21174815/earn-it-act-encryption-killer-lindsay-graham-match-group
Fight for the Future works to protect your rights in the digital age.
