John,

If you’ve been worried about the EARN IT Act (the bill that would open the floodgates for Internet censorship and undermine encryption technology that keeps us all safe)—I’ve got bad news for you.

There’s another bill in Congress—the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act (the LAED Act)—that is even worse.

The EARN IT Act is scary enough: it would create a government panel, led by the U.S. Attorney General (right now, William Barr) and made up of law enforcement representatives, that would create a list of “best practices” for websites that would certainly include the ability to access encrypted information.¹ And if websites don’t follow these rules they can be shut down.

The LAED Act side-steps the process and just lets the Justice Department demand access to all online communications—included encrypted messaging.²

Now we have to fight back against two attacks: We need to stop both the EARN IT Act and the LAED Act—or else there will be nothing to stop the government from gaining access to all online communication.

Can you donate right now to help DOUBLE our efforts to fight TWO pieces of legislation that threaten censorship, privacy, and give the government too much power over our online communications?

While the EARN IT Act hides behind a panel and its authors say it doesn’t necessarily have to do with accessing encrypted messages, the LAED Act cuts the crap and gets right to the point: the government wants to be able to read anything anyone writes online.

We cannot allow either of these bills to pass. And what’s scary is they both are gaining traction.

We need to ramp up our efforts, but we’re being stretched thin fighting both bills. I know a lot of people are also stretched thin right now and aren’t able to donate. That’s okay. But if you are able, please make a donation right now. Whether it’s $5 or $500, you can help defend encryption and fight these dangerous attacks on our online communication.

For the Internet,

Caitlin at Fight for the Future

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Footnotes:

1. NoEarnItAct.org: https://www.noearnitact.org/

2. EFF: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/06/senates-new-anti-encryption-bill-even-worse-earn-it-and-thats-saying-something

 

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