BREAKING NEWS: The House just introduced a companion bill to the dangerous EARN IT Act. Please chip in to our emergency fund to stop Congress from killing encryption and censoring the Internet.

John,

As if there isn’t enough bad news right now, the House of Representatives just introduced their version of the EARN IT Act, one of the worst pieces of Internet legislation we’ve ever seen.¹

Now that this bill, which would unleash unprecedented Internet censorship and surveillance, has a bipartisan companion in the House, we’re in more danger of it passing than ever.

But there’s hope. We’ve been working around the clock to get lawmakers in the House and Senate to oppose the EARN IT Act and our efforts are working. We’ve driven more than half a million emails and thousands of phone calls already, and we’re hearing from Congressional staffers that our message is starting to get through.

We’re planning a major push THIS WEEK. If we can get enough lawmakers to register their opposition with House and Senate leadership, we can stop the EARN IT Act from even coming up for a vote. But if we’re silent, there’s a real danger this bill could get rammed through before the election, which would be a disaster for Internet freedom and privacy.

Please rush a donation to our emergency fund so we can pull out all the stops this week and sound the alarm about the EARN IT Act before it’s too late.

We’ve stopped bad bills like the EARN IT Act before, so we know what needs to be done. But it won’t be easy. This bill is intentionally confusing, and the bill’s sponsors claim that it’s about protecting children (even though experts say it won’t), which makes it hard for lawmakers to oppose. (Who wants to be against the “protect children” bill?)

That’s why we need to throw everything we’ve got into educating lawmakers, journalists, and the public about what this bill really does, and putting real pressure on our elected officials so that they know they can’t get away with quietly supporting this terrible bill.

Here’s what we plan to do and what it will cost:

Full send to our 600,000+ person SMS list to drive calls to Congress $4,800
Create and share social media content like explainer videos and graphics, $1,250 in staff time
Coordinated PR campaign to generate accurate press coverage about the EARN IT Act and alert the public that this bill may come up for a vote soon, $1,500.00 in staff time
Organize a flurry of meetings with key House Representatives to build a firewall of opposition to the EARN IT Act, $3,000.00 in staff time
Mobilize our coalition to send emails and drive petition signatures, calls, and tweets to key lawmakers, $800.00 in staff time

TOTAL: $11,350 we need to raise TODAY so we can hit the ground running.

Click here to chip in whatever you can to help us reach our goal and stop the EARN IT Act!

If you can’t donate right now, we understand. We’ll be in touch ASAP with other concrete ways to take action.

Thanks for all you do,

-Evan at Fight for the Future

P.S. Here’s a direct link to our EARN IT Act crowdfunding campaign, please share this everywhere! www.noearnitact.org/donate

Footnotes:

1. TechDirt: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200930/23050145420/because-congress-apparently-has-nothing-all-important-to-work-it-introduced-two-more-section-230-bills-yesterday.shtml

Fight for the Future works to protect your rights in the digital age.