John,

If there’s one thing we’ve learned––from SOPA/PIPA to the repeal of net neutrality––it’s that when politicians play politics with the Internet, it puts our most basic rights in danger.

And that’s exactly what’s happening right now. Both Democrats and Republicans have introduced a flurry of terrible bills targeting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. If even one of these bills gets passed, it could wipe out all the best parts of the Internet while wreaking havoc on human rights and free expression.

We’re one of the few grassroots groups fighting to stop these bills and defend your basic rights. Will you chip in to help us sound the alarm and flood Congress with calls?

Here are just a few of the bills we’re trying to stop:

• The SAFE TECH Act, while well intentioned, is so poorly written that it would effectively repeal Section 230 entirely and crush smaller websites like Wikipedia, Reddit, Etsy and Bandcamp.¹

• The Orwellian titled Online Freedom and Viewpoint Diversity Act (Sens. Graham (R-SC), Wicker (R-MS), and Blackburn (R-TN)), is an “unconstitutional mess,” according to our friends at EFF. The bill sponsors claim it's supposed to prevent platforms from censoring content, but by blowing up Section 230 and opening the floodgates for liability, it would actually lead to MORE censorship and worse moderation, not better.²

• The PACT Act, from Sen. Schatz (D-HI) and Sen. Thune (R-SD), seems perfectly reasonable on its face, attempting to require more transparency in how platforms moderate content. But as written, it would solidify the monopoly power of Big Tech giants like Facebook, and wipe out competition from more decentralized online communities.³

• The “See Something, Say Something Act” (Sen. Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Corryn, (R-TX)) requires companies to report suspicious activity to law enforcement without defining “suspicious activity”, which could lead to platforms sharing sensitive user information with law enforcement to avoid liability.⁴

• The PADAA Act (Rep. Eshoo (D-CA) and Rep. Malinowski (D-NJ)) claims to punish platforms for amplifying “extremist” speech, but in practice, it would lead to platforms suppressing broad swaths of perfectly legitimate political content, including human rights activism.⁵

• The BAD ADS Act (Sen. Hawley, R-MO) would remove protections for large web services that display personalized ads. We’re all for banning data harvesting and microtargeting, but killing off free speech on the Internet is not the way to do it.⁶

Yikes, right? The good news is over the years we’ve gotten pretty good at stopping bad legislation that threatens our Internet freedom and basic rights. So we know what we have to do.

First, we need to educate lawmakers, journalists, and the public about what these bills really do. Then we need to build out online petitions, call-in campaigns, and other tools to flood Congress with calls and emails showing them massive opposition from across the political spectrum.

But all of that costs money. We need to pay for staff time to build out the coalition, send press releases, and organize meetings with Congressional staffers, and we need to pay for things like web hosting, SMS costs, and Twilio for connecting calls.

Will you chip in to help us fight back against these dangerous bills?

DONATE

Thanks for all you do,

-Evan at Fight for the Future

---

Footnotes:

1. Fight for the Future: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2021-02-05-new-section-230-reform-bill-would-have-sweeping/

2. EFF: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/10/online-content-policy-modernization-act-unconstitutional-mess

3. TechDirt: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200624/17301144775/another-day-another-bad-bill-to-reform-section-230-that-will-do-more-harm-than-good.shtml

4. Reason: https://reason.com/2021/02/02/see-something-say-something-online-act-punishes-big-tech-for-not-snitching/

5. CATO Institute: https://www.cato.org/commentary/another-section-230-reform-bill-dangerous-algorithms-bill-threatens-speech

6. TechDirt: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200803/11310045028/josh-hawley-introduces-his-latest-attack-section-230.shtml

 

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

• Click here to learn more
• Donate $3 to keep us going
• Click here to receive fewer emails from us

Sent via ActionNetwork.org. To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from Fight for the Future, please click here.