John,

BREAKING: the EARN IT Act, one of the worst pieces of Internet legislation we’ve ever seen, has been reintroduced and just passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.¹

This misguided and dangerous bill is framed as being about “protecting children online,” but it will actually make children less safe, while massively expanding surveillance and censorship.^2,3

The EARN IT Act is moving fast, but the good news is that we still have a chance to stop it before it goes to a vote on the Senate floor. We’re launching a major rapid-response campaign to do just that. Will you chip in?

DONATE TO STOP THE EARN IT ACT

Fight for the Future is leading one of the biggest grassroots campaigns against the EARN IT Act. Last year our viral campaign page NoEarnItAct.org helped nearly 600,000 people contact their lawmakers.

Just this last week we’ve:

Re-launched NoEarnItAct.org to make sure lawmakers once again hear from their constituents about why they should oppose this dangerous legislation
Helped amplify a letter signed by more than 60 leading human rights, LGBTQ+, and privacy organizations explaining how the EARN IT Act is a threat to online safety, free expression, and encryption.
Met with lawmakers to rally support against this bill and coordinated with our coalition partners to come up with a strategy to keep up the pressure.
Helped many small advocacy groups that don’t have a DC lobbying presence weigh in with the right staff in the right Senate offices to make their voices heard.

All of this work costs money, and we have to move quickly to respond to this threat. Will you make an urgent donation today to support our rapid response campaign to stop the EARN IT Act?

The EARN IT Act is an intentionally confusing bill. It has the well-intentioned goal of pressuring tech platforms to do a better job addressing child exploitation, but it would utterly fail to accomplish that goal.

Instead, it repeats the same mistakes of previous bills like SESTA/FOSTA, and would lead to widespread censorship on all platforms that host user generated content. And it threatens to criminalize private messaging and end-to-end encryption, which would put billions of people’s safety, privacy, and security in danger.⁴

We urgently need lawmakers to pass legislation that reins in the power of Big Tech companies and holds them accountable for their abuse of our data and other failures. But the EARN IT Act won’t do any of those things. It will just put kids, and everyone else, in more danger.

The good news is that last time the EARN IT Act was moving like this, we were able to stop it from going to a floor vote by showing massive opposition. We can do that again, but we need your help. Will you chip in to help stop the EARN IT Act?

Together,

Caitlin at Fight for the Future

Footnotes:

1. Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/02/10/senators-earn-it-privacy-children-safety/

2. Center for Democracy & Technology: https://cdt.org/insights/the-new-earn-it-act-still-threatens-encryption-and-child-exploitation-prosecutions/

3. Fight for the Future Twitter: https://twitter.com/fightfortheftr/status/1491094890805358592

4. Cyber Scoop: https://www.cyberscoop.com/earn-it-act-new-version-senate-markup/

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