Security News > 2020 > March > EARN IT Act threatens end-to-end encryption

For years, Naked Security and Sophos have said #nobackdoors, agreeing with the Information Technology Industry Council that "Weakening security with the aim of advancing security simply does not make sense."

EARN IT is a bipartisan effort, having been introduced by Republican Lindsey Graham, Democrat Richard Blumenthal and other legislators who've used the specter of online child exploitation to argue for the weakening of encryption.

Rather, the bill's authors have shrewdly used defending children as the pretense for an attack on our free speech and security online.

If the bill passes, the choice for tech companies comes down to either weakening their own encryption and endangering the privacy and security of all their users, or foregoing Section 230 protections and potentially facing liability in a wave of lawsuits.

In March 2018, we also saw the passage of H.R. 1865, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act bill, which makes online prostitution ads a federal crime and which amended Section 230.

News URL

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2020/03/13/earn-it-act-threatens-end-to-end-encryption/