The following statement is attributed to Evan Engstrom, Executive Director of Engine, regarding today’s introduction of the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act:
The Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (or EARN IT) Act from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) addresses a critical issue—stopping online child exploitation, which is a goal that startups share. But, as currently drafted, the bill threatens to unnecessarily disrupt the regulatory framework that has helped the Internet flourish and potentially ban the use of strong encryption technologies that protect user safety. Engine stands ready to help lawmakers improve tech companies’ ongoing efforts to combat child exploitation, but we have concerns about the EARN IT Act’s structure and possible unintended consequences.
As the bill’s title suggests, the EARN IT Act is meant to require Internet companies to “earn” the intermediary liability protections they are afforded under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The bill would establish a commission to create “best practices” that Internet companies must follow if they want to maintain these critical intermediary liability protections. Rather than identifying places where Internet companies are currently falling short, the legislation removes the existing liability protections and authorizes the creation of an unelected commission tasked with creating best practices.
Without the current protections under Section 230, startups that host user content—but can’t afford to hire thousands of human content moderators, integrate expensive filtering technologies, or defend against expensive meritless lawsuits—wouldn’t be able to function, much less compete with larger incumbents. And without guardrails on what the bill’s best practices can include, the EARN IT Act opens the door to much broader threats to the Internet ecosystem. We’re especially concerned that the best practices will potentially undermine secure end-to-end encryption, another aspect that will disproportionately impact startups that are going above and beyond to keep their users safe.
We appreciate lawmakers’ dedication to fighting the heinous crime of child exploitation. Internet companies, including the startups we work with, already strive to be allies in that fight. We hope as this conversation moves forward, lawmakers will take into account the perspective of the many good actors in the startup ecosystem who rely on Section 230’s protections while also keeping their platforms and their users safe from illicit content.
