Posted on 07/02/2020 11:38:42 AM PDT by bitt
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday unanimously advanced a bill tying legal protections for online platforms to efforts to combat child sexual abuse material.
The Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (EARN IT) Act would amend Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act to allow federal and state claims against online companies that host child exploitation content.
Section 230, which has come under increased scrutiny since President Trump targeted it in an executive order in May, gives internet companies immunity from lawsuits for content posted on their sites by third parties and allows them to make "good faith" efforts to moderate content.
The legislation advanced on Thursday would create a government-backed commission to develop “best practices” for purging child sexual abuse material from the internet.
An earlier version of the bill had conditioned Section 230 liability protections on compliance with those best practices, but a manager’s amendment from Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) removed that tie after intense criticism. The amendment was unanimously approved on Thursday.
Graham and Blumenthal’s amendment also removed a portion of the bill that would have opened up companies to lawsuits if they “recklessly” provided a service that was then used in the distribution of child exploitation.
Despite the unanimous approval of the amended measure, it still faces harsh opposition in the Senate and among some advocacy groups.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) slammed the new version of the bill Wednesday, saying it would do little to stop child sex abuse material online and also endanger encryption.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
P
Terrible privacy destroying bill that will allow gubmint to xray any data at will. Never trust anything done ‘for the children’
With increasing internet bandwidth, we will be seeing ever increasing use of high-definition video conferencing to conduct interactive porn with underage girls. And it will be very hard to stop.
Naw....girls these days can get into places like Twitch and have dudes throw money at them simply for sleeping or eating on camera. If Congress was concerned about a type of exploitation that was truly widespread they’d crack down on ethots taking advantage of dumb men. The majority of cp is bored teenagers taking photos for their boyfriends, as bad as it is, its not going to be solved by destroying everybody’s privacy. the stereotypical picture of whitebread underaged Suzy Q being manipulated by a mysterious stranger into hardcore videos is a myth at least in the US.
Prepare to be accused of “defending pedophiles” by the lockstep brigade that brooks no dissent from their orthodoxy.
Nobody proposed an amendment to stop political/ideological censorship (google/youtube/twitter/facebook) I assume? Why not amend section 230 where it really needed?
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