Taxpayers Protection Alliance Sounds Alarm on EARN IT Act

For Immediate Release                                                                               Contact: Abigail Graham: (202) 417-7235

February 9, 2022                                                                         

Washington, D.C.—The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is sounding the alarm on the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (EARN IT) Act, a bill with catastrophic implications for cybersecurity and online speech currently moving through Congress. The legislation is intended to combat the proliferation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the internet. As noble as the bill’s intentions are, the mechanisms of the proposed legislation present unacceptable compromises on privacy, free speech, and cybersecurity. Further, the legislation would undoubtedly make it more difficult for law enforcement and online companies to bring those producing and sharing CSAM to justice.

TPA Executive Director Patrick Hedger offered the following comments on the EARN IT Act:

“There is no more worthy cause than hunting down and eliminating those who produce and share CSAM. It is an issue that deserves the full attention of society from private citizens to all levels of government. This is why we must be so vigilant in pushing back against efforts, as well-intended as they may be, that will make this nightmarish problem harder to stop.

“The fact is that the EARN IT Act risks turning private companies trying to do the right thing into state actors, creating Fourth Amendment restrictions around good faith efforts to work with law enforcement to halt the proliferation of CSAM. This would lead to predators walking free even if they’re caught. EARN IT also repeats the well-documented mistakes of the recent past.  The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Trafficking Act (FOSTA) of 2017 pushed sex traffickers away from platforms that cooperate with law enforcement, deeper underground, and onto the dark web, leading to law enforcement trails going cold. 

“The only people who will truly be punished by EARN IT are everyday Americans who have done nothing wrong. EARN IT will lead to companies blocking and removing perfectly lawful speech out of excessive precautions, once again repeating the history of FOSTA. Worse, EARN IT creates a strong disincentive to the provision of data encryption by online services. This will expose untold Americans to cybercriminals from stalkers to hostile state actors.

“The title and intent of a bill are never sufficient justifications for it becoming law. Congress should focus on increasing the capabilities of law enforcement to coordinate with online services who already work to combat CSAM on a voluntary basis and scrap the EARN IT Act and all its counterproductive provisions.”

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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.