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Congress resurrects tech coercion law aimed at eliminating child



Congress is pushing for a bill to crack down on technology on online child sexual exploitation by targeting legal liability protections.

According to Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and co-sponsor of the law, the Win Act removes the protections provided through Section 230 of the Communications Ethics Act for platforms that have child sexual abuse material on their sites.

The bill aims to encourage companies to gain liability protection by handling child sex content in ways Congress sees fit.

“I appeal to all victim groups and law enforcement agencies who are calling on Congress to do something about the scourge of child sexual exploitation material and the exploitation of children online: We are listening to you,” Mr. Graham said in a statement.

“The days of children being exploited online and their families doing nothing about it are coming to an end.”

Connecticut Democrat Mr. Graham and Senator Richard Blumenthal said 21 Senate co-sponsors of the bipartisan bill said they plan to review the bill at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Thursday.

Mr. Graham’s office said Texas Democrat Representative Sylvia Garcia and Missouri Republican Ann Wagner would introduce a companion bill in the House.

The Cauldron Act was first introduced in 2020 and unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee.

However, the bill faced immediate opposition from liberals and conservatives, who worried about weakening encryption tools and creating digital backdoors for predators to exploit.

Conservatives at Americans for Prosperity worked with the American Civil Liberties Union against the 2020 bill.

The technology activist group Fight for the Future is among the malicious people who are vigorously fighting with the 2022 version of the bill.

Fight for the Future director Evan Greer said he views the bill as “one of the worst-designed and most dangerous internet laws I’ve seen in my entire career.”

“This law will make children less safe, not safer,” Ms Greer said in a statement. “In the process, it will violate human rights and freedom of expression online, especially for trans and queer people. The sponsors of this bill are ignoring the LGBTQ+ community and they will have us killed.”

The National Center for Sexual Exploitation disagrees and believes the bill is the best possible law.

“Tech companies have no incentive to prevent or eliminate child sexual exploitation material,” Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the National Center for Sexual Exploitation, said in a statement. “The EARN IT Act is the best technology liability act to ensure tech companies do the right thing.”

In recent years, lawmakers have proposed a rewrite of Section 230’s protections as a remedy for everything from curbing illegal drug sales to punishing anti-conservative bias in the ranks of tech companies.

Many of the proposals did not receive as much attention as the Winning Bill, which has 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats among current Senate sponsors.

“Companies cannot simply ignore child exploitation on their platforms,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat and a co-sponsor. “Companies that fail to take steps to prevent child abuse should not be protected from lawsuits.”





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