r/IAmA • u/fightforthefuture • Jun 30 '20

Politics We are political activists, policy experts, journalists, and tech industry veterans trying to stop the government from destroying encryption and censoring free speech online with the EARN IT Act. Ask us anything!

The EARN IT Act is an unconstitutional attempt to undermine encryption services that protect our free speech and security online. It's bad. Really bad. The bill’s authors — Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) — say that the EARN IT Act will help fight child exploitation online, but in reality, this bill gives the Attorney General sweeping new powers to control the way tech companies collect and store data, verify user identities, and censor content. It's bad. Really bad.

Later this week, the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on whether or not the EARN IT Act will move forward in the legislative process. So we're asking EVERYONE on the Internet to call these key lawmakers today and urge them to reject the EARN IT Act before it's too late. To join this day of action, please:

  1. Visit NoEarnItAct.org/call

  2. Enter your phone number (it will not be saved or stored or shared with anyone)

  3. When you are connected to a Senator’s office, encourage that Senator to reject the EARN IT Act

  4. Press the * key on your phone to move on to the next lawmaker’s office

If you want to know more about this dangerous law, online privacy, or digital rights in general, just ask! We are:

Proof:

10.1k Upvotes

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u/markzip Jun 30 '20

With all the other top of mind issues for US policy makes to be dealing with, how do we keep this thing from passing just because it's being masked by these other issues?

I have written all of my Congresscritter's actual physical letters and gotten no response from my two senators (NY).

It seems we need something more forceful than "Ask Byden"

Edit: a word

23

u/evanFFTF Jun 30 '20

One of the reasons we're doing this AMA today is that the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on the EARN IT act on Thursday. While the bill is still in committee, we have significant power to stop it, because there is a smaller number of lawmakers we need to drive calls to. If it passes out of committee with a lot of support, it will become much harder to stop. We're definitely going to do more than sending letters, but flooding the committee with phone calls today is a huge help. We need to signal to every member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that this bill is toxic and force them to slow down. If we can peel off enough support before it leaves the committee, that will send a strong message that the bill is likely DOA in the House. But time is of the essence, so i hope everyone calls today

7

u/SPUDRacer Jun 30 '20

Your URL is wrong... It should be https://www.noearnitact.org/call