US Senators introduces new bill to combat online child sexual abuse material

Six Democratic and four Republican  senators in the USA have introduced a bipartisan legislation Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (EARN IT) Act. The bill proposes to create incentives for companies to ‘earn’ liability protection for violations of laws related to online child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

The bill proposes to establish a National Commission on Online Child Sexual Exploitation Prevention, who would lay out best practices for removing child sexual exploitation and abuse material online. Failure to comply with the committee’s best practices, would result in being held legally responsible for that content and losing some of the protections provided by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. 

Strong concerns have been raised by privacy advocates and major tech companies as the bill is seen as an attack on end-to-end encryption.