EARN IT

[Ed Hurst]

The title of this post is the name of a Senate Bill offered this congressional session. It's been proposed in the past, but now it's got a significant bi-partisan support. The short description is that it would more or less order tech companies to monitor all traffic, and report certain things. The ostensible excuse is to catch child porn and terrorist planning. We don't know how this will work against encryption schemes; that's not clear just yet. We know only that it will. However, we know that Big tech is very eager to snoop.

Right now, there is a mishmash of legal precedent suggesting that it's technically illegal for Big Tech to snoop too much. If you understand the snooping already being done by Big Tech, you realize this proposed law is only an incremental change in things. It simply adds the force of law so that Big Tech can blame regulation. However, it does mean that there will be zero legal safeguards.

It would put the US at odds with the EU on many things. People who understand this better than I do suggest it will result in a regulatory fracturing of the Internet. It will force a more conscious recognition that there is a different law for different parts of the West, never mind how some non-Western nations already do things. The trend has been there for quite sometime. We already have completely different rules for China, increasingly different rules for Russia, and now the US and EU will have their own regional firewalls. I'm not sure how this will turn out in practice, but it will tend to fracture the formerly "borderless" nature of the Internet.

Of course, this is only a proposed bill. However, the congressional atmosphere makes me think it will go forward unless some heavyweight blocks it. Then again, I have to wonder how much of this is a "false-flag" attack of sorts. Maybe they are pushing it this way to get folks upset enough to embrace a globalist regime to bring some fake relief.

Edit: Here's a convenient link to read about it -- It’s Back: Senators Want EARN IT Bill to Scan All Online Messages

[jaybreak]

Can't they just look at our stuff if they really wanted to? Or is this their way of getting more funding for it? Sheesh.

[Ed Hurst]

Well, there are laws that hinder the government doing it themselves, and politics in how they use the snooping they already do. It's overseen by courts and other ambitious politicians looking to score a cheap propaganda victory. They don't care about us at all, but it's a political football subject to countless fingers. This EARN IT Act is an effort to farm it out to third parties so that it bypasses political protections.

But I don't buy into everything the EFF has to say about it, and I think they may even be missing the point. Think about how this bill, in its current form, tosses the football to the individual states. Think about the differences in how Red and Blue States do things. Blue States are already on top of this stuff, and most tech companies are within their borders. Red States will have to play catch up; they aren't prone to this kind of thing in the first place. Those Red States that do anything at all will tend to capitalize on the propaganda value of seeking to catch child predators, while few will have the experience and capability for restricting Big Tech where they work within Red State borders. Meanwhile, the Blue States and Big Tech will be driven even more tightly together. This is going to favor the leftist elements in the US, which includes Big Tech. They'll do even more snooping than ever, including spying on hapless Red State government figures and any other opposition out there. Meanwhile, they will have a government mandate to report that snooping to any state and federal agencies that are ready to work with them.

Again, it's incremental, but I think it will turn into a pretty big increment. There is a very high risk that the true fallout will be the end of lawful encryption. I'm not sure how far they can reach in actual practice, but I have no doubt that politicians are drooling at the chance to kill consumer encryption use. That's true for both left and right. This thing will have multiple echoes in the future.

[forrealone]

"Maybe they are pushing it this way to get folks upset enough to embrace a globalist regime to bring some fake relief."

Makes me very reminiscent of your AI stories, Ed!

[Ed Hurst]

Well, governments have been doing things like that for centuries now. There's no reason to imagine they would come up with a new plan.