Newly launched BadInternetBills.com organizes opposition to EARN IT, KOSA, RESTRICT, and tornado of misguided internet bills in Congress
In response to a slew of bills targeting free expression and end-to-end encryption, Fight for the Future is launching badinternetbills.com, a home base for people to take action against the numerous misguided bills making their way through Congress, all congregated on one easy-to-use site.
Despite being previously protested and defeated, both EARN IT and KOSA have been reintroduced in Congress, accompanied by other legislation like STOP CSAM, which would undermine end-to-end encryption, and age-gating bills that limit teenagers’ constitutional right to free expression online.
Digital rights advocates and grassroots organizers have taken to the internet to amass opposition to these bills in large numbers, but misguided bills namely aimed at “protecting children” are popping up left and right. There are so many legislative efforts with similar problems that Fight for the Future decided to launch badinternetbills.com to clearly outline the similarities between these bills and combine efforts against all of them into one entity.
The purpose of this site is two-fold: stop this legislation in its tracks and call Congress’s attention to badly needed privacy legislation that would actually protect all people, especially young people, instead. Fight plans to update the site as new legislation of the same vein is introduced and use it as an organizing hub to support grassroots organizers who are calling attention to these harmful bills across the internet.
“While we share the goal of protecting children online, these bills enable censorship of life-saving content for LGBTQ+ young people and abortion seekers and target end-to-end encryption. Weakening E2EE actually makes children less safe online, rather than more safe, as proponents of this legislation would claim. In a time when LGBTQ+ young people are under attack across the country, more and more people are turning to online resources for help. We need to ensure that online community spaces remain secure and valuable resources are protected from politically motivated censorship,” said Sarah Philips, campaigner for Fight for the Future.
“Grassroots organizers are drowning right now under the assault on youth’s freedoms and rights online by legislation that is supported by some of the worst groups and people in the country. Badinternetbills.com summarizes each terrible bill simply, for the average person to understand how their rights are being trampled online, while also giving them an easy avenue to fight back. It’s amazing for those who want to do something, but are overwhelmed with calling their representatives for the overwhelming amount of horrible legislation,” said a grassroots organizer, who wishes to remain anonymous.