The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is trying to warn the public of a bill that aims to end encryption of online messages and prevent it from being passed by the United States Congress.

The so-called EARN IT bill proposes that digital messages should first pass government-approved scanning software to check for malicious criminal activity. The bill is sponsored by Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal.

The fact that the bill does not take privacy into account is an open case for technology such as blockchain. By providing transparency and traceability in addition to security, blockchain-based communication can be a way to prevent government curiosity.

An example is the use of blockchain by journalists and activists to circumvent censorship measures by governments worldwide.

Sarah Zheng, a journalist for the South China Morning Post, had relied on the Ethereum blockchain to publish a censored interview with a doctor from Wuhan, who warned the public about the corona virus outbreak.

According to Zheng, blockchain made it possible to encode the information with QR codes, Morse code and deliberate typos that could be shared on social networks. The original piece could not be distributed via WeChat.

The EARN IT bill contains a set of best practices that online entities should follow. The EFF claims that the protection of Article 230 would be withdrawn from any website that does not comply with these directives. When established, this list is made by a government commission headed by the United States. Attorney General, William Barr.

The foundation says that Barr has made it clear that he would completely ban the coding of all digital messages. If this bill is passed, law enforcement will have legal access to all communications sent online between individuals. The EFF clarifies the following about Barr’s influence on the account:

Not only do those groups have a majority vote in committee, but the bill gives Attorney General Barr the power to veto or approve the list of best practices. Even if other committee members disagree with law enforcement, Barr’s veto will put him in a position to empower them. “

Although Senator Blumenthal rightly points out that the word “encryption” is not included anywhere in the bill, the EFF states that the proposal is a “total attack” on encryption.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation adds the following regarding the EARN IT invoice:

“You can’t have an internet where messages are massively screened, and you can’t have end-to-end encryption any more than you can create back doors that can only be used by the good guys.”

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