LOS ANGELES—The EARN IT Act, a Senate bill aimed at rolling back online free speech protections in a manner that particularly threatened sex workers’ ability to communicate on the internet, has now died without coming up for a vote.
Introduced in March of 2020 by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, the bill according to critics would have severely curtailed online privacy, and increased the possibilities for government surveillance of internet users, both of which endanger the safety and security of sex workers who could be targeted under the bill which was specifically aimed at curbing “sex trafficking” and illegal sexual content.
But the bill, whose full title was the “Eliminating Abuse and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technology Act,” never came up for debate in the full Senate. By law, any bills introduced in a congressional session but not passed by the end of that two-year session simply expire. The 116th Congress ended on January 1, and the new Congress was sworn in commencing the new session on January 3, effectively bringing an end to the EARN IT Act.
Graham, or another Senator, could reintroduce the bill in the 117th Congress, however. Whether he intends to do so remains uncertain. But if it were brought back to life, chances of the bill’s passage could hinge on Tuesday’s twin runoff Senate elections in the state of Georgia.
While both Republicans and Democrats have expressed willingness to modify digital free speech protections under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, Democratic bills have generally taken a more moderate approach. If Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock unseat Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in the January 5 Georgia elections, Democrats will gain control of the Senate, as well as the House of Representatives, which they already control.
Democratic Senate control would likely kill the EARN IT Act’s chances of resurrection.
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