WASHINGTON—A coalition of civil society organizations, including the Woodhull Freedom Foundation and the Free Speech Coalition, have jointly signed a letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, announcing their opposition to the STOP CSAM Act proposal.
Led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the organizations characterize the STOP CSAM Act as a measure that “jeopardizes free expression and privacy.”
Officially called the Strengthening Transparency and Obligation to Protect Children Suffering from Abuse and Mistreatment (STOP CSAM) Act, the bill was introduced by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and three high-profile Republican senators—Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and Ted Cruz of Texas—to serve as a measure to counter child sexual abuse material on the internet.
“In almost every aspect of the real world, child safety is a top priority. But in the virtual world, criminals and bullies don’t need to pick a lock or wait outside the playground to cause harm. They can harass, intimidate, addict, or sexually exploit our kids without anyone leaving home,” said Sen. Durbin in a statement his office released when the STOP CSAM Act was introduced.
The opposing organizations are concerned about language in the bill that could gut Section 230 and significantly draw back end-to-end encryption. “We believe that the STOP CSAM Act will lead to censorship of First Amendment protected speech, including speech about reproductive health, sexual orientation, and gender identity, and personal experiences related to gender, sex, and sexuality,” the organizations argue in the letter.
“Even today, platforms regularly remove content that has vague ties to sex or sexuality for fear of liability, and this would only increase if STOP CSAM incentivized apps and websites to exercise a heavier hand at content moderation.”
ACLU, Free Speech Coalition, Woodhull, and other organizations compare the STOP CSAM Act to the controversial EARN IT Act. The EARN IT Act, every time the bill was introduced to the Senate floor, was aggressively opposed due to similar concerns over weakening encryption and privacy rights, and causing potential censorship of legally protected forms of speech on web platforms.
“Ultimately, the STOP CSAM Act, like the EARN IT Act, will severely jeopardize the rights of Americans to communicate online freely and privately,” the organizations conclude in the letter.
The organizations that signed with the ACLU, Free Speech Coalition and Woodhull include NGOs and advocacy groups that represent several cross-sections of civil society. The American Society of Journalists and Authors, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, and Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression are all signatories to the letter.
