Proposed bill could hold tech giants more accountable for child exploitation

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Proposed bill could hold tech giants more accountable for child exploitation
This could wind up being another story about encryption.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

A draft bill by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham could possibly land Apple and assorted other tech giants with major lawsuits. The proposal would potentially affect tech companies who offer services with strong encryption.

It asks the government to come up with a list of best practices for tech companies to prevent cases child exploitation and abuse. That could mean banning such encryption, and making tech companies more responsible if their services are used to share these materials.

The bipartisan child exploitation draft bill has not yet been introduced formally, although Bloomberg claims to have seen a proposal. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut is also spearheading the proposal.

The draft child exploitation bill does not explicitly mention encryption. But it would require companies fully cooperate with law enforcement when it comes to identifying, removing, reporting and preserving evidence in child exploitation cases. This ties it in with the battle against strong encryption that has been raging in the US in recent years.

Apple already uses software to scan images uploaded to iCloud to check for possible child abuse images. However, this does not extend to files stored locally.

Under the proposed rules, tech companies that don’t certify that they are following “best practices” would lose their legal immunity regarding this topic. The Communications Decency Act protects companies from being held directly responsible for materials shared using their platforms. This would potentially open up lawsuits alleging that they are being “reckless” in their violation of the law.

“The absolute worst-case scenario could easily become reality,” said Berin Szoka, president of libertarian think tank TechFreedom, told Bloomberg. “DOJ could effectively ban end-to-end encryption.”

A spokesperson for Graham’s committee told Bloomberg that the document seen by the publication is a draft and isn’t final.

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