Thread by @wcathcart

This morning the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the "EARN IT" Act. While not directly mandating a backdoor, as written, this act would form a commission that could have the power to require services like @WhatsApp to stop offering end-to-end encryption. 1/

Absent clear protections for encryption, EARN IT has the potential to make people less safe, not more, by reducing the security of the over 2 billion people who use WhatsApp to communicate, not to mention all the other encrypted services as well. 2/

It was great to see several Senators stand up for end-to-end encryption - this sends a powerful message to the world that end-to-end encryption helps protect people and we hope to see that affirmed in the text of the bill itself 3/

Thanks to the legal, academic and technical experts who’ve written how EARN IT could threaten people’s ability to communicate privately online. These credible, independent, voices deserve the respect and attention of our leaders in Washington. 4/

Thank you @normative who is quoted in this excellent Wired article 5/
wired.com/story/earn-it-…

Thank you Stanford scholar @Riana_Crypto for sounding the alarm early on this issue 6/ cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2020/03/e…

Thanks to cryptographer @matthew_d_green who does a great job making encryption issues easy to understand 7/ blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2020/03/06/ear…

Thanks also to @OTI for organizing experts on the 4th amendment implications of the EARN IT Act - this is an area that needs more focus by everyone involved or EARN IT could backfire 8/
newamerica.org/oti/press-rele….

And thanks to @CenDemTech - Hannah is spot on… “It’s a mistake to frame the debate about whether to ban strong end-to-end encryption in terms of privacy versus safety, because our online and physical-world lives are deeply entwined.” 9/
cdt.org/press/earn-it-…

Thanks @ACLU and @AFPHQ “Technology experts and civil society organizations have repeatedly warned that backdoors could be exploited by bad actors and that no backdoor could guarantee only law-abiding officials have access.” 10/
americansforprosperity.org/aclu-and-afp-t…

Thanks to @AccessNow for calling out that a backdoor would “undermine both security and human rights. Strong encryption is essential for national security, the economy, and individual liberty, as well as for the rights to privacy and free expression. 11/
accessnow.org/the-earn-it-ac…

Thanks to @EFF for your passionate defense of free speech, security, and innovation 12/ eff.org/deeplinks/2020…

Finally @techfreedom makes the point that this bill doesn’t address the “chronic under-funding of CSAM enforcement” - I wish there was more time spend on this point in the hearing today 13/
techfreedom.org/earn-it-act-co…

To that end, thanks to Senator @RonWyden for protecting the privacy and security of people online and for your work to provide more resources to law enforcement to prosecute heinous crimes. 14/

WhatsApp does more than any other encrypted service to help prevent the worst kinds of abuse. We scan all available information to us, including user reports, to stop CSAM abuse. You can read more about our approach here 15/ faq.whatsapp.com/en/general/165…

We remain completely committed to defending end-to-end encryption - it is a necessity in modern life. As we spend more of our lives online, protecting private communication is crucial. 16/

We have to make our security a priority before we lose it forever. This should matter to anyone who uses a phone or computer, so that includes you. Thank you to everyone who has participated in discussions so far - there is still a lot of work to be done. 17/17