Thread by @KateDAdamo

Here's what EARN IT does. The bill establishes a 19 person, gov appointed commission to create red flags for interactive platforms (websites, apps, lists servs) to screen for child porn, trafficking - sounds innocuous, right? Always does! (1/19 congress.gov/bill/116th-con… #FUCKEARNIT

Unsurprisingly, it does a shit ton more than that. The mandate of the commission covers a lot - training of sites, age rating/gating (so rating all material/content) parental controls, where to send that kind of info when they do flag it, & the commission is headed by AG Barr (2/

Now, lets meet AG Barr. He's the guy who has said wonderful things like "If communities don’t give that support and respect, they might find themselves without the police protection they need" (3/19) vox.com/policy-and-pol…

So it's a 19-person commission with a VERY wide mandate to somehow screen for what they've termed "child sexual abuse material" headed by a guy who loves law enforcement & hates things like constitutional protections, people of color & #LGBTQ folks. (4/19) outsports.com/2020/3/26/2119…

But back to the commission - so most likely what they'll develop will include red flags, which will have to be automated because that's how tech works and #trafficking loooooves lists of red flags. How do we know? Well. Literally everything else they've done. Two examples. (5/19)

In 2014 a gov commission created guidelines for banks to look for cyber crime- including trafficking. In those guidelines were huge red flags for exploitation like advertising for escort services. (6/19) fincen.gov/resources/advi…

Last year @kristendiangelo & I did research on loosing access to banks/financial platforms and one of the most common triggers for losing your account was paying for an ad with your debit card. So it's working to make sure #sexworkers are unbanked - trafficking tho? 🤷‍♀️(7/19)

And we all know how well those hotel/airline redflag trainings are going - mostly leading to mixed-race families being detained, including when Cindy McCain, called the cops because when you have a family that's not all white, it's suspicious (8/19) cnn.com/2019/02/09/pol…

So red flag indicators generally hold the biases of the developers, compounded by the people employing them. It's just not effective, and when it comes to trafficking, disproportionately disenfranchises SWers, including community building and organizing - more evidence? (9/19)

Yesterday, Twitter's bot scanners red flagged my article on this exact topic, we think it's because I put a hashtag for an advertising side with a community-side to it, trying to talk about why this bill is going to be harmful for #sexworkers (10/19)

https://twitter.com/redschulte/status/1245383548980342784?s=20

But sweeping up everything is going to also mean:
- Young people trying to access sexual health info
- Young people trying to get info on abortion
- LGBTQ folks whose communication is always hypersexualized
- POC whos photos are disproportionately read as sexual by bots (11/19)

So they're going to say "we're not asking them to turn it over to cops just NCMEC!" Well. Private tech companies are going to screen & determine what to do with that info themselves. This REQUIRES Facebook to screen & under FOSTA "facilitation of prostitution" is a crime. (12/19)

Here's the kicker. None of this can happen if tech companies use end to end encryption, which Barr has railed against for years. Do you use WhatsApp? Signal? Those are encrypted. It means Facebook CAN'T read your messages. That's why we use them. It's why lawyers use em. (13/19)

What about carve outs for things like harm reduction? They're going after criminals! They probably don't know what to consider! Well:
1. We are criminals.
2. They told the commission what to consider: impact on cost. competition. @SenBlumenthal knows that. Doesn't care.
(14/19)

So we're at: 1. Commission. 2. Best Practices.
3. Those best practices then get fast-tracked through Congress - no debate, transparency - & internet companies have to certify against them, or else they lose 230 protections. HUGE civil liability. (15/19) eff.org/deeplinks/2012…

Why is this SESTA 2.0? Because this is AGAIN deputizing tech companies to do things which would be a constitutional violation if they were done by the DOJ under threat of incredible civil liability. It's the same shit tactic that's going to have the same shit response. (16/19)

This is also the same failed response to trafficking - you know what is fucking offensive? This is the bill that is getting pushed through right now when people are literally about to lose their home because $1200 covers almost nothing as a month's salary. (17/19)

This Congress is complicit in creating the conditions of trafficking, child abuse, domestic violence and instead of investments in preventing violence, they use your violence as an excuse to expand surveillance and policing power. #FUCKEARNIT (18/19)

And if you've found this breakdown valuable and were like "Imma pay that femme for their intellectual labor!", it would be super cool if you wanted to donate to the national #sexworker mutual aid fund Lysistrata or one in your local area (19/19) lysistratamccf.org