WASHINGTON — The controversial EARN IT Act of 2022 has advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 10. Following a hearing on the bill, a favorable voice vote adopted S. 3538 (the act’s numerical identifier) and ordered the bill’s advancement to further deliberation in the Senate.

As YNOT previously reported, the EARN IT Act was reintroduced by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., as a means to chip away at Section 230 third-party liability immunity that’s necessary for the survival of web platforms, including adult streaming sites. The Act has bipartisan support, something of a rarity in Washington these days, but as EARN IT shows, it’s not necessarily a sign that a bill has merit.

Most of the senators, especially Republicans who backed the Trump-era SESTA-FOSTA Section 230 reforms, claim the proposal targets violations of laws as they relate to the unlawful distribution of exploitative sexual content and child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The original version of the EARN IT Act was introduced in 2020 but was withdrawn by the sponsors due to overwhelming opposition across party lines.

Sixty advocacy groups that support human rights, civil rights, and open internet policies have signed a joint letter urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to kill the bill.

“Dozens of organizations and experts warned this committee of these risks when this bill was previously considered, and all of those same risks remain,” notes the letter. “We urge you to oppose this bill.” Of course, committee leadership dismissed these calls to oppose the bill.

These groups include important groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Library Association, Fight for the Future, Free Speech Coalition, the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center, Society of Professional Journalists, National Coalition Against Censorship, and the Woodhull Freedom Foundation.

“We are in full support of efforts to stop the distribution of CSAM. However, the EARN IT Act’s vague wording would allow the prosecution of sites that are actively working to fight CSAM,” notes a statement from the Free Speech Coalition in response to the EARN IT Act’s passage. “It would encourage social media sites, cloud storage, and web-hosting companies to ban adult accounts altogether. And it would permit vexatious litigation from antiporn and antisex workgroups as a backdoor method of censorship.”

Groups advocating for the EARN IT Act include the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (a congressionally-chartered nonprofit organization) and far-right anti-porn groups like the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (formerly Morality in Media).

Capitol building photo by Matias Castellanos from Pexels