In the last week, a number of dangerous and conspiracy-driven attacks were made against EFF board member Gigi Sohn, an eminently qualified nominee to the Federal Communications Commission. These attacks attempt to twist EFF’s long-held positions and commitments into dog whistles against Ms. Sohn. We’d like to set the record straight.
First, we’ve seen some outlandish headlines about EFF’s 2020 recognition of Danielle Blunt, a leader in the technology policy space and advocate for sex workers, because she is a professional dominatrix. Ms. Blunt is one of the co-founders of Hacking//Hustling, a collective of sex workers and others working at the intersection of tech and social justice to interrupt state surveillance and violence facilitated by technology. Through that work, Ms. Blunt is an expert on the impacts of the censorship law FOSTA-SESTA, and on how content moderation affects the movement work of sex workers and activists. No one is more aware of the way that the power imbalances of the real world permeate online, and is more poised to act, than she is.
Second, much has been made about EFF’s strong and continued opposition to FOSTA-SESTA. These attacks take the claims of FOSTA-SESTA’s proponents at face value—that it was a good and useful measure to take against sex trafficking when all evidence points to the contrary. Our opposition to FOSTA-SESTA was and remains based on the facts: It will not stop sex trafficking and will instead make stopping it harder. At the same time, the law puts a wide range of online expression at risk and we are always, unapologetically, against the criminalization and chilling of legal speech.
Third, despite what its supporters claim, the EARN IT Act is a surveillance bill that would have a devastating impact on privacy, security, and free speech. If Congress passes this disastrous bill, it may become too legally risky for companies to offer encryption services. This bill treats every internet user as a potential criminal, and subjects all our com
[…]
Content was cut in order to protect the source.Please visit the source for the rest of the article.
Read the original article: