WASHINGTON — Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), one of the sponsors of the controversial EARN IT Act, which has been overwhelmingly condemned by leading digital rights and free speech organizations, including Free Speech Coalition (FSC), issued a statement this week listing NCOSE, formerly Morality in Media, as one of the groups pushing for the bill.
Blackburn also claimed EARN IT will target online platforms because they supposedly “have made it easier for pedophiles to groom and exploit children.”
The Tennessee Republican released her statement to celebrate the rushed, debate-free process that resulted in EARN IT’s passing the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.
According to the FSC, the EARN IT Act, reintroduced into the Senate on Jan. 31 by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), “looks to be one of the most dangerous censorship bills in recent history.”
Though unanimous, the hasty Judiciary Committee vote to hastily move EARN IT towards a Senate vote was preceded by several senators from both parties voicing serious concerns about its implications.
Senators Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), Alex Padilla (D-California) and Chris Coons (D-Delaware) all expressed personal reservations about EARN IT and shared comments they received from a vast number of organizations and constituents.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), the senator with the most expertise on technology and the internet, and one of the drafters of Section 230 in 1996, tweeted last week that “the #EARNITAct is SESTA-FOSTA on steroids.”
Wyden added that “SESTA-FOSTA didn’t help victims” and included a link to a 2019 article showing that the much-criticized law had actually resulted in an increase in sex trafficking.
Companion legislation to EARN IT is being introduced in the House of Representatives by religiously motivated anti-porn crusader and SESTA-FOSTA mastermind Ann Wagner (R-Missouri), together with co-sponsor Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas).
Sen. Blackburn Says the Quiet Part Loud
In this week’s official statement, Blackburn’s office boasted that EARN IT is being propelled through the legislative process with the support of “groups, survivors and stakeholders, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), Rights4Girls, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation [NCOSE], National District Attorneys Association, National Association of Police Organizations, Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, International Justice Mission and Major Cities Chiefs Association.”
The statement quotes Blackburn sensational claim that “online platforms have made it easier for pedophiles to groom and exploit children. There is no excuse for the tech industry not to secure the platforms that enable abusers. The EARN IT Act will push Big Tech to take the necessary steps to make it safer for kids to get online.”
Blackburn’s statement also hails the establishment of a politically appointed “National Commission on Online Child Sexual Exploitation Prevention” to regulate internet speech, which will include appointees from the worlds of “law enforcement, survivors and victims’ services organizations, constitutional law experts, technical experts and industry.”
Anti-Porn Lobby NCOSE Rebrands, Partners Up with Law Enforcement
NCOSE, an organization whose core mission is to “eradicate pornography” and which was known as Morality in Media until 2015, has been busy fundraising by rebranding itself as an anti-“human trafficking” organization.
This week, it was announced that NCOSE, whose previous actions include attempting to ban “obscene books” and preventing grocery stores from displaying Sports Illustrated, which they deemed “hardcore pornography,” had participated in an operation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department that targeted sex workers during the week leading up to the Super Bowl.
As Reason magazine reported, “more than 200 sex workers were arrested as part of an operation that police have billed as an attempt to save people from human trafficking. The arrests […] represent an-all-too-common theme in U.S. law enforcement, where people claim to be helping sex workers while actually subjecting them to harm. The [LASD] took the lead on this round of sex worker arrests, which they have christened with the creepy name ‘Operation Reclaim and Rebuild.'”
On Tuesday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva held a press conference, Reason reported, “to brag about Operation Reclaim and Rebuild, an annual operation that’s now in its seventh year. Villanueva was joined by representatives of the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, a conservative values group formerly known as Morality in Media which aims to eradicate all sex work.”
Villanueva, who is currently embroiled in a feud with his civilian overseers over police funding and the accusation of tolerating active gangs of sheriff deputies, whom he routinely refers to as “my personnel,” offered no explanation during his press conference as to why his department decided to involve a religiously motivated anti-porn lobby in this heavily armed operation.