WASHINGTON, D.C. — The leading anti-porn crusading group in the U.S., the religiously inspired NCOSE, has re-endorsed the EARN IT Act after its reintroduction by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) in late January.
NCOSE, formerly known as Morality in Media, held a “Congressional Briefing” this afternoon to explicitly endorse EARN IT and influence attending members of Congress who will vote on it after a peculiarly accelerated mark-up period.
Previously, NCOSE had endorsed the bill — which has been universally condemned by digital rights groups and sex worker advocates as a Trojan Horse for censorship of sexual expression — in September 2020, when it was originally introduced by Blumenthal and co-sponsor Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina).
On Jan. 31, the well-funded anti-porn organization, which originated in the early 1960s with religious efforts to ban “obscene” books, republished an statement penned by the group’s Eleanor Kennelly Gaetan, calling EARN IT the “only option in Congress for online child protection” and boasting that the bill “has teeth.”
Quoting The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof, Kennelly Gaetan claimed that there has been an “almost unfathomable increase” in the amount CSAM circulating on “Instagram, Twitter and more” and blamed Section 230 for what she alleges is the “near-carte blanche legal immunity” afforded technology companies that “can’t be held liable for facilitating CSAM because they aren’t considered ‘publishers’ under the law.”
The NCOSE propagandist also insisted that the widespread criticism of the EARN IT Act is merely “misinformation being spread by the technology industry.”
NCOSE has become increasingly influential after changing its name from Morality in Media in 2015 and refocusing its messaging on an imaginary link between any form of sexual expression and “human trafficking.” Earlier this year, a document by the U.S. State Department was revealed to be parroting NCOSE propaganda points about those topics.
NCOSE Angling for a Seat on New Politically-Appointed Commission
Two major potential changes that the pro-censorship organization eagerly anticipates, should EARN IT becomes law, are that “survivors and state attorneys general will be able to sue technology companies for facilitating CSAM using federal civil law as well as state civil and criminal law” and that the law “creates a new Online Child Exploitation Prevention Commission.”
This politically-appointed commission, to which representatives of NCOSE are sure to be elevated by religious conservative politicians, “will establish best business practices and make recommendations to inform policy, the judiciary and the law enforcement community about protecting children in the ever-changing digital environment,” alleged Kennelly Gaetan.
