Comment by helpfulclippy

With FOSTA/SESTA, Congress found what appears to be a highly effective 1st/4th amendment bypass: companies do not receive section 230 immunity for “sex trafficking” material. The government doesn’t say “thou shalt delete,” it just makes companies civilly liable for whatever happens on their platforms, which could be a death sentence at their scale. This has been overwhelmingly effective at censoring anything that even looks like sex work, no matter how consensual. If the intent was to continue protecting human trafficking cartels from modern competition while proving a viable means of censorship, it has been overwhelmingly effective.

EARN IT threatens to expand this to CSAM. Meanwhile, anti-CSAM legislation continues to develop in other jurisdictions, and being global entities big tech companies are exposed to that risk. Hence why Apple published explicit plans to actively scan (albeit locally on-device and with creative use of cryptography to soften the blow) for CSAM on their devices, and integrate with NCMEC. They’ve shelved this for now, but made it clear that they’re not done with this concept.

Big tech dreads the loss of their liability shield, and these measures are an attempt to stay ahead of the policymakers. It’s not as free a choice as it may appear, and the federal government does not appear restrained by the constitution here.