US legislation targets online child sexual abuse; threatens tech companies’ encryption services

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers introduced legislation on Thursday to curb the online distribution of child sexual abuse material and threatens technology companies that offer encryption.

The legislation by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal aims to fight such material on platforms like Facebook and Alphabet’s Google’s by making them liable for state prosecution and civil lawsuits.

Major tech trade groups, civil liberties advocates and security experts quickly condemned the bill. They said it was aimed at disrupting strong encryption that protects ordinary Americans and businesses, and that it was exploiting the scourge of child abuse to do so.