“…a bipartisan legislative effort is under way in the US to pass a bill that would undermine end-to-end encryption (E2E) on social media and other internet services…
If the US legislators have their way with this one, companies behind social media would not only have to be sure they have ‘actual knowledge’ that illegal, drug-related activities are taking place on their platforms, but inform DEA about it.
The information required here would include the names of suspected social networks’ users, but also other personal data.
But there’s more – a company that fails to adhere to these requirements will be found to have done this deliberately – the wording is literally, ‘deliberately blinded (themselves).’
And inclusion of end-to-end encryption – which preserves security and privacy on the internet by keeping third party actors out of people’s communications – can be interpreted as an online provider ‘deliberately blinding themselves.’”