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Are companies afraid that opposing the Anti-Encryption Bill will automatically label them as in favor of online child exploitation? I'm honestly curious about

Are companies afraid that opposing the Anti-Encryption Bill will automatically label them as in favor of online child exploitation? I'm honestly curious about why there's no widespread opposition to the bill yet.

Barrin92 7y ago
In general they seem to be afraid of standing up to the administration on virtually everything. Facebook in that regard seems particularly embarassing with Thiel on the board apaprently writing Facebook policy.
IAmEveryone 7y ago
There are other methods of lobbying than just public, visible disagreement. They probably are registering their disagreement in private talks with people in congress. Facebook publicly coming out against this might not be helpful: most people just don’t care. Those that (potentially) do care are far more likely to be mobilized by the EFF or ACLU, which they tend to trust. Facebook isn’t the most trusted brand name in privacy, as far as I can tell. Their support might actually be detrimental for the cause. An open split of Silicon Valley and Republicans would also “politicize” the issue. Almost instantly, you’d have the 35% of Trump supporters galvanizing around the bill, even if they were previously ignorant or lukewarm on it. See the recent train wreck around Qunines-against-covid for a great example of this effect.
- suizi 7y ago
  The Internet Association which represents them wrote a letter opposing it to Congress, although there hasn't been much other noise out of them, except for a minor statement from Facebook.
lonelappde 7y ago
Which companies? Most companies don't use e2e encryption because they read your data for ads. Apple, maybe? Big companies don't generally make ethical stands, and small companies can't afford to. Apple makes some stands but only to be competitive against Android.
uk_programmer 7y ago
Because they want to be regulated in this fashion. It increases the amount of resources a competitor will need to just to start business and they don't really give a shit about E2E encryption.

Barrin92 7y ago

In general they seem to be afraid of standing up to the administration on virtually everything. Facebook in that regard seems particularly embarassing with Thiel on the board apaprently writing Facebook policy.

IAmEveryone 7y ago

There are other methods of lobbying than just public, visible disagreement. They probably are registering their disagreement in private talks with people in congress. Facebook publicly coming out against this might not be helpful: most people just don’t care. Those that (potentially) do care are far more likely to be mobilized by the EFF or ACLU, which they tend to trust. Facebook isn’t the most trusted brand name in privacy, as far as I can tell. Their support might actually be detrimental for the cause. An open split of Silicon Valley and Republicans would also “politicize” the issue. Almost instantly, you’d have the 35% of Trump supporters galvanizing around the bill, even if they were previously ignorant or lukewarm on it. See the recent train wreck around Qunines-against-covid for a great example of this effect.

suizi 7y ago
The Internet Association which represents them wrote a letter opposing it to Congress, although there hasn't been much other noise out of them, except for a minor statement from Facebook.

lonelappde 7y ago

Which companies? Most companies don't use e2e encryption because they read your data for ads. Apple, maybe? Big companies don't generally make ethical stands, and small companies can't afford to. Apple makes some stands but only to be competitive against Android.

uk_programmer 7y ago

Because they want to be regulated in this fashion. It increases the amount of resources a competitor will need to just to start business and they don't really give a shit about E2E encryption.