Tech groups try to kill terrorist reporting mandate in spy bill

Trade groups backing major technology companies are pressing Senate leaders to kill a proposal that would require social media and other tech companies to report terrorist activity on their services. Tech groups argue the provision tucked into the 2016 Intelligence Authorization Act is overly broad and would likely be ineffective. More importantly, they said, it raises First Amendment concerns for Internet users. “This hastily written provision is unworkable, and goes well beyond US law and 20 years of federal Internet policy,” the groups wrote in a letter to leadership in both parties. The letter was signed by the Internet Association, the Internet Infrastructure Coalition and Reform Government Surveillance. Together they represent some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, including Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and others.

A series of more than 30 privacy, civil liberties and tech groups sent a similar letter to leadership warning of potential First and Fourth Amendment violations if the provision is approved. The authorization bill was unanimously passed out of committee in June, but Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) put a hold on the bill after finding out leadership planned to approve the bill on the floor with unanimous consent. The provision would require Internet companies to report to the government when it obtained actual knowledge of “terrorist activity” on their platform, but it would not require new monitoring. But the trade groups argue child pornography and “terrorist activity” are fundamentally different. While child pornography is identifiable and illegal on its face, “terrorist activity” is a vague term that is harder to detect and could thus lead to over-reporting, they say. “The core term that triggers the reporting mandate, any ‘terrorist activity,’ is infeasible due to its breadth,” according to the letter. “It is not a legal term of art nor is it ever defined in the legislative text.”They added: “As such, the provision will lead to reporting of items that are not of material concern to public safety, creating a ‘needle in the haystack’ problem for law enforcement.”