“Many privacy advocates caution that, if passed in its current form, the bill could be a death blow to end-to-end encryption services because it includes particularly controversial language holding companies accountable for conduct they don’t report if they “deliberately blind” themselves to the violations.”
DEA officials spent months helping senators write the Cooper Davis Act, and Dick Durbin said so out loud. The bill makes platforms hand users’ names to the DEA on a “reasonable belief,” with no warrant. The “deliberately blind” clause turns end-to-end encryption itself into evidence of guilt. Sen. Shaheen’s own numbers show 129 of 390 DEA drug-poisoning investigations tied to social media, and the answer is to break encryption for everyone.