U.S. legislation targets online child sexual abuse; threatens encryption on Facebook, Google

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) attends an event celebrating the anniversary of the White House's Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) initiative at the State Department in Washington, U.S., February 12, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis

WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on the powerful judiciary committee on Thursday introduced a bill aimed at curbing online distribution of child sexual abuse material that technology and civil liberties groups said was an attack on strong encryption critical to billions of people.

The bill by Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham and Democratic member Richard Blumenthal would end the civil immunity of platforms like Facebook and Alphabet's Google for user-posted content if they do not follow a new commission's "best practices" for detecting abusive images. Security experts joined tech trade groups in condemning the bill, saying it was exploiting the scourge of child abuse to threaten encryption protecting ordinary Americans and businesses.