U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced 11 recommendations in Washington on Thursday alongside representatives from Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. The five countries worked with tech leaders to develop the principles, which will be voluntary for tech companies. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced child-abuse-focused legislation Thursday threatening those companies’ immunity under the Communications Decency Act’s Section 230, which protects online platforms from being held liable for user-generated content. (TechCrunch, Reuters)

Talking point: The Eliminating Abuse and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2019, or EARN IT Act, will remove online platforms’ protection under Section 230 from responsibility for their content unless they agree to comply with best practices to prevent online child sexual exploitation. Those best practices include adding a backdoor for law enforcement to access encrypted communications, raising concerns the bill could pose a risk to encrypted services in general. Barr has previously made calls for Apple and Facebook to allow access to locked phones and encrypted messages, respectively.