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For Immediate Release
February, 04 2021, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
978-852-6457, press@fightforthefuture.org
New Section 230 Reform Bill Would Have Sweeping Unintended Consequences. We Have To Oppose It.
WASHINGTON
Today Senators Warner (D-VA), Hirono (D-HI), and Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced a new bill that they say is intended to address real-world harm caused by Big Tech companies business practices. Unfortunately, the bill is written in such a way that it would have enormous unintended consequences, similar to repealing Section 230 entirely.
Digital rights group Fight for the Future issued the following statement, which can be attributed to director Evan Greer (she/her):
We absolutely agree that Congress needs to take meaningful action to address the real world harm being done by Big Tech companies' surveillance capitalist business models. But unfortunately this bill, as written, would have enormous unintended consequences for human rights and freedom of expression. It creates a huge carveout in Section 230 that impacts not only advertising but essentially all paid services, such as web hosting and CDNs, as well as small services like Patreon, Bandcamp, and Etsy.
While it appears the bill's sponsors intended to make targeted changes to Section 230, as written this bill essentially guts Section 230. It would solidify the monopoly power of the largest tech companies like Facebook and Google while crushing small sites and rendering the Internet almost completely unusable for activism and organizing. We urge lawmakers to pass the SAFE Sex Worker study act to investigate the harm done by SESTA/FOSTA, and hold hearings about the potential human rights and civil liberties implications of changing Section 230 before advancing legislation that could do tremendous harm.
We hope to work with the bill's sponsors and supporters to work toward meaningful policy changes to hold Big Tech companies accountable for their role in undermining democracy and basic rights. We urge swift action on measures such as strong data privacy legislation and enforcement of antitrust and civil rights laws.
Fight for the Future recently helped organize a letter from 70+ racial justice, LGBTQ+, sex worker advocacy, and human rights organizations warning lawmakers about the potential harms of overly broad or uncareful changes to Section 230. We urge lawmakers to read it and take these concerns seriously. (Please note: we do not speak for any of the groups who signed the letter in terms of their support or opposition to any specific legislative proposal.)
Fight for the Future is a group of artists, engineers, activists, and technologists who have been behind the largest online protests in human history, channeling Internet outrage into political power to win public interest victories previously thought to be impossible. We fight for a future where technology liberates -- not oppresses -- us.
(508) 368-3026LATEST NEWS
St. Paul Mayor: ICE Car Crash Shows 'Operation Metro Surge Needs to End Immediately'
"The incident today at Selby and Western underscores the fact that ICE is still present, causing chaos, and putting residents at risk in Saint Paul," said Mayor Kaohly Her.
Feb 11, 2026
A day after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signaled a possible imminent end to Operation Metro Surge, Saint Paul Mayor Kaohly Her renewed her call for the immediate conclusion of President Donald Trump's immigration operation in the state following a car crash involving federal agents in her city that left at least one person injured.
"The incident today at Selby and Western underscores the fact that ICE is still present, causing chaos, and putting residents at risk in Saint Paul," Her said in a statement, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"I want to thank those who continue to show up and keep watch over their neighbors," she continued. "I also want to thank the Saint Paul Police for staying on the scene to clean up and ensure those impacted received assistance."
"Because of the reckless way that ICE is running their operation, one person ended up in the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, and several bystanders had their cars damaged," the mayor added. "This is just another incident that tells us loud and clear: Operation Metro Surge needs to end immediately."
The Saint Paul Police said in a statement that at around 9:39 am local time, its officers were called to the intersection, where "a large crowd had formed," and received a preliminary report that "federal agents were pursuing a person in a vehicle when the vehicle crashed."
Police confirmed that "the person that was being pursued sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to a local hospital by Saint Paul Fire medics," and directed further questions to ICE and its parent agency, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
"On February 11, ICE officers attempted to conduct a targeted vehicle stop of Alexander Romero-Avila, an illegal alien from Honduras RELEASED into the country by the Biden administration in 2022," DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. "In a dangerous attempt to resist arrest, this illegal alien tried to evade law enforcement and began driving recklessly and ran red lights, endangering public safety and law enforcement."
"Romero-Avila crashed his vehicle into multiple vehicles and a ICE law enforcement vehicle. Law enforcement immediately called 911 to get medical assistance. No members of the public or ICE officers were injured in the crash. The illegal alien was taken to Regents Hospital for evaluation of injuries," McLaughlin added.
A high-speed car chase involving a federal agent in St. Paul ended with a multi-vehicle crash and injuries to the fleeing driver, who was taken away in an ambulance. bit.ly/4kvJo0M📸: Leila Navidi
[image or embed]
— Minnesota Star Tribune (@startribune.com) February 11, 2026 at 2:38 PM
According to the Minnesota Reformer:
The man was transported to a hospital in an ambulance covered by a sheet. A Saint Paul Fire medic said the man asked to be covered for privacy. The injuries were "not serious, that's all I can say," the medic said. A woman whose airbag went off also went to the hospital; it was unclear whether she was injured.
Three cars were damaged. A crowd of people gathered at the scene, yelling "F*ck ICE" at over a dozen federal agents who had shown up after the crash.
Demands for DHS agents to leave the Twin Cities have ramped up in response to immigration officials' violence against locals, which resulted in two deaths of US citizens in Minneapolis. After ICE officer Jonathan Ross fatally shot Good on January 7, Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez similarly killed Alex Pretti on January 24.
After taking over the operation, Trump's "border czar," Tom Homan, announced last week that 700 immigration agents would leave Minnesota. However, with around 2,000 set to remain there, Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, whose district includes Minneapolis, argued that the drawdown was "not enough" and "the terror campaign must stop."
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‘The First Amendment Applies at the Border,’ ACLU Says of Settlement for CBP Interrogating Journalists
“This settlement confirms what we already knew: What happened to us was wrong,” said an award-winning photographer detained at the US-Mexico border as part of a secret program to target journalists in 2019.
Feb 11, 2026
In what the ACLU called a "win for freedom of the press," a pair of federal immigration agencies announced on Wednesday that they settled a lawsuit with five photojournalists who claimed to have been unconstitutionally detained and questioned while reporting at the US-Mexico border.
The five journalists—Bing Guan, Go Nakamura, Mark Abramson, Kitra Cahana, and Ariana Drehsler—are all citizens of the United States who traveled to the border in 2018 and 2019 to report on the journeys of people traveling from Central America as part of migrant caravans.
The journalists said that after reporting on conditions at the border, they were detained by US border officers and questioned about their sources and observations while reporting, which they said was a violation of their First Amendment right in a lawsuit.
"It’s clear the government’s actions were meant to instill fear in journalists like me, to cow us into standing down from reporting what is happening on the ground," said Guan, a freelance photographer who has contributed to Reuters, Bloomberg, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, among other publications.
Shortly after these five journalists were detained, NBC News reported that they were targeted as part of a broader operation by US Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) San Diego sector to detain and interrogate a list of dozens of journalists, lawyers, and activists labeled as "instigators."
Others on this list who were detained, including US citizens, reported being aggressively interrogated about their political views and opinions about the Trump administration.
Tactics have only grown more aggressive during President Donald Trump's second term: Federal immigration agents have hauled off journalists in unmarked vans for recording them, and the administration has repeatedly asserted, incorrectly, that it is illegal to film ICE agents on duty or reveal their identities.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has claimed that recording ICE agents in public constitutes “violence” or a “threat” to agents' safety, and a DHS bulletin issued last year has classified recording at protests as “unlawful civil unrest."
However, several federal courts have overwhelmingly held that the First Amendment protects the right to film law enforcement, including ICE and Customs and Border Protection.
Esha Bhandari, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology project, said the settlement, reached in January, affirms that "the First Amendment applies at the border to protect freedom of the press."
As part of the settlement, CBP will be required to issue guidance to certain border units on First Amendment and Privacy Act protections that apply when questioning journalists at the border.
While the scope of the settlement is limited and does little to protect journalists under threat nationwide, Kitra Cahana, an award-winning photographer and another plaintiff, said it still serves as an important affirmation of press freedom.
“This settlement confirms what we already knew: what happened to us was wrong,” Cahana said. “Government officials should never put journalists on secret lists, interfere with our ability to work and travel, or pressure us for information at border crossings."
"My biggest fear is that other journalists may have avoided important stories out of fear of being targeted themselves," she added. "Press freedom is not a partisan issue. Everyone should be alarmed when journalists are targeted.”
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"Sharing this private taxpayer data creates chaos, and as we’ve seen this past year, if federal agents use this private information to track down individuals, it can endanger lives.”
Feb 11, 2026
Privacy officials at the Internal Revenue Service were sidelined in discussions last year about the Department of Homeland Security's demand for taxpayer data about people the Trump administration believed were not authorized to be in the US, and a court filing by the IRS Wednesday may have illustrated some of the officials' worst fears about the plan.
According to a sworn declaration by Dottie Romo, the chief risk and control officer at the IRS, the agency improperly shared private taxpayer data on thousands of people with immigration enforcement officers.
The data was shared, the Washington Post reported, even in cases in which DHS officials could not provide data needed to positively identify a specific individual.
Two federal courts have preliminarily found that the IRS and DHS acted unlawfully when they moved forward with the plan to share taxpayer addresses and have blocked the agencies from continuing the arrangement. A third case filed by Public Citizen Litigation Group, Alan Morrison, and Raise the Floor Alliance is on appeal in the DC Circuit.
But before the agreement was enjoined by the courts, DHS requested the addresses of 1.2 million people from the IRS, and the tax agency sent data on 47,000 people in response.
Thousands of people's confidential data was erroneously included in the release, sources who were familiar with the matter told the Post.
Despite Romo's sworm statement saying an error had been made by the agencies, a DHS spokesperson continued to defend the data sharing agreement, telling the Post that “the government is finally doing what it should have all along.”
“Information sharing across agencies is essential to identify who is in our country, including violent criminals, determine what public safety and terror threats may exist so we can neutralize them, scrub these individuals from voter rolls, and identify what public benefits these aliens are using at taxpayer expense,” the spokesperson told the newspaper. “With the IRS information specifically, DHS plans to focus on enforcing long-neglected criminal laws that apply to illegal aliens."
Records have shown that a large majority of people who have been arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents since President Donald Trump began his mass deportation and detention campaign have not had criminal records, despite the administration's persistent claims that officers are arresting "the worst of the worst" violent criminals.
Undocumented immigrants are also statistically less likely than citizens to commit crimes, and have not been found to attempt to participate in US elections illegally.
When DHS initially asked for taxpayer data last year, IRS employees denounced the request as "Nixonian" and warned that a data sharing arrangement would be illegal. Providing taxpayer information to third parties is punishable by civil and criminal penalties, and an IRS contractor, Charles Littlejohn, was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty in 2023 to leaking the tax returns of Trump and other wealthy people.
Trump has sued the IRS for $10 billion in damages due to the leak.
Romo on Wednesday did not state whether the IRS would inform individuals whose confidential data was sent to immigration officials; they could be entitled to financial compensation.
Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, noted that judging from Trump's lawsuit against the IRS, "thousands of trillions of dollars" should be paid to those affected by the data breach.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, said the "breach of confidential information was part of the reason we filed our lawsuit in the first place."
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