Top Features
A proposal being championed by the National Association of Broadcasters would effectively privatize the public airwaves in the U.S., allowing broadcasters to encrypt over-the-air programming. To watch those encrypted shows, viewers would need to buy a new TV with built-in DRM keys. It’s a tax on American TV viewers, forcing you to buy a new TV so you can continue to access a public resource you already own.
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is back in the Senate. Sponsors are claiming—again—that the latest version won’t censor online content. It isn’t true. This bill still sets up a censorship regime disguised as a “duty of care,” and it will do what previous versions threatened: suppress lawful, important speech online, especially for young people.
EFF Updates
Encrypted chat apps like Signal and WhatsApp are one of the best ways to keep your digital conversations as private as possible. But if you’re not careful with how those conversations are backed up, you can accidentally undermine your privacy. With that in mind, let's take a look at how several of the most popular chat apps handle backups, and what options you may have to strengthen the security of those backups.
EFF applauds Montana for being the first state to close the data broker loophole and show the country that the Fourth Amendment is not for sale. This is a very good step in the right direction because right now, across the country, law enforcement routinely purchases information on individuals from data brokers it would otherwise need a warrant to obtain.
Released amidst a set of controversial job terminations, the Copyright Office’s report covers a wide range of issues with varying degrees of nuance. But on the core legal question—whether using copyrighted works to train GenAI is a fair use—it stumbles badly. The report misapplies long-settled fair use principles and ultimately puts a thumb on the scale in favor of copyright owners at the expense of creativity and innovation.
John was one of the early, under-recognized heroes of the digital age. He not only saw the promise of digital technology to help democratize access to information, he brought that idea into being and nurtured it for many years. We will miss him and his unswerving commitment to the public’s right to know.
EFF’s “How to Fix the Internet” is back for its sixth season! Check out our first two episodes, featuring conversations with Molly White about working toward a human-centered internet and Kate Bertash of the Digital Defense Fund on reclaiming digital and bodily autonomy.
Here’s an audio version of EFFector. We hope you enjoy it!
Announcements
On Thursday, June 5th, the Bay Area's best legal minds gather in support of online freedom as we celebrate our 17th Annual Cyberlaw Trivia Night! EFF’s crack team of legal experts will challenge participants to delve into their knowledge of obscure tech law minutiae. Register your team today!
EFF is excited to be at FreedomFest for the first time in Palm Springs, CA June 11-14! If you're attending the event, be sure to stop by EFF's table in the exhibitor area where we'll be spreading the word about our efforts to protect digital privacy and free expression online.
This Pride season, join our panel of experts on June 12 as they explore how emerging laws and platform policies affect the digital privacy and free expression rights of the LGBT+ community, and how this echoes the experience of marginalized people across the world.
We're also excited to be back in Las Vegas for Black Hat USA this August! EFF supporters can get discounts on various tickets by using code "EFF" when registering online. See you there!
EFF thanks the organizations who support our work. Learn how your team can join the fight for digital rights at eff.org/thanks.
Job Openings
EFF is seeking a Policy and Research Staff Technologist to join our Public Interest Technology team defending encryption, outwitting censors and trackers, and leading the way toward a better digital future.
Applications are now open for the Fall 2025 Legal Intern Class, with a deadline of June 30. EFF’s legal internships provide law students with a unique opportunity to develop valuable skills and real-world experience while working with a nationally recognized public interest law firm.
MiniLinks
EFF’s India McKinney explained to The Register how the recently passed TAKE IT DOWN Act's flawed notice-and-takedown system poses grave threats to freedom of speech, including LGBTQ+ content and criticism of government officials, online.
EFF’s Hayley Tsukayama detailed our opposition to a 10-year preemption of state AI regulation included in the U.S. House’s budget reconciliation bill. “State lawmakers must be able to react to emerging issues,” she wrote. “EFF supports some bills to regulate AI and opposes others. But stopping states from acting at all puts a heavy thumb on the scale in favor of companies.”
"Unfortunately, 'bricking' personal devices to limit users’ rights and control their behavior is nothing new," EFF's Tori Noble told Ars Technica. "Companies should not use EULAs to strip people of rights that we normally associate with ownership, like the right to tinker with or modify their own personal devices."
EFF’s Cory Doctorow shared his vision for a more open social media ecosystem, one where outside developers could modify social media apps without fear of legal attacks and platforms are “more incentivized to behave themselves than they are to cheat."
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