Cooper Davis and Devin Norring Act
United States- Introduced
- Passed House
- Passed Senate
- Became Law
Would make platforms report suspected drug activity in users' messages to the DEA, deputizing them as federal informants.
Latest update
Introduced
This bill is still moving
This bill is still moving, so there's still time to push back.
Contact LawmakersWhat it does
Communication providers, from social networks to messaging apps, would have to report suspected fentanyl and other drug sales on their services directly to the DEA under a standardized reporting regime, the way they report child abuse material today. Failing to report carries penalties. Reintroduced in the 119th Congress after stalling as the Cooper Davis Act in the last two, it now carries two victims' names.
Why it matters
Once a platform is liable for not reporting what its users say, it has to look at what its users say. That is the encryption trap: an end-to-end encrypted messenger cannot scan for drug talk, so the duty to report becomes pressure to stop encrypting, or to scan on the device before encryption happens. The drug war has opened every surveillance door of the last fifty years; this one leads straight into private messages.
Our take
Swap fentanyl for any other keyword and the machinery is identical: platforms scanning private conversations and forwarding them to a federal enforcement agency, no warrant anywhere in the loop. Grief makes powerful politics, and this bill keeps coming back. Watch it.
Timeline
Introduced
LatestReferred to committee
Sponsor
Roger Marshall (R-KS)
Cosponsors (6)
Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Todd Young (R-IN), Dan Sullivan (R-AK)
Committee
Judiciary Committee