Over 9000 people have called Biden administration’s bluff on decentralization provision in infrastructure bill

For Immediate Release Thursday Aug 5, 2021
Press contact: Press@fightforthefuture.org

The Biden administration is questioning an amendment to decentralization & cryptocurrency regulation that would ensure surveillance requirements for big corporations would not crush small developers and innovators.

The Wyden amendment shields people like individual software developers or volunteers from expansive government surveillance regulations that they would be unable to comply with. Yet, the Biden administration is balking at the amendment while insisting that the provision as-written is not intended to harm small actors in the decentralization space.

“The Biden administration claims to be tough on Big Tech while going after software developers who are trying to create alternatives to it,” said Sarah Roth-Gaudette (she/her) Executive Director of Fight for the Future. “No matter how they try to spin it, the provision as-written is a win for Big Tech’s corporate control of the internet. The Biden administration should welcome the Wyden amendment, as it supports exactly what they have said they want the provision to do—regulating big corporations, not small innovators. It is fantastic to see Senator Portman, one of the original authors of the bill, recognizing that it had unintended consequences and supporting the Wyden amendment. We urge the White House to align their actions with their rhetoric and follow suit in the interest of a decentralized future where people have taken their digital power back from Big Tech.”

9000 digital rights activists and counting are flooding the Senate with calls in support of the Wyden amendment, which will ease reporting requirements for non-custodial entities in the crypto-economy. Decentralization advocates and digital rights activists recognize the original language of the provision that the Biden admin currently appears to support as a vastly over-reaching power grab that would mandate mass-surveillance of the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem, and potentially drive important structural elements out of the US.

Fight for the Future is a digital rights organization with 3 million members celebrating 10 years of defending human rights on the internet from malicious corporate interests and ill-informed legislators. Fight is organizing a digital protest that has sparked over 9000 calls to legislators from constituents who understand how decentralization works and that this provision without the Wyden amendment would chill the US’ ability to participate in Web 3.0 and the transformation of digital rights to wrest the people’s digital power back from Big Tech. Fight for the Future representatives are available for comment at press@fightforthefuture.org.