New U.S. legislation will be introduced in the coming weeks that could hurt technology companies’ ability to offer end-to-end encryption, according to sources. The new law will also  aim to curb the distribution of child sexual abuse material on such platforms.

The bill, proposed by the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, aims to fight such material on platforms like Facebook and Alphabet’s Google’s by making them liable for state prosecution and civil lawsuits. It does so by threatening a key immunity the companies have under federal law called Section 230.

This law shields certain online platforms from being treated as the publisher or speaker of information they publish, and largely protects them from liability involving content posted by users.

The bill, titled “The Eliminating Abuse and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2019,” or the “EARN IT Act,” threatens this key immunity unless companies comply with a set of “best practices,” which will be determined by a 15-member commission led by the Attorney General.

The move is the latest example of how regulators and lawmakers in Washington are reconsidering the need for incentives that once helped online companies grow, but are increasingly viewed as impediments to curbing online crime, hate speech and extremism.

The sources said the U.S. tech industry fears these “best practices” will be used to condemn end-to-end encryption - a technology for privacy and security that scrambles messages so that they can be deciphered only by the sender and intended recipient. Federal law enforcement agencies have complained that such encryption hinders their investigations.

 “This a deeply dangerous and flawed piece of legislation that will put every American’s security at risk... it is deeply irresponsible to try to undermine security for online communications,” said Jesse Blumenthal, who leads technology and innovation at Stand Together. The group sides with tech companies that have come under fire from lawmakers and regulators in Washington.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr questioned whether Facebook, Google and other major online platforms still need the immunity from legal liability that has prevented them from being sued over material their users post.