Bo Derek Letter to President Trump

7 January 2020

Fr: Bo Derek
Actress, Honorary Green Beret, WildAid Board Member, Special Envoy to Secretary Rice on Wildlife Trafficking

To: Donald J Trump
President of the United States

Re: Removing Tech Immunities from our Trade Agreements

Dear President Trump,

Thank you for everything you have done to protect endangered species, such as adding wildlife crime to the list of serious crimes in your 2017 executive order and intervening to save Zimbabwe's elephants. Thank you also for your commitment to veterans, and for passing a landmark bill to reform the VA. I am reaching out about the USMCA treaty, which recently passed the House. I'm worried because some officials are calling USMCA a template for future trade agreements with Africa and WTO.

The USMCA trade deal passed despite containing language similar to the controversial Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a law both Republicans and Democrats seek to reform.

I applaud you for getting work done, despite the current polarized environment, and I agree that the decades-old NAFTA needed updating. But, so does Section 230, which was passed in 1996.

As currently written, Section 230 grants expansive immunity to internet firms for user-generated content, even when these firms knowingly host illegal content. As you yourself have noted, the U.S. is in the midst of a public health emergency, in which Chinese drug makers produce poisonous pills made from fentanyl, ship them to Mexican or Canadian distributors, who sell them online. Section 230 language in USMCA will grant immunity to tech firms that amplify this crisis. With 125 Americans dying daily from overdoses, we can't afford to let this happen!

Section 230 protections also protect platforms where scammers target military vets, and wildlife criminals sell tons of ivory marketed to customers on cyberspace black markets. Both activities stem from Africa.

I know you share my concerns about the importance of protecting the American people against the flood of fentanyl online, and will stand with me for American vets, as you have done throughout your career.

Multiple bipartisan lawmakers are preparing bills to modify Section 230, and want it out of USMCA. In fact, removing its inclusion in our trade agreements is one of the few bi-partisan policy areas of this Congress. President Trump, I implore you to insist that USTR entirely remove Section 19.17 in the USMCA, as well as equivalent language all future trade agreements.

The new template for trade deals shouldn't have wording that protects Big Tech over the health and safety of the American people, vets and endangered species.

Sincerely,

Bo Derek

And

The Members of the Alliance to Counter Crime Online

Gretchen Peters, Center on Illicit Networks and Transnational Organized Crime
Dr. Tim Mackey, Global Health Policy Alliance UCSD
Duncan Jepson, Liberty Shared
Kathleen Miles, Center on Illicit Networks and Transnational Organized Crime
Dr. Amr al-Azm, Shawnee State University
Dr. Sam Hardy, Norwegian Institute
Dr. Shawn Graham, Carleton University
Dr. David Roberts, University of Kent
Dr. Damien Huffer, Osteologist
Nina Jackal, Lady Freethinker
Katie Paul, ATHAR Project
Dan Stiles, former UNODC investigator
Sean Williamson, Atlas Humanitarian Rescue
Patricia Tricorache, Illegal Wildlife Trade Expert
Dan Shefet, Association for Accountability and Internet Democracy