{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "bskyPostRef": {
    "cid": "bafyreibsfp3px4gcnj4odnernz2woklyiirqgnkqd6bds5jdaklokempiy",
    "uri": "at://did:plc:uuvs7hqvua2yxciib4jevtor/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjnsxd52dyz2"
  },
  "path": "/action/stop-new-york-s-surveillance-and-censorship-mandate-before-it-s-too-late",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-16T20:09:44.000Z",
  "site": "https://act.eff.org",
  "textContent": "We’ve seen this playbook before. Industries push for mandated technology built into consumer devices, framed as a safety measure. The safety problem doesn’t get solved; but the surveillance infrastructure gets built, and it doesn’t stay limited to its original purpose.\n\nPart C Subpart B of the New York State 2026-2027 budget bill requires every 3D printer and CNC machine sold in New York to include a “firearms blueprint detection algorithm” that scans your design files and blocks prints the software flags as potential firearm components. The state would maintain a library of forbidden designs. Behind closed doors, a working group convened after the law passes would define the technical standards, with no required peer review.\n\nHere’s the core problem: the technology this bill mandates cannot do what it is supposed to do. Geometry doesn’t reliably identify firearm components. Pipes, tubes, brackets, and millions of other common shapes share geometric properties with gun parts. Any detection algorithm will produce enormous numbers of false positives while remaining trivially easy for bad actors to circumvent by making minor design modifications. The people who get surveilled and blocked are the people following the law.\n\nPart C Subpart A compounds this by creating felony liability for possessing or distributing design files that could produce firearm components, even when there is no intent to manufacture a weapon. A journalist reporting on 3D-printed firearms. A researcher studying this technology. An educator with course materials. Any of them could face criminal charges under these provisions. Criminalizing information doesn’t prevent the conduct it targets. Someone determined to print a prohibited object already faces charges for that act. These provisions add legal exposure for everyone else while stopping no one.\n\nThe working group that will define this bill’s technical requirements has no requirement to include independent experts and no consumer protections built into its mandate. The largest manufacturers are already positioning themselves to participate. They have every incentive to design compliance requirements that shut out smaller competitors, lock users into their platforms, and make switching to open-source alternatives legally risky. That’s not a side effect. For some of the incumbents involved, it’s the point.\n\nNew York has to get this right, and we’re running out of time.\n\n**Contact your assembly member today and tell them to strip this provision from the budget.**",
  "title": "Stop New York’s Surveillance and Censorship Mandate Before It’s Too Late",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-16T20:15:10.000Z"
}