Digital rights group EFF calls for roman storm dismissal in tornado cash case

What to know

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is arguing in an amicus brief that Roman Storm's case should be dismissed.

• If Storm is prosecuted the precedent would have a chilling effect on other privacy-preserving tools, the EFF argues.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a prominent digital rights group, has filed an amicus brief in support of Roman Storm, a developer of the crypto privacy protocol Tornado Cash (TORN).

Storm has been charged with conspiracy to facilitate money laundering, operating an unlicensed money transmitter, and violating sanctions in relation to his work on the Tornado Cash protocol.

“The government’s prosecution raises larger civil liberties concerns that could chill the future development of privacy-enhancing technologies more broadly," the EFF wrote in the brief.

The EFF argues that Storm's prosecution threatens open-source innovation as the core issue in the case of holding developers responsible for how their tools are used, instead of prosecuting bad actors directly, could have a chilling effect on privacy-focused software development.

"Nearly all privacy and anonymity protective software tools are dual-use tools. Like a physical mask or paper cash, they provide needed, often critical protections for users, but can also be used by bad actors to help hide their crimes," the EFF wrote.

In the prosecution of Storm, the government is relying on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which allows it to impose economic sanctions and restrict transactions during national emergencies. This application, the EFF argues, is inappropriate.

“If the government believes it is appropriate to criminalize these technologies, it must seek relief from Congress and not rely on IEEPA and the other laws deployed in this prosecution, or, worse, attempt to bootstrap ancillary activities even further removed from any criminal acts into the ambit of these laws,” the EFF wrote.

If Congress wants to regulate tools like Tornado Cash, the EFF argues, it has the authority to pass a law that clearly distinguishes legal from illegal use, but the prosecution in this case fails to provide that clarity.