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#internet politics
shrimpmandan · 16 days
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The US House has passed the bill to ban TikTok.
This means the US has the authority to ban and limit what platforms people are allowed to use, and what media they can consume.
The reasoning behind the ban? Is intensely sinophobic. It preys on the idea that Chinese companies are inherently predatory and evil.
If you're celebrating this as a Leftist you are ideologically brainrotted.
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expendablemudge · 2 months
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titleknown · 2 years
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On my own whole “Sex workers online are being screwed on an increasingly gentrified net” thing, y’all should take a look at this, in terms of how hard sex workers have been screwed due to the new regulations that Master Card has been pushing.
And like, the people who come for sex workers are definitely coming for LGBTQ health resources and smutty fanart/fanfic next, in ways we are painfully aware of, so some solidarity is warranted.
Can’t really think of much to do but say to keep up a lookout for sex worker organizing efforts via activists like Ashley Lake on Twitter, and pitch in where you can, especially in terms of the push for biometric age checking; which is A Thing companies like Mastercard are pushing for and would be a nightmare in terms of online privacy and internet freedom...
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fullhalalalchemist · 11 months
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URGENT: 🚨🚨EARN IT ACT IS BACK IN THE SENATE 🚨🚨 TUMBLR’S NSFW BAN HITTING THE ENTIRE INTERNET THIS SUMMER 2023
April 28, 2023
I’m so sorry for the long post but please please please pay attention and spread this
What is the EARN IT Act?
The EARN IT Act (s. 1207) has been roundly condemned by nearly every major LGBTQ+ advocacy and human rights organization in the country.
This is the third time the Senate has been trying to force this through, and I talked about it last year. It is a bill that claims "protects children and victims against CSAM" by creating an unelected and politically appointed national commission of law enforcement specialists to dictate "best practices" that websites all across the nation will be forced to follow. (Keep in mind, most websites in the world are created in the US, so this has global ramifications). These "best practices" would include killing encryption so that any law enforcement can scan and see every single message, dm, photo, cloud storage, data, and any website you have every so much as glanced at. Contrary to popular belief, no they actually can't already do that. These "best practices" also create new laws for "removing CSAM" online, leading to mass censorship of non-CSAM content like what happened to tumblr. Keep in mind that groups like NCOSE, an anti-LGBT hate group, will be allowed on this commission. If websites don't follow these best practices, they lose their Section 230 protections, leading to mass censorship either way.
Section 230 is foundational to modern online communications. It's the entire reason social media exists. It grants legal protection to users and websites, and says that websites aren't responsible for what users upload online unless it's criminal. Without Section 230, websites are at the mercy of whatever bullshit regulatory laws any and every US state passes. Imagine if Texas and Florida were allowed to say what you can and can't publish and access online. That is what will happen if EARN IT passes. (For context, Trump wanted to get rid of Section 230 because he knew it would lead to mass govt surveillance and censorship of minorities online.)
This is really not a drill. Anyone who makes or consume anything “adult” and LGBT online has to be prepared to fight Sen. Blumenthal’s EARN IT Act, brought back from the grave by a bipartisan consensus to destroy Section 230. If this bill passes, we’re going to see most, if not all, adult content and accounts removed from mainstream platforms. This will include anything related to LGBT content, including SFW fanfiction, for example. Youtube, Twitter, Reddit, Tiktok, Tumblr, all of them will be completely gutted of anything related to LGBT content, abortion healthcare, resources for victims of any type of abuse, etc. It is a right-wing fascists wet dream, which is why NCOSE is behind this bill and why another name for this bill is named in reference to NCOSE.
NCOSE used to be named Morality in Media, and has rebranded into an "anti-trafficking" organization. They are a hate group that has made millions off of being "against trafficking" while helping almost no victims and pushing for homophobic laws globally. They have successfully pushing the idea that any form of sexual expression, including talking about HEALTH, leads to sex trafficking. That's how SESTA passed. Their goal is to eliminate all sex, anything gay, and everything that goes against their idea of ‘God’ from the internet and hyper disney-fy and sanitize it. This is a highly coordinated attack on multiple fronts.
The EARN IT Act will lead to mass online censorship and surveillance. Platforms will be forced to scan their users’ communications and censor all sex-related content, including sex education, literally anything lgbt, transgender or non-binary education and support systems, aything related to abortion, and sex worker communication according to the ACLU. All this in the name of “protecting kids” and “fighting CSAM”, both of which the bill does nothing of the sort. In fact it makes fighting CSEM even harder.
EARN IT will open the way for politicians to define the category of “pornography" as they — or the lobbies that fund them — please. The same way that right-wing groups have successfully banned books about race and LGBT, are banning trans people from existing, all under the guise of protecting children from "grooming and exploitation", is how they will successfully censor the internet.
As long as state legislatures can tie in "fighting CSAM" to their bullshit laws, they can use EARN IT to censor and surveill whatever they want.
This is already a nightmare enough. But the bill also DESTROYS ENCRYPTION, you know, the thing protecting literally anyone or any govt entity from going into your private messages and emails and anything on your devices and spying on you.
This bill is going to finish what FOSTA/SESTA started. And that should terrify you.
Senator Blumenthal (Same guy who said ‘Facebook should ban finsta’) pushed this bill all of 2020, literally every activist (There were more than half a million signatures on this site opposing this act!) pushed hard to stop this bill. Now he brings it back, doesn’t show the text of the bill until hours later, and it’s WORSE. Instead of fixing literally anything in the bill that might actually protect kids online, Bluemnthal is hoping to fast track this and shove it through, hoping to get little media attention other than propaganda of “protecting kids” to support this shitty legislation that will harm kids. Blumental doesn't care about protecting anyone, and only wants his name in headlines.
It will make CSAM much much worse.
One of the many reasons this bill is so dangerous: It totally misunderstands how Section 230 works, and in doing so (as with FOSTA) it is likely to make the very real problem of CSAM worse, not better. Section 230 gives companies the flexibility to try different approaches to dealing with various content moderation challenges. It allows for greater and greater experimentation and adjustments as they learn what works – without fear of liability for any “failure.” Removing Section 230 protections does the opposite. It says if you do anything, you may face crippling legal liability. This actually makes companies less willing to do anything that involves trying to seek out, take down, and report CSAM because of the greatly increased liability that comes with admitting that there is CSAM on your platform to search for and deal with. This liability would allow anyone for any reason to sue any platform they want, suing smaller ones out of existence. Look at what is happening right now with book bans across the nation with far right groups. This is going to happen to the internet if this bill passes.
(Remember, the state department released a report in December 2021 recommending that the government crack down on “obscenity” as hard the Reagan Administration did. If this bill passes, it could easily go way beyond shit red states are currently trying. It is a goldmine for the fascist right that is currently in the middle of banning every book that talks about race and sexuality across the US.)
The reason these bills keep showing up is because there is this false lie spread by organizations like NCOSE that platforms do nothing about CSEM online. However, platforms are already liable for child sexual exploitation under federal law. Tech companies sent more than 45 million+ instances of CSAM to the DOJ in 2019 alone, most of which they declined to investigate. This shows that platforms are actually doing everything in their power already to stop CSEM by following already existing laws. The Earn It Act includes zero resources for proven investigation or prevention programs. If Senator Bluementhal actually cared about protecting youth, why wouldn’t he include anything to actually protect them in his shitty horrible bill? EARN IT is actually likely to make prosecuting child molesters more difficult since evidence collected this way likely violates the Fourth Amendment and would be inadmissible in court.
I don’t know why so many Senators are eager to cosponsor the “make child pornography worse” bill, but here we are.
HOW TO FIGHT BACK
EARN IT Act was introduced just two weeks ago and is already being fast-tracked. It will be marked up the week of May 1st and head to the Senate floor immediately after. If there is no loud and consistent opposition, it will be law by JUNE! Most bills never go to markup, so this means they are putting pressure to move this through. There are already 20 co-sponsors, a fifth of the entire Senate. This is an uphill battle and it is very much all hands on deck.
CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES.
This website takes you to your Senator / House members contact info. EMAIL, MESSAGE, SEND LETTERS, CALL CALL CALL CALL CALL. Calling is the BEST way to get a message through. Get your family and friends to send calls too. This is literally the end of free speech online.
(202) 224-3121 connects you to the congressional hotline. Here is a call script if you don't know what to say. Call them every day. Even on the weekends, leaving voicemails are fine.
2. Sign these petitions!
Link to Petition 1
Link to Petition 2
3. SPREAD THE WORD ONLINE
If you have any social media, spread this online. One of the best ways we fought back against this last year was MASSIVE spread online. Tiktok, reddit, twitter, discord, whatever means you have at least mention it. We could see most social media die out by this fall if we don't fight back.
Here is a linktree with more information on this bill including a masterpost of articles, the links to petitions, and the call script.
DISCORD LINK IF YOU WANT TO HELP FIGHT IT
TLDR: The EARN IT Act will lead to online censorship of any and all adult & lgbt content across the entire internet, open the floodgates to mass surveillance the likes which we haven’t seen before, lead to much more CSEM being distributed online, and destroy encryption. Call 202-224-3121 to connect to your house and senate representative and tell them to VOTE NO on this bill that does not protect anyone and harms everyone.
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bardicious · 5 months
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A good example of modern day ignorance is two weeks back when I received a pamphlet to "Stop the war in Ukraine". Fascinating because
1. The pamphlet wasn't addressing Putin himself (at least this would have made some fucking sense)
2. The person spreading the pamphlets wasn't pro-Russia either (I don't think it was telling Ukraine to be conquered LMAO)
3. A petition for "peace" to stop the fighting, addressed to maybe the US government(???). Made by a presumably left leaning individual who obviously didn't know shit about the conflict but thought that their sweet little sentiments were morally relevant. uwu.
And this is exactly what it's like being on any social media site. Bunch of people ambiguously wanting the "bad things" to stop without actually knowing anything about anything.
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super-firepaw119 · 1 month
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In regards to KOSA:
While it is true that Congress does return from recess Feb. 26th, that doesn’t automatically mean they’ll immediately jump into voting.
The bill only has enough support to pass the Senate—it’ll most likely stall at the House; both due to it having much less support there & how disorganized the House currently is. Even if it does pass—God forbid, the President would have to sign it for it to be official and even then, it’ll likely take several months before it goes into effect.
…That being said, please continue to call both your Senators & especially your House representative; We still don’t even have a concrete date for a vote—You can visit the website pictured to even see for yourself.
Please spread this around. Don’t panic, We still have time!!!
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charliejaneanders · 8 months
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Seriously, call your Senators now. This needs to be stopped before it goes any further. They want to drive LGBTQIA+ off the internet entirely, and Democrats are going along with this.
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flurriethefox · 1 month
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Hey, so, uh…
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KOSA literally violates the First Amendment freedoms. If this is passed, then that means the Constitution and Bill of Rights are basically void, because Congress are ignoring them. THATS A PROBLEM
As a teen myself, it pisses me off. I wish for anarchy, with everything the US government has been doing, from supporting Israhell to this bullshit.
Please, do what you can to prevent this from getting passed. It violates everyone’s rights in the US, and if it gets passed, then we’re back to where we started; a monarchy. Just with far too many people.
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uncanny-tranny · 4 months
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This might seem like an "old man yells at cloud" situation, but it's just wild growing up and being told how dangerous distracted driving is - how, at highway speeds, you can traverse the length of a football field (100 yards, 91 meters) in a matter of seconds - how one split second sending a text while driving could result in a potential fatal crash, and then getting on the road as a driver and being surrounded by billboards. Their entire purpose is to catch one's attention, so they're lining major roads, which tend to be highways. How is it that you're told how important it is to never be distracted while driving, but still being advertised to?
At best, this type of advertising is an eyesore to pedestrians and motorists and a general waste of electricity to light it, and at worst, it is an active danger considering they are there to advertise and therefore, must catch people's attention.
I'm not even against advertising in theory, but this particular mode bothers me so much and I hate how pervasive it is - especially in large cities or highways.
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prokopetz · 29 days
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A recurring theme I see in discussion of the present wave of Internet content regulation bills is the presumption that politicians are just so old and out of touch that they don't realise that these bills will have a deleterious effect on everyday communication. Y'all, they know. By and large, modern governments just don't want people talking to each other – they'd cheerfully impose licensing, monitoring, and identity disclosure requirements on talking to the person sitting next to you on the bus if there was any practicable means of doing so. Don't give these ghouls the benefit of the doubt.
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commiepinkofag · 2 months
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The 'Kids Online Safety Act' [KOSA] continues to move forward
Microsoft now endorses this legislation, which will likely help garner political support. Help counter this bill!
HELP STOP KOSA
Contact your representatives
KOSA is a bipartisan bill introduced to censor content on the internet deemed 'inappropriate' for minors. This bill is intended to target the LGBTQIA+ community and otherwise cause harm to minors.
Access to any supportive resources like queer-youth support groups, suicide hotlines, and important health information can be targeted.
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expendablemudge · 2 months
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MEMES TO MOVEMENTS: How the World's Most Viral Media Is Changing Social Protest and Power, is via Beacon Press & just slightly dated but still very trenchant.
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titleknown · 1 month
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WELL, SHIT.
So, Kosa is almost certainly going to pass the Senate, almost entirely just as bad and censorious as it ever was, but, that just means we need to take the fight to The House of Representatives, because that's where it's going now.
So, find your reps' numbers here and call them ASAP.
And this is bipartisan too, it's not just the Dems that might be swayed against this due to the well documented threats to LGBTQ people it presents, I'm sure even the right-wingers would not be happy to sign on a bill that's likely to lead to government-mandated facial scans for everyone using the net., along with the encroachment of actual big-government on our freedom of speech.
So, call now, call often, and if you want a further follow-through on this, there's a discord server organizing to fight this that you can join here.
And of course, as per usual, I make this poster available under a CC0 Public Domain License for anyone to use, complete with added QR-codes for use in actual physical prints. Now hop to it!
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chamerionwrites · 1 year
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Possibly The most surprising thing I have discovered on the internet is the number of people who will unironically refer to others as "degenerates" without expecting anyone reading this to immediately assume that they are a straight-up fascist
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the-rad1o-demon · 6 months
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So far, chances of KOSA being enacted is 31% according to the site linked below.
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Let's get that fucker down to zero, guys!!
Stuff to help us do that is linked here!
The call scripts linked below were originally for Congressional representatives, but now that the bill is in committee consideration by Senate Commerce, you should call your Senators instead and you can use the scripts for them. Also, when calling your Democrat senators, make sure to add that Senator Blackburn explicitly stated in interview that it would be used to "protect children from the transgender." I think it's pretty clear that this is not meant to protect children. It's just going to harm children further, especially trans children.
(Article below with a video of the interview embedded.)
Please help stop this bill in its tracks. Reblog, donate, call your senators, and keep an eye on the bill's chances of being passed. We can't stop now. 31% is still kind of a big number. We need to shrink those chances by a lot more.
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bump-inthe-night · 20 days
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On March 13th, Congress will vote on the Kids Online Safety Act, known as KOSA, which is an internet censorship bill that'll give state attorneys power over the internet to censor anything that puts information about and resources for Palestine, Congo, Sudan, the LGBTQIA+ community, and racial groups at risk of censorship.
While the bill has enough support to pass the Senate, the House of Representatives is more divided, and KOSA is less likely to gain enough support to pass through. Tell Democrats that passing KOSA will cost them votes and the election since they'll be partially at fault for giving Republican state attorney generals the power to block access to information and resources to infringe more on abortion rights and the rights of the LGBTQIA+ and POC communities. 
As for Republicans, speak about how Democrats will weaponize this bill to "suppress" freedom of speech and the truth to aid their "woke agenda" to succeed in "destroying" America.
We need to use the division between Democrats and Republicans to destroy this bill. Please use these websites to email them:
Bad Internet Bills
StopKosa
EFF Action Center
Action Network
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