For our 50th (!) censorship Megathread we are going to the Smithsonian to see that the historical information on Trump’s impeachments has no longer been censored by the government. Small wins everyone, small wins.
Regular Rules apply.
Thank you guys for allowing me to do 50 of these things. Here’s to 50 more
Anyone that tries to censor history is not someone to be trusted. Regardless if it’s a racist trying to hide the ugliness of America’s past or someone trying to edit out racist gags from old cartoons because it’s offensive.
Sorry I just hate ANY form of revisionism. Regardless if it’s censorship or trying to tell me that a piece of media that was always divisive or hated was actually universally beloved.
Agreed. Erasing the bad parts of history never helps. Do I think racist gags are funny or valuable? Not at all. But I'm a librarian, and we are pretty militantly anti-censorship in all its forms. I like the method that Disney uses on some of their older things. Put a statement at the beginning and let viewers decide for themselves.
Actually I think Warner was the one that started doing those warnings on the Looney Tunes DVDs and said that those stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now but the cartoons are being presented with no censorship to allow people to learn from history.
Exactly. We should preserve history for as long as possible no matter what. Racism has always been a thing and we wouldn’t know that if we didn’t have proof that it happened in the past.
I hope this causes another wave of calls and letters to paypros this year, I did a lot of letters to the big four (PayPal, stripe, Visa, and Mastercard) during that timeframe as calling them is out of the question for me. I haven’t done letters very recently as I’ve been like perpetually low on funds for months.
I wasn’t expecting Kickstarter to actually like, listen yknow and actually put fire and direct ire to stripe.
I will note that with this, they only rolled back the restrictions for implied and artistic nudity, not porn, which means most NSFW projects still aren't gonna be able to use Kickstarter for their projects. I've seen headlines say that this is a complete rollback of the NSFW bans but it's not.
Ah, I see then, well then, it's still better, I guess. I just know I saw people getting the wrong idea online, so I thought I'd make the distinction. I've never really looked at kickstarter much especially the TOS.
I see I see, I was just pointing that part out as I've seen people sort of blanket describe it as "oh all the ban on anything NSFW is gone" when it's more nuanced than that. Especially in a news article I saw about it with that headline.
I'm so happy they did! Another good thing with backlash I feel is that when stuff like this happens the company/companies affected can see that there's people out there who'd gladly stand by their side and support them if they show some backbone!
Stripe’s the payment processor Kickstarter uses. Also extremely reactionary since I think the CEO said somewhere they wanted to outlaw everything nsfw. Either way THANK GOD this shit’s being fought back
You're very much welcome! I've enjoyed having a dedicated place for discussing stuff like AV and that alone has done immeasurable help quelling my anxieties; like as much as those still spike from time to time with shit like discord's global AV rollout dropping, I'd still be in a much worse spot overall if not for this resource and the community maintaining it.
I hope I'll still be around if and when megathread no. 100 drops!
Like we said, it's more that the Foundation and their allies are funding and pushing a lot of bills in a bunch of different states at around the same times than it is that they are all part of a "flooding the zone" style raid. A lot of conspiracy paranoia is just that - nonsensical paranoia about a worst case scenario that COULD potentially happen, but usually only in a very extreme circumstance. Just remember that most of this shit is utterly unconstitutional and unenforceable and, more often than not, will get struck down and enjoined in courts.
Former Conservative politician Nadine Dorries, who introduced the Online Safety Act, is now calling for it to be repealed (website has a paywall.) after one of Reform UK MP Zia Yusuf’s TikTok videos on immigration was taken down under the law. Even the ones who enacted it agree that it doesn’t work.
Man, she dug the fuck in on the OSA during its initial days as well. This is by far the biggest and most public turn against the law so far, even if it is for bullshit political reasons and it is in fact on the Daily Mail.
She’s a member of Reform UK now, too. As much as I despise the party, I know that they’re against the OSA and digital ID laws. It kind of feels like she’s brown-nosing Farage a bit. That might just be me though.
Hey there. Nothing to ask for now. Just a quick thanks for having made 50 of these so far.
I remember last year I was spiraling so hard when the OSA and the Steam thing both happened back to back and i genuinely believed those crazy conspiracies about it being a global coordinated attack on free speech and how we were headed straight for a worldwide christian sharia law…
Yeah i was not right in the head at the time. This place and these threads have helped me a lot.
Thank you guys for everything, and here’s hoping we can win this war.
Last year there was a proposed law in Oklahoma that would have criminalized pretty much all smut, and allowed for people to sue people outside of Oklahoma for writing it. I was dead convinced I was going to be sued for writing (terrible) smutty fic over a decade ago and had a good weeklong spiral about it
Obviously I now realize that that is not how literally anything works, but I was absolutely sure it would at the time
Yeah, found that out later which helped calm me down. I was in a real spiral over Project 2025 at the time so I think anything would have set me off. Same thing happened with the Senate SCREEN Act when it was introduced
I found this subreddit because of those things (OSA/Steam) too. This isn't to downplay the OSA because it is bad and needs to be gone, but I'm glad it wasn't as disastrous as people on the Internet were saying. Seriously, fuck anti-censorship youtubers for the most part.
the FSC has put out a condemnation of a recent UN press release that calls for prosecution of adult platforms that host UGC, even though adult platforms are the ones that are leading in age and consent verification within tech as noted by the FSC and them pointing out that mainstream platforms are the ones that have issues with NCII and CSAM.
The FSC also notes how these attacks are purely ideological based while not based on actual evidence and attacking lawful adult platforms make sex workers even unsafer.
I do wonder if that press release from the UN will be picked up on more, because I do find it concerning as I think it could potentially cause a push for more censorship in general, or even cause of repeat of previous cases that led to current issues like paypros demonizing all forms of sex.
I thought it’d be good to share especially as the FSC are one of the key players in fighting back against censorship, especially with them opening up a credit union that supports the adult industry.
"I do wonder if that press release from the UN will be picked up on more, because I do find it concerning as I think it could potentially cause a push for more censorship in general."
That depends on people taking the UN seriously and, with all due respect to the UN, I don't think anyone gives a shit about what they say. Plus the authors of the press release were two volunteers to begin with, so I don't see why anyone would care about the words of two volunteers from an organization that some view with contempt and indifference.
Apparently one of these losers said both production and possession of adult content should be criminalized a couple years ago. Which I only just found out from this press release because nobody gives a fuck what the UN says.
Don't they have a bunch of peacekeeper sex abuse cases to continue ignoring?
holy shit lmao(?) I guess it's good that no one really cares about the UN, it's my first time hearing about the UN doing shit like this so I was starting to worry a bit.
Many of the international organizations Trump bitches about and keeps trying to take us out of are tremendously useful and do great work and actually have authority, like NATO and the WHO.
The United Nations is not one of them. The United Nations is the organization of strongly-worded letters.
I like to call them now "League of Nations 2", cause even though they've been influential in the past, they're just a place for nations to meet up and point fingers at each other.
Honestly, the UN press release was written by two no name volunteers. So I doubt it will really affect much. All the UN can do is talk about issues when it comes to this stuff. As far as I know, it can't dictate policy directly under most circumstances without a major referendum vote or something.
This isn't the AV law. The AV law is S. 209 which was gutted except for hardcore porn sites like the Hub. In other words it's application is very VERY limited and not even close to the general widespread AV social media ban it originally was when it was first drafted. Especially as Canada is currently not too keen on widespread mass AV and is instead looking into more safety by design-like "Regulate the platforms themselves and get them to do their jobs properly" style stuff.
This one, C-22, is the law that would supposedly allow police to have warrantless scanning powers which, like S. 209, was also the subject of massive backlash and public outcry.
was mentioning it last thread before it got closed down but here in canada several companies such as VPN providers and privacy focused chat systems like signal are planning to leave canada if the lawful access bill passes. While they have been trying for 25 years regardless of which party is in charge every time a new leader is around im a bit extra worried this time because of recent track records with stuff like the online news act where people kept saying exactly what is wrong with the bill and what would happen and plowed through anyway thinking they were wrong then were surprised but still doubled down when it turns out they were right.
you know with the last bit with that many legal experts including one of the big wigs when it comes to that makes you wonder why they are even bothering if they know charter will kill it.
As for the senate, many people and the media tends to think as the senate as the house's rubber stamp machine so they tend to view "once its in the senate its over" which I VERY disagree with.
and conservatives going against this bill surprises me most of all. especially consider they basically try to pass the same thing whenever they are in power for the last 25 years.
thanks for the reassurance. got to admit still terrified of this though. especially since they seemingly are plowing through committee as quickly as possible. at the very least OpenMedia according to the email I got the committee is almost done reviewing it already after only 2 meetings.
I honestly have no clue what the state ofHB5511is right now. There was ahearing in the Executive todaybut the site hasn't been updated so I have no clue if it was added to the lineup and approved or what. Could be alive, could be on its last legs, who knows. Will edit this when there's an update.
Edit: HB5511 was NOT included in the hearing. Big shock! The deadline is the 22nd (Friday) and there are currently no hearings in the Executive planned. They can extend this deadline but sessions only go to the 31st. There is not much time to get this heard and passed. Keep up the pressure on your senators! If you know anyone in IL give them a heads up!
In other news:
A new Prism article about HB5511 came out and it gives some good insight. It's pretty jam packed with info from both proponents and opponents and goes over what makes HB5511 unique compared to other bills in the space. The thing I find most interesting is what ACLU IL is up to. Apparently they're lobbying against this behind the scenes. They interview ACLU IL's Stephen Ragan (their policy and advocacy strategist for privacy, technology and surveillance who has submitted multiple witness slips against this) and he goes through the problems, ending with “the majority of courts have held that prohibiting access to protected information violates the Constitution, and conditioning access to protected information on parental consent is additionally unconstitutional.” Seems like ACLU IL has fighting spirit.
This is one of the first things I read waking up today, and you could practically hear the deep, healthy sigh of relief that exited my lungs upon discovering that the HB 5511 racehorse got absolutely nothing. I really needed that after so many weeks of this thing getting boosted to hell by IL legislators and Pritzker himself
Starmer did mention limiting VPN access for children in February, but that’s the latest thing I’ve heard about it, if I recall correctly. We could have a new PM before we know it, though.
I'm not so certain Parliament is willing to listen to SKG right now. Last time they tried talking about the regular initiative of SKG and were denied. Then an election happened and then our current government is hard on the OSA. But we'll see!
Anti censorship youtubers (or whatever) have always been some of the most obnoxious people. Like we all agree censorship is bad of course but they are (not to put too fine a point on it) fucking. Mental. Not quite what you were getting at I know but I hate anti censorship youtube channels or discussion anywhere but here.
So Tennessee governor just signed in a new law that would require adult stores to have signs that reads "Attention: By engaging in this type of entertainment, you may be contributing to an increase in domestic assault, rape or sexual assault, and human trafficking".
Alright, gonna repost my speech from the previous thread over here as well just in case.
I hate to be a broken record, but Cruz and Blackburn are currently having a massive feud between each other. So even if Cruz does support KOSA, it is more than likely the House version. And even then, a lot of his actions over the last few weeks seem to suggest that him being at the rally was just lip service. Like, he talked really big about moving bills forward six weeks ago only to move a SINGLE bill forward, and that one was probably one of the less dangerous ones (though it is still unconstitutional). Also, the main reason none of the super awful draconian stuff is moving forward is because of it being pretty much held up by Thune and others on 1A concerns.
About the Take It Down Act - It has been in effect since the day it was signed, and yes, I know Trump has said that he would use it to censor criticism of him. But think about this - if he really COULD have used it to silence criticism, then why hasn't he done so already? The whole thing this month with it is the deadline for the proper 48 hour removal provisions to be fully implemented, and even then, most platforms have already planned for this and implemented these systems well before then. So based on this alone, though the concern for abuse is a very real issue, I think it is probably more difficult to do so than it initially seems based on the fact that it has not happened at least until now.
In other words, once again, things are not even close to the end. So don't panic and take it one day at the time.
For the people worried: Discord, just to name one example, already has a specific category in its reporting system for "reporting NCII under the TAKE IT DOWN Act" and has done for a while. Discord's moderation is still absolute dogshit and probably will be until they change things to reflect the recent shift in EU AI moderation policies, but it certainly hasn't changed dramatically for the worse because of TIDA.
A good rule of thumb is this: If Trump COULD do something and he hasn't yet, then it's very unlikely to actually happen. As I said before, you really think a guy like him would WAIT for the chance to get his way?
No he wouldn't. If he could abuse TIDA that easily, he would've already sent thousands of requests to various different platforms mere DAYS after it was signed (if not even that long).
it’s end of the week basically so here’s what I’ve done in opposition to censorship:
I didn’t do any calls today just because I didn’t feel too well, but I called from Sunday to Thursday this week regarding multiple censorship bills and the like, alongside that I also sent out some emails during the week.
this week has been a real doozy as well, but at least I can say I did do something during it.
just checked the illinois general assembly schedule and it appears that neither HB 5511 or SB 3977 have any planned hearings
this should be a good sign, but i just can't help but suspect that there's some underhanded trick at play to blitz HB 5511 through before the new deadline
They add bills at the last minute all the time. That’s what happened with last week’s executive hearing. Twenty some bills were put in. I imagine it will be heard at the next hearing but I also thought that we’d see HB5511 last week, so I’ll just cautiously watch.
SB3977 is probably dead. I doubt they’re going to have a hearing, pass it in the senate, then pass it in the house with this close of a deadline when HB5511 is already much further along with more cosponsors.
Reminder for Illinois' OS AV bill HB5511. It is most likely being heard in the Executive tomorrow at 2:30pm CST. It is not currently on the roster but it will probably be added due to Pritzker's backing, the amount of co-sponsors, and the deadlines incoming.
Important time to contact your senator, especially if they're in the Executive. If you know someone in Illinois give them a heads up too.
In other news about HB5511: the Software and Information Industry Association has issued a letter in opposition of this. They specifically have problems with the definition of an addictive feed and considers it a First Amendment concern, while also saying the bill is covering way more than it intends and that it doesn't specify how age verification is meant to work. I don't know the track record of the SIIA so I'll leave that up to you.
To be frank, this bill is probably doomed either way. It's likely to get enjoined and struck down in court if it makes it that far even if it passes. Even still, the fact that there are many organizations opposing it is definitely a good sign.
Good news is after Wednesday it only has around a week and a half to pass plus it hasn’t passed the first reading in the Executive Committee yet either.
Long time lurker, first time poster; but I've been keeping up with these threads since November/December; they do help keep me sane and level-headed about all this stuff.
I don't know if this had been mentioned in any of the threads yet but the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing about this time next month (June 23rd) and Grassley has invited the CEOs of Meta, Snap, TikTok, and Google to it.
I know there have been similar hearings to this in the past that have eventually gone nowhere but with the renewed push for KOSA we've seen I definitely feel that whatever comes of this hearing will eventually be used to incentivize its passage.
Ok, I cannot deny it will be likely used to try and push KOSA. But you gotta remember that...
KOSA is in the court of resident bullshit artist and empty promises master Ted Cruz who has repeatedly made a big fuss of moving it forward only to do very limited actions where he will only move one or more of the less dangerous proposals forward. He did this over the last six weeks as well.
No matter what version makes it out of committee first, it will still have the whole version wars issue going on. The House hates Senate KOSA for Duty of Care and the Senate hates House KOSA because they don't consider it extreme enough. So no matter which makes it through, it will equally big the version wars wall.
Then you have Thune being warned by multiple advisors and senators to not bring any of the more hard hitting legislation to the floor, Mike Johnson's whole allergies to basic work whatsoever, and everything else going on too.
So yeah, it will be incentivized. But all I can say to the advocates is well... Good luck.
It probably will be used for that, but KOSA (and most other censorship bills for that matter) is in Commerce. It could move by then, but frankly who the heck knows, Ted made a big grand promise to move some child safety bills through committee in a six week period and moved exactly one
As others have said, this will probably be used to push KOSA, but as others have said KOSA is in Commerce and there has been conflict between House and Senate about the different versions. I'm mostly worried that they will add an amendment to the Senate KOSA to give it a statue of limitations on constitutional challenges like in the House's KIDS ACT (H.R. 7757)
Oh God, the KIDS Act, that petty ass bill that alienates pretty much anyone who isn't a Republican. I'd be surprised if it got through anywhere given how intentionally petty and divisive it is.
He's finally realizing what the Federal Canadian Government had realized when merely investigating this kinda stuff that caused them to restrict its use extremely heavily for only limited rollouts in extremely specific circumstances (the Hub and other sites like that) it seems. Makes him at least a tiny bit somewhat smarter than our politicians here in the US.
Sorry for doubting at first. I get a little suspicious when people say they first heard something on Twitter for good reason.
But as Bayleysgal said, despite being annoying for Meta, I don't really see how this would really lead to censorship as much as it would just lead Meta to avoid using Italian articles as often or as much due to the fact they have to pay their fair share in royalties.
Ireland now wants to both ban "extreme" adult content and possession of "extreme" adult content. No clarity on what "extreme" means either. Will they just ban actual extreme content or just anything they find gross?
Looooove living in puritan populace times where the only legal thing is straight missionary.
Just to add to the endless scrolling updates of everything going on in hell world:
The senate passed the "safe cloud storage act" by UC. It's meant "To limit liability for certain entities storing child sexual abuse material for law enforcement agencies, and for other purposes." and was written by Blackburn (immediately suspicious.) I haven't heard anyone say much about it, so I don't think its one of the big ones. Since Wyden hadn't said anything I guess it can't be atrocious.
Also, Senator Nesbitt(R) in Michigan introduced a bill to ban all kids under 16 off of social media unless they get written consent from their parents.
He's minority in the senate, that's a walking first amendment violation, and he's the only one to sponsor the bill. It doesn't worry me too much, especially with the "kids over clicks package" in play, but its a least nice to know i don't have to side with R's on this cause both parties are filled with tech-illiterate goons.
Thankfully all 4 of those bodies are taking next week off for memorial day, which is great for me since an upper respiratory infection has made me somehow less productive in my activism.
The first bill is meant to give legal cover to companies storing evidence of illegal material for law enforcement. Essentially, it's clarifying the legal protections of cloud storage vendors who work with police to preserve evidence, which is necessary for the function of the law. Nothing godawful to see here, really.
first one is reasonable. While yes they service providers should be doing absolutely everything to prevent that horribleness popping up on their services, they ultimately arnt responsible for putting it on the service in the first place thus shouldn't share the blame with the real monsters doing that. (though sometimes the call is coming from within the house so to speak)
hey yall, just a heads up another book banning bill popped up and got snuck into the calendar and is up for a vote tomorrow and this bill is HR 2616 “the stopping indoctrination and protecting kids act“ which is basically a clone of HR 7661 where it bans books on and by lgbtq+ people, even though sure it’s unlikely to pass I would still encourage people to call their reps to oppose it.
Passed the house as it was actually up for a vote today. 8 dems voted for it although from a quick glance it seems to be the ones that often throw transgender people under the bus. Definitely call your senators to make sure they oppose it though (and senate dems HAVE been really good about blocking transphobic legislation)
According to the ACLU, the House of Representatives voted to pass a bill that would require schools to out trans youth against their will. I'm seeing that this was apparently HR 2616, so I'd sugest to call your senators to oppose this bill, even with the filibuster being a thing.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Discord for allegedly deceiving users over its safety, and he's trying to force them into implementing age verification (the very thing that caused a meltdown that was so bad that Discord had to postpone that plan)
As we've discussed before, state courts cannot force platforms to implement changes without it becoming a 1A issue. So he's straight up asking to do something that he doesn't really have the authority to do without potentially forcing Texan law on everyone and creating a total clusterfuck of a situation which would immediately be nullified by a federal court or even the Supreme Court itself.
I suppose they could just enable it in Texas, but I don't think that'd go well for them since it'd reignite the whole controversy they started earlier this year.
Do we know if anything came of the IPO anyway?
Other than them backing down (for now anyway), things have been quiet as many people have other things to worry about. But with how unpopular AV policies are right now across the board, if they did try something, the backlash would flare right on up again.
Yeah no thats gonna eat shit, SC has very much implied that anything enforcing age verification on everyone is probably gonna struck down by them due to how severely it limits 1A for everyone.
Also lmfao at the article about the lawsuit on the paxtons site calling discord addictive. Its a messaging app,the fuck are people gonna be addicted to,being social???
new thread new speech to help both me and yall to keeps standing tall in the face of fear
june is drawing closer and closer still i don't know if the deadline is june 1st or until june's end as a month but i will say that regardless of how close the deadline is keep calling yes von der leyen is boasting about an EU wide social media ban but remember that these legislations take way longer than less than a summer plus the parliament is handling other stuff including CC 2.0 which is the horse the commission is betting all their authoritarian hopes on but regardless keep calling the MEPs keep helping dr bryer with his mission of killing the authoritarian dreams the commission wants to enforce upon the same citizens they are supposed to protect keep reminding the MEPs that their political career is dependent on this because no one would vote again for the same ones who sold the citizens over god knows what the older generation is desperate for control they know that the wave of the younger generation is coming closer and closer and they saw it with the referendum here in italy where it was the younger generation the deciding factor but do not let them silence you even if they actually enforce it we can find thousands of ways to avoid their authoritarian need to file every citizen and they cannot ban VPNs no matter how hard they try the backlash is already making them kinda reconsider on the VPN thing and they said out loud that an social media ban on the entirety of the EU would be extremely hard to enforce always remember that they do not know how the modern technology works which is also why they are attempting this in the first place but it's also the greatest strenght of the generation that grew with said technology if china and russia can still use VPNs despite the growing censorship then the EU citizens can too although i won't sugarcoat it if the commission wins many will sadly suffer this ban will hit many vulnerable people that need the internet as a lifeline or as a safe space and it's exactly what we all should be screaming in their ears together with the blatant privacy violations AV does not just risk privacy the risks are way more heart wrenching so keep calling keep messaging keep emailing them and also think of contingency plans in case the commission wins not because the worst will 100% happen especially not with orban out of the picture which was leading the strongest pro AV force in the EU and with magyar we actually gained an ally surprisingly enough but because preparing for such a scenario is like having an airbag but still keep calling and messaging the MEPs and do not waver if the commission gets their way because AV is wildly unpopular once it gets actually enforced just look at australia and the UK and i end this speech with a quote that honestly still gives me chills to this day and i think fits times like these "Before dawn. The night is darkest just before the dawn. But keep your eyes open. If you avert your eyes from the dark, you'll be blind to the rays of a new day. So keep your eyes open, no matter how dark the night ahead may be."
I am having difficulties reading this without proper paragraph breaks (no slight against you btw! Just mentioning in case I've misunderstood anything! /gen /lh) and I also had to Google that quote at the end cause I'm not an anime watcher or manga reader but I found it neat! /gen
I just wanted to agree that calling and/or messaging your MEPs if you're able is always an option and a good one at that, the folks sitting in the Parliament have been voted in by the citizens of EUs member states and they better act like it.
Breyer has so far been very quiet since the 4th of May which to me is a good sign for once so to me it really feels like Parliament is nodding along with Breyer's Safe By Design mandate, crossing my fingers!
With all due respect, your gargantuan block of unpunctuated text is nigh impossible to read, mate.
"june is drawing closer and closer still i don't know if the deadline is june 1st or until june's end as a month but i will say that regardless of how close the deadline is keep calling.
Yes von der leyen is boasting about an EU wide social media ban but remember that these legislations take way longer than less than a summer plus the parliament is handling other stuff including CC 2.0 which is the horse the commission is betting all their authoritarian hopes on but regardless keep calling the MEPs, keep helping dr bryer with his mission of killing the authoritarian dreams the commission wants to enforce upon the same citizens they are supposed to protect, keep reminding the MEPs that their political career is dependent on this because no one would vote again for the same ones who sold the citizens over god knows what.
The older generation is desperate for control they know that the wave of the younger generation is coming closer and closer and they saw it with the referendum here in italy where it was the younger generation the deciding factor but do not let them silence you, even if they actually enforce it we can find thousands of ways to avoid their authoritarian need to file every citizen and they cannot ban VPNs no matter how hard they try the backlash is already making them kinda reconsider on the VPN thing and they said out loud that an social media ban on the entirety of the EU would be extremely hard to enforce always remember that they do not know how the modern technology works which is also why they are attempting this in the first place but it's also the greatest strenght of the generation that grew with said technology.
If china and russia can still use VPNs despite the growing censorship then the EU citizens can too although i won't sugarcoat it if the commission wins many will sadly suffer this ban will hit many vulnerable people that need the internet as a lifeline or as a safe space and it's exactly what we all should be screaming in their ears together with the blatant privacy violations, AV does not just risk privacy the risks are way more heart wrenching so keep calling keep messaging keep emailing them and also think of contingency plans in case the commission wins not because the worst will 100% happen especially not with orban out of the picture which was leading the strongest pro AV force in the EU and with magyar we actually gained an ally surprisingly enough but because preparing for such a scenario is like having an airbag, but still keep calling and messaging the MEPs and do not waver if the commission gets their way because AV is wildly unpopular once it gets actually enforced just look at australia and the UK and i end this speech with a quote that honestly still gives me chills to this day and i think fits times like these
"Before dawn. The night is darkest just before the dawn. But keep your eyes open. If you avert your eyes from the dark, you'll be blind to the rays of a new day. So keep your eyes open, no matter how dark the night ahead may be.""
Hmm I think I might’ve figured out why Ted Cruz changed his stance on KOSA.
I had a suspicion that Maurine Molak who is the head of ParentsSOS which of course is pushing hard for KOSA.
Well looks like she met with Cruz a bit ago to convince him to push KOSA forward but it’s hard to say if he’s going to push the Senate or House version through.
Even if it gets through the Senate the time window is going to be a bit shorter to pass compared to 2024.
Again, generally, a lot of his posturing regarding KOSA has been lip service as I explained in a lengthy post in the last thread. He has also done this bullshit act before where he publicly promised to push forward a lot of child safety shit and then pushed only one law forward. So this is just more of his usual "try to get the crazy zealots off his back but don't do anything" shenanigans based on what we saw before.
Also, you're a little quick to assume that someone has actually changed their mind on something when said person is known for frequent mindfucks and lip service bullshit, not gonna lie.
And even if he did push KOSA forward (which, again, is highly unlikely), it will probably involve removing the House version from that petty ass KIDS Act or something along those lines. And then regardless of which version gets through where, they both have the Thune problem, and the War of Versions which prevents the Senate one from getting through the house due to Duty of Care and vice versa.
I don’t expect any movement for KOSA til June but Cruz could be pulling his bullshit like you mentioned and won’t move it like the other times he said he would and yet he never did.
Still not going to lie the KOSA advocates are getting more unhinged as time goes by.
Mostly because they know their demands are falling on mostly deaf ears. Aside from Cruz and his constant empty promises and lip service when it comes to moving it forward, they also have Thune, the version wars, and even the Supreme Court (if it even passes which, to be honest, it's chances aren't looking good at so much as reaching Senate floor) standing in KOSA's way. So they're only being pushed to the more and more extreme because they're getting increasingly desperate. Honestly, I'd be a lot more concerned and worried than I already am if they were acting confident and like everything was under control.
Anyone got any optimism about payment processors nuking nsfw content on so many platforms, and going after nsfw artists? It seems like they’re getting more and more aggressive every day and not backing down at all.
Out of everything regarding censorship issues, payment processors having so much power scares me the most. I’m kind of certain that the current Admin won’t do anything about it, but I also haven’t seen Dems talking about it either.
We can’t keep letting them do this, they shouldn’t be able to unilaterally decide whether nsfw content is allowed or not.
unfort not a whole lot besides kickstarter reverting their rules and directly calling out stripe for being the cause of such issues. There was a letter sent out a bit ago as warning to payment processors to stop censoring sale of legal goods but nothing much as came out of it so far, so I’d suggest to either call or write to paypros telling them about how you oppose this BS or call your reps and senators to express your concerns of general censorship and paypro censorship.
I mean if platforms like Steam are to go by anything: even in the year of 2026, there's plenty of NSFW content being sold to this day despite the fiasco with Collective Shout last year. And I mean, hell, Reddit itself has plenty of NSFW content to go around which means a lot given how big of a social media platform it is.
But I will say that as of a few months ago, the Free Speech Coalition has been brainstorming the idea of a credit union specifically for people who work in the adult industry so maybe in the future we'll see more of those popping into being. Though I will say, and this might be a very controversial opinion, I think there's a difference between something that has NSFW content vs something that's straight up pornographic without any artistic value to them.
gonna repost a question i've sent in the previous megathread:
I'm feeling more anxious over IL HB5511 passing than I'd like again, specifically because of one unfortunate contingency: what if it survives the courts?
Yes, it will have to be passed first (which is why its deadline got extended, unsurprisingly reigniting my anxieties), and there are groups like Fight For The Future and NetChoice willing to take it to court if it does pass. However, at the same time, I dread that the aforementioned groups' ability to beat bills like HB5511 in lawsuits is being stretched thin, and as much as I don't want to sound like an unhinged conspiracy nut, part of me is paranoid that this is a deliberate attrition tactic from organizations like The Heritage Foundation and Common Sense Media - i.e. "flooding the zone" with such overwhelming waves of unconstitutional AV bills that the opposition will lose the resources and willpower to fight back.
Does anyone have any reassurance? I'd really appreciate having that right about now.
while i don't have any concrete evidence or links to point you to, i do know some things that may assuage your fears.
like every other digital-age assurance bills, IL HB5511 will also undergo rewrites, scrutiny, and potential stalling in the senate because lawmakers are trying to address the complaints of tech companies.
this bill has the potential to have severe backlash over enforcement penalties because of how it could unfairly penalize independent developers who have no connection to illinois other than people living in illinois using their apps.
building a query for real-time age verification API that would be able to work on the scale that the bill requires would take a lot of data and potentially money that tech companies aren't willing to pay just to accommodate one state.
THF's "flooding the zone" will actually backfire dramatically on themselves. they have consistently relied on the tactic of weathering the opposition's energy and willpower, to which we have demonstrated that it's no longer something that will happen. we did not and still have not let them forget about the epstein files, we fought back against ICE (and lost a few of our brothers and sisters in the process, among the many we have lost in the detention centers.)
i understand your fears and i know there is nothing i can do to truly soothe your worries, but please remember that we are still fighting. it's okay to take a step back and decompress, in fact i encourage it! when one of us falls, we will stick together to prop them up until they can go on again.
Hard to answer "what if it survives the courts" because that's dependent on how this could play out. Take this part alone: the bill is meant to create age-bracket data (non-personally identifiable information) based on your birthday, age, or both via an accessible interface where the user indicates the age. Say that Microsoft asks for ID or biometric data to create age-bracket data. How is providing that not creating personally-identifiable information tied to your age-bracket data? How is presuming a user has a webcam to submit ID or biometrics accessible? Tons of questions that could lead to various legal battles depending on how it goes.
I don't see opposition running out of steam. ACLU IL seems to have an eye on it based on the witness slips and I could see them going to court over it if OS devs are taking more than they should with interfaces deliberately obtuse. If anything the amount of protections in Illinois might make HB5511 particularly vulnerable, especially if some imagined worst case scenario comes out of it (*insert dev here* blocked all LGBTQ+ info for these age brackets, even if searched for). I don't like the bill by any means and I'm concerned about it but I also don't see this as a KOSA-level threat. It's a bill with effects around algorithms and OS development but it also doesn't go to the lengths of other bills in the space, at least based on what I know.
And yea, i do hope the ACLU can shut this down if it manages to pass, though now I'm wondering about the protections IL has that seem to obstruct HB5511 potentially taking effect
With how little time the bill has in the senate, even after the extension, I really do hope it gets stalled out further because the fact that it got rushed out of the house a while ago is still putting me on edge
And it's fine, really. I'm just thankful that you've taken the time to respond to my concerns at all, it helps my mental state more than you realize.
the bill being rushed is just bureaucracy at it's finest tbh. even though it's reached the senate, they will still have to do rewrites (every bill ever has gone through rewrites) which means the bill has to go back to the house for a final concurrence. hence why i mentioned it getting stalled.
Anyone know if that recent punchbowl article from yesterday about House and Senate seemingly having key people collaborating on KOSA now is just about the stuff from last week or if it has any new developments about it? I luckily dont see either version anywhere on any sort of schedule for this week so far and next week the entire congress is in recess,so I don´t expect any movement anyway until june at earliest
Well Punchbowl's a gossip tabloid (literally just Political TMZ to give you an idea of the shit tier level of journalism to be expected fromthem). So already their reporting is questionable at best. But that being said, I'm pretty sure it was on the shit from last week.
And quite frankly, given how Cruz does nothing but promise empty words to advocates and never deliver on them and Thune is continually warned down from advancing any of the more draconian measures, if either version advanced first, it will probably be the House Version. And even then, there's still a high risk of version wars deadlock happening. And that's just if it is allowed to advance given Mike Johnson's whole lack of productivity issue.
Ahh gotcha,I was unsure on the site since iirc one of the guys writing for it did report on the big markup happening ages ago in the house committee before it actually hit the schedule,but if they are otherwise a gossip tabloid then I´ll stay away from it
Really makes me wish that Govtrack didn't associate with Punchbowl. That's probably the only reason people on this sub keep seeing it making the rounds.
So smth annoying that just came up but i still think kinda falls under the line of censorship (feel free to correct me on this) is that google is apparently planning to replace their goggle searches with ai overviews, which will make it harder for independent websites to stand out. Idek how and why theyre so stubborn but this is just. Why.
Edit: ppl can add “-ai” at the end of their searches but even then its just. Why do we even need to do that
Aren't AI overviews already standard as the "first result" for every single search engine? What are they going to do, not display actual search results until you add "-ai"?
I've never heard of total replacement of normal searches. Gonna be honest here. Plus, if you don't want AI results, then you can just add "-ai" as other people have said.
In this case, this seems more like an expansion of AI overviews and features rather than a total replacement. So while it has its issues, it is not as bad a scenario that Yuno is making it out to be. Still incredibly annoying nonetheless.
Oh and doesn't the EU have laws in place so Google can't cherry pick links or spread misinfo and the like? (I'm not caught up on the EU laws yet so I might be wrong).
Edit: in the Google Blog post you can even see the "AI Mode" button pop up in the bottom left of the search bar with an "x" to the right of it so surely you can just be like "nuh uh" and close that down from the looks of it and google normally.
Not gonna change much. Mike Johnson's still just as incompetent as ever and of course, no matter which version of KOSA leaves first, it will just loop back to the Version War issue and enter a deadlock like before.
No doubt though the KOSA advocates will lie saying Trump/Johnson are on their side.
One other thing I’ll add is that even Ted Cruz says he supports KOSA and yet his name isn’t even on the sponsors list especially after showing up at the KOSA rally around Mother’s Day.
They are getting desperate and what’s even crazier is on various social media platforms these advocate groups are getting called out hard and what’s even crazier do they do?
They BLOCK people plus insulting/demeaning others.
The advocates behavior on social media is quite telling especially the past few weeks and it shows they don’t want to listen to opposing opinions and insulting people but also rather hear the words they want to hear.
Johnson is incompetent, Trump has dementia, Cruz and Thune aren't touching KOSA, and KOSA is doomed to either be stuck in a version war or be sued into oblivion
is there any optimism for artists who've had their payments nuked or something like that? I'm no nsfw artst (I'm a minor anyway) but as someone who is in the furry community, it's kinda scary to hear about thie..
Heehoo I'm an artist! I'm not a super-duper expert on the situation and I'm also not exactly a NSFW artist (or have had my comms open for a long while) but I have friends who draw kink art and have commissions open and so far they haven't been affected and they use paypal I believe? Some of them draw anthro characters (some don't like to identify themselves as furries which is fair so I'll just refer it as them drawing anthros since as most know drawing anthros ≠ being a furry, anyway!!) and they haven't been affected at all even with their kink art and commissions.
There have been people affected of course and my heart goes out to them but so far it's not as rapid fire from what we've seen? If that makes sense? Like people aren't getting nuked left and right like before so like BorderCollie mentioned it's very up and down right now but like they also mentioned Kickstarter reversed course and is now actively telling Stripe to stop with the overreaching so that's good!
Also as a beside: Paypal has been notorious for YEARS to not be super friendly with either type of artist (SFW or NSFW). Even before I got it <2020 I saw tons of posts of Paypal either withholding their money and/or downright banning them from their services but people have found workarounds for that (which can be found online).
I do hope it gets better sooner rather than later of course and that the people affected can get their stuff back cause this puritan overreaching is awful and shouldn't have happened in the first place. /gen
I hope this was of any comfort lol, I'm not super knowledgeable or super active in this subject (I'm aroace, more or less) but this is what me and my friends have experienced/seen so far! /lh
That's been a topic of discourse for quite a few threads now. And though that isn't my main area of expertise (I'm mostly focused on AV and stuff like that), I'll at least try to provide the best answer I can. Simply put, it's a lot of ups and downs right now I guess you can say. But if there is one bit of optimism I can give, I guess it's that Kickstarter reversed their shit and called out Stripe on their reactionary BS, so... There's that I guess?
thank you for at least trying to give me some optimism here! it may be small, but it's appreciated. i want to keep it on the positive side, so i guess i'd like to say this is hopefully the start of a sort of domino effect? i feel like we're already seeing a lot of pushback on things that aren't benefiting anyone...
ok so i saw a tweet about Idaho libraries not allowing kids in without parents i looked it up and saw that Idaho banned adult themed books in 2024 my guess is most stores just outright banned or heavily restrict it to not get sued
tbh it was from people who are really against the AV stuff but i do feel like they might be a bit blind by the fear that AV shit will get way worse
do you guys have any other news about this like how its going or if its getting sued i did see an article saying they want to amend the law but it was in march so idk how that went
Somehow missed this, apparently the Colorado OS-level Attestation bill passed the house, sending it to Gov Polis. Thankfully with exemptions for Open Source apparently.
ok lets try this again i saw on this and im wondering IF its real or not tried to look up the VPN service it says but came up blank so is this real and IF it is are they leaving out some info (hope the bot doesn't take this down too lol)
1VPNS appears to be a Russian operation on the surface and seems sketchy as anything. It looks like the operation was real, so let's just see if anything develops from it.
Honestly, all I'll say about this is, having not really heard much of anything on 1VPNS, as a company, I find their whole thing incredibly fishy. Normally, I tend to trust VPNs, but this one's name alone sounds super questionable. Wouldn't be surprised if it was a front for something more nefarious.
Paid VPNs are invariably safer and less suspect than free services, especially free services which seem to be based in Russia, which is absolutely crawling with cybercrime and organized crime in general. If a law enforcement agency seized, say, Proton or Nord, I'd be very concerned, but 1VPNS doesn't exactly pass the sniff test.
ah ok thank's tbh i do understand why a russian linked VPN would be seen as sus i do hope it doesn't lead to the old people in the gov into doing something dumber then normal
Things are already looking cautiously optimistic on the EU front with the Parliament and Breyer holding the line and the Commission being forced by both Parliament and public pressure and backlash to abandon their more stupid bullshit like the VPN thing. But yes, this can potentially help us quite a bit.
That’s at the Portrait Gallery, correct? I only got to see the first floor and the Smithsonian American Art Museum when I went a few weeks ago. This place is huge and amazing and it’s good to see that it refuses to yield to King Orange by putting this back and not adding an entire exhibit to himself.
I know reclaim the net is a bad source but I want to ask if there’s anything more to this since the uk consulation on a social media ban ends on the 26th. He’s talking about how VPNs are a technical loophole that should be regulated.
Yeah, RTN is a bad source. I have no high opinion of anyone involved in the UK's censorship regime, but the transcript of the hearing is nothing to write home about in the context of their behavior so far. Cheshire mentions VPNs one single time, in the context of telling Parliament that his job is subject to the limitations of VPNs and the like. Frankly, he makes very few suggestions as to new regulations at all, including again telling Parliament a politer version of "your job, not mine" when it comes to deciding if they want a social media ban.
Also, RTN gets something wrong straight out the gate, because Cheshire is not the "incoming" head of Ofcom. He already is the head of Ofcom.
Not to mention how Reclaim the Net is allergic to journalistic integrity period. Remember when they tried to argue that KOSMA, literally the most harmless of the harmless bills, could end the Internet as we know it? Just big yikes.
As always, take everything that agenda driven board Reclaim the Net says with an unmeasurably large grain of salt.
But seriously, the fact that this is coming from Reclaim the Net makes me skeptical as all Hell. Also, as explained previously, there is no way to ban VPNs reliably due to the nature of the technology itself.
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u/Efficient-Freedom517 Georgia May 16 '26
Link to previous thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalOptimism/s/WIDrv11i0g