The Internet Is About to Get a Lot Worse (US focused)
The Internet Is About to Get a Lot Worse (US focused)
We've all watched in horror as red states have banned books in schools and libraries. We've seen teachers fired merely for reading a book about gender...
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/2628014
Charlie Jane Anders discusses KOSA (the Kids Online Safety Act).
If you're in the US, https://www.stopkosa.com/ makes it easy to contact your Senators and ask them to oppose KOSA.
"A new bill called the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, is sailing towards passage in the Senate with bipartisa>n support. Among other things, this bill would give the attorney general of every state, including red states, the right to sue Internet platforms if they allow any content that is deemed harmful to minors. This clause is so vaguely defined that attorneys general can absolutely claim that queer content violates it — and they don't even need to win these lawsuits in order to prevail. They might not even need to file a lawsuit, in fact. The mere threat of an expensive, grueling legal battle will be enough to make almost every Internet platform begin to scrub anything related to queer people.
The right wing Heritage Foundation has already stated publicly that the GOP will use this provision to remove any discussions of trans or queer lives from the Internet. They're salivating over the prospect.
And yep, I did say this bill has bipartisan support. Many Democrats have already signed on as co-sponsors. And President Joe Biden has urged lawmakers to pass this bill in the strongest possible terms."
we are fuckin fuckity fucked holy
this is honestly scary
they'll be in a lot of physical danger if we can't occupy ourselves on the Internet.
Goddamn it's tiring, this incessant race to the bottom
That's why it's important to vote.
Both Dems and Reps support this
Even Biden wants to sign off on this right away
It's really disheartening to see this. But it's still worth voting, because only if Republicans have power can they use this to remove all evidence of LGBTQ+ people from the internet, and only Republicans want to use it this way.
Vote for the rich! They always have poor people’s best interests in mind. The solution to our problems is more rich people. Surely they won’t fuck us. Why would they ever do that?
This was always the end result of all that TikTok fear mongering
Blech, I'm visiting the states right now and I'm planning to get out of here again because it's so conservative, and all my friends here are like: "What are you talking about? This country is so progressive." Pppffff, this country is progressive in the way new coke was progressive. Nothing much changed, the things that did change were worse, and then they walked it back.
So did you like new coke or not?
Okay, I looked it up, coke had quietly changed sugar to corn syrup before introducing new coke and then when they went back to Coke classic, they just kept using corn syrup instead of real sugar. So classic Coke isn't actually classic coke it was retro branded newer coke.
I can't even remember, I just liked the analogy, although I feel like I remember reading an article about how all Coke today is actually new coke because when they went back to classic coke they didn't actually go back to the classic formula, They just said they did but still changed some ingredients.
As far as I can recall, "new coke" tasted more like Pepsi? Sweeter. Did you try it?
I filled the form out at the stopkosa site and it bounced back because it was sent to an unmonitored mailbox lol
Perhaps it is fixed now, I received a response about my submission and how to share it with friends.
America on its way to how internet is regulated in thicker authoritarian countries at the hands of extremists in political office and essentially people who don't vote. Should be a "shaking hands" meme.
The real issue here isn't the internet...
The real issue is that this creates a new weapon of mass distraction that both Dems and reps can and will use against their opposition in the political fuck fuck games of the future.
Might be reps are gonna jump on it to go after the alphabet soup kids today (no objection to there being an acronym, but fucking pick one...), but invariably, the people who are bitching about how this will be weaponised by "the other guys" are 100% within a decade going to be firing rounds off using the exact same gun and think it's totally ok suddenly because the other guys are the target.
They probably already know what they'll be shooting at with it, because both sides are supporting it.
Indeed. I have a feeling it'll be used to basically sanitize what we're allowed to see, furthering the assholes' control over the American people. If this passes, VPNs and encryption will be right around the corner, because now they're 'circumvention' devices kids and 'bad actors' use to skirt the law.
They probably already know what they’ll be shooting at with it, because both sides are supporting it.
People that show any signs of class solidarity.
as an aside, there might not be much fuck fuck after KOSA gets enacted. won't somebody please think of the children!
Hehe I'm in danger!
If they try to take the porn, they’ll never get elected again.
Both major parties support this bill. Someone's getting elected unless the autocracy party gets its way.
It's a wishful dream, but a third party getting elected because the Republicans and Democrats tried to take away porn would be hilarious
I filled the form out at the stopkosa site and it bounced back because it was sent to an unmonitored mailbox lol