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."

  • spez
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    2 years ago

    I don’t know how American voters can stand for this, how can you re-elect people who cause your children to get shot in schools and believe the same people have set out to protect them with things like these?

    • @[email protected]
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      62 years ago

      Because Americans are hateful racists who care more about taking away from you than helping their community. Own the libs!

      • spez
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        112 years ago

        that’s just generalization, a racist’s most powerful tool.

      • @[email protected]
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        92 years ago

        The majority demonstrably are not. We have a horribly broken electoral system that gives outsize power to the fascists.

    • BlinkerFluid
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      12 years ago

      Our votes don’t actually matter in the grand scheme of things.

      by design

    • Dion Starfire
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      222 years ago

      Because the way voting works in the US is based on assumptions from the days when getting all the votes together to tally them would have been a logistical nightmare. Instead of counting everyone’s vote individually, the map is divided into regions. Each region tallies up their votes, and then one single vote is counted for that entire region based on the majority vote from that region. Those regional votes are tallied, and the majority winner of the regions gets the win. By drawing the regions correctly (a process called gerrymandering), you can put the majority of one party’s voters into a small handful of regions, so all of them only count as a handful of regional votes while making sure the rest of the regions are drawn to give the other party a 51%+ majority. As a result, it’s possible to have a candidate that would garner less than 50% of the individual votes win a landslide of over 75% of the regional votes.

    • @[email protected]
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      32 years ago

      A third or so of the country believes the right wing propaganda machine that has been churning for decades.

      For everyone else, we’re constantly offered a choice between a center-right neoliberal, or an outright fascist. We’re just voting for how fast the country falls.

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      We don’t, enough of the US is gerrymandered as fuck and we use first past the post voting so most of us are voting to get a plurality for the guy other than the one we hate more, and that’s if your even interested in politics here. The whole system is fucked and corrupt.

      Edit: oh yea and the electoral college fucks us too.

      • spez
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        22 years ago

        Yeah, quite a bad system of voting. I hope my country moves away from that.

    • @[email protected]
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      242 years ago

      A lot of them are really stupid hateful racists. They are figuratively and literally shooting themselves in the foot.

  • M68040 [they/them]
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    2 years ago

    I hang around a bunch of artists who make money through NSFW art…or shit, they just draw it for fun. This isn’t gonna be great for them. Why should me and my friends’ thirty year old asses have to hold back so Little Timmy doesn’t see a boob or something? Shouldn’t their parents be the ones making sure that doesn’t happen?

  • drifty
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    42 years ago

    I am not an American and I couldn’t care less about their laws or the people in power. Why is content here so focused on the US anyway?

    • @[email protected]
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      52 years ago

      Because you’ll be effected by this too. That’s the reason. The internet is full of platforms that are related to the USA in some way, and because of this all of them will have to heavily censor themselves or shut down.

      I feel you. I don’t want to have to do anything with the USA. I don’t even want to go there at all. As far as it doesn’t hurt anyone outside I don’t care what they do. But here we are.

    • @[email protected]
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      122 years ago

      In this case, sites could make content unavailable to everyone to make sure Americans using VPNs don’t see it.

    • The Doctor
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      32 years ago

      The US likes to throw its weight around. Today it’s websites inside the US the tighty righties are afraid of. Tomorrow it might be one of yours; just like the GDPR has caused a lot of USian websites to be even more annoying, USian legislation might do it to non-USian websites next.

  • @[email protected]
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    152 years ago

    How is this line up with ‘liberty’? The US gov can’t stop intruding into the private sphere.

    • @[email protected]
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      92 years ago

      Funny how you did the same thing though, get rid of the guns “for the children” after your tirade about the government restricting freedom under that banner. It’s OK when you do it, but not them.

      I see the both the same, bullshit appeal-to-emotion power grabs to reduce the freedom of the citizenry. The “get rid of guns” talk is bullshit because that is just not a possible thing to ever accomplish.

    • M68040 [they/them]
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      2 years ago

      Shit, third spaces and public squares would also still be a lot more of a thing if anyone cared about the children. The situation with hostile architecture just makes things worse for everyone. People out there trying to invent ultrasonic devices meant to deter teenagers from hanging around and shit.

      I ended up a terminally online washout in part because there was fuck all to do aside from sitting around the house and going to school when I was a kid. That was 20 years ago. I can’t imagine the situation is much better these days.

  • @[email protected]
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    842 years ago

    The internet is about to move to the rest of the world if this passes, no one will host a web server in the US after this.

    • @[email protected]
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      262 years ago

      The problem is where? The EU is trying to apply similar censorship via the DSA, Russia we all know is LGBTphobic and not truly for free speech, Canada is a joke, and China is lol. Not even sure if Japan is viable.

        • @[email protected]
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          192 years ago

          Didn’t a lesbian kiss get edited out of Star Wars Rise of Skywalker for the Chinese release? Just as one example

        • @[email protected]
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          152 years ago

          Seems pretty clear from context, China is an autocratic state well known to engage in censorship when it fits the party’s desires.

          • Awoo [she/her]
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            2 years ago

            And that has affected you outside China operating a server based there when?

              • Awoo [she/her]
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                122 years ago

                What don’t you understand about it? How has it ever affected you? Can you name a single time it has?

                China does not care unless you live within its borders, and even there it only really cares when it is someone of influence, such as the rich capital owners or the celebrities.

                • @[email protected]
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                  42 years ago

                  I just didn’t understand the way your question was worded because it was garbled. I don’t have any reason to host a data server and I don’t live in China, so you got me, I’ve never been personally impacted by Chinese government censorship and repression. Obviously that means it doesn’t exist, QED.

                  But oh, as long as I make sure not to upset anyone rich or in power I would be fine, don’t worry. Do you ever read what you type?

          • GaveUp [she/her]
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            282 years ago

            And which governments don’t engage in censorship when it fits their desires lol

            • @[email protected]
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              172 years ago

              Your whataboutism isn’t really useful here, I’m just responding to the question about China. The point of his response was that there isn’t really any place left to go. And even if your response was relevant it would be laughable, the censorship that the Chinese government perpetrates puts most other countries to shame.

                • @[email protected]
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                  72 years ago

                  Your reading comprehension is pretty low. My original comment was specifically in response to another individual questioning why the idea of hosting servers in China to escape censorship was “lol”. That’s it.

                • @[email protected]
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                  2 years ago

                  I mean, you are a tankie. You sub to hexbear. China isn’t an autocratic state hahaha okayyyyy surrrrre. Just a single party “democracy” right?

            • @[email protected]
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              42 years ago

              Which is his point,right? Like where else would you go to host if all governments engage in this BS

              • GaveUp [she/her]
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                2 years ago

                The arguments presented are so terrible and devoid of any meaninful substance

                The first one was “China lol”

                Then the one I replied to in support of “China lol” said “autocratic state” which is absolutely false unless all of your knowledge about China’s governance system comes from reading CNN headlines and skimming Reuters articles written by a dude with a bachelor’s in journalism that doesn’t speak Chinese

                They also said “well known to” which implies it’s a special case when every state exerts overwhelming control and censorship over the media that occurs within their country

                • @[email protected]
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                  12 years ago

                  Isn’t the CCP given explicit power and privilege in the Chinese government and isn’t the CCP’s officially headed by a permanent leader as it’s “core”? I’ve been trying read about the political structure and it’s hard to not argue that it seems very autocratic.

      • @[email protected]
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        2 years ago

        I’m sure tech company’s could just stick their servers in the Virgin Islands or some other fucking tax haven.

      • @[email protected]
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        52 years ago

        There’s some wisdom in the old soviet anecdote

        There’s freedom of speech in the USSR: In the USA, you can stand in front of the White House in Washington, DC, and yell, “Down with Ronald Reagan,” and you will not be punished. Equally, you can also stand in Red Square in Moscow and yell, “Down with Ronald Reagan,” and you will not be punished.

        The Internet is still mostly connected, the law enforcement is not as much. Many businesses exist only because of this. You are free to host (produce, store, distribute) your content where it is legal and access it from where it is not. Access to foreign resources may eventually be outlawed or the access itself restricted. This is already the case in EU, Russia, China, etc. - but for now Internet is mostly connected.

      • @[email protected]
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        72 years ago

        In what way is Canada a joke? Like, I’m not saying it isn’t, but our online freedom is pretty good. We don’t actually have a state sponsored censorship campaign, VPNs are legal, TOR is legal, all we legislate is that you aren’t inciting violence or calling for the extermination of a protected group of people or doing shady dark web shit. Pretty much everything else is good to go.

        • @[email protected]
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          2 years ago

          In the way that there are MAGAs up north. Like, come on bois, there’s no need for that shit.

    • Sleazy_Albanese [comrade/them]
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      552 years ago

      which, considering that the U.S considers accessing a server based in the U.S grounds to extradite a person from the otherside of the world and try them for a capital crime might not be such a bad thing.

    • @[email protected]
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      42 years ago

      It is why more need to support the decentralized movement as then there is not centralized group you can choke to get your draconian ways.

      • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]
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        102 years ago

        Damn had to call both my senators. I always hate calling because I have no doubt that it wont do anything.

        • The Nexus of PrivacyOP
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          62 years ago

          Thanks for making the effort! On bills like this, enough pressure can make a difference – we stopped KOSA from passing last year, and have a good chance this year as well.

      • Adkml [he/him]
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        92 years ago

        God in a campaign defined by hilarious self inflicted pratt falls I can’t believe they slapped Tim Karnes dumbass into Hillary vp slot.

        And then tried to whitewash him as “your boring uncle (please don’t look into any of his actual policy positions)”

        • The Nexus of PrivacyOP
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          172 years ago

          That’s disappointing … but, enough pressure can get them to change their position (or, almost as good, ask Schumer not to bring the bill to the floor so that they don’t have to take a politically costly vote). In the Senate Commerce Committee hearing, both Cantwell and Markey voted yes but said they had gotten a lot of calls and email from constituents who were concerned about the impact on LGBTQ+ teens so there was work to do before bringing the bill to the floor … so the pressure is definitely getting noticed!

          • @[email protected]
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            2 years ago

            One of my senators in on this list. His replies when a constituent disagrees with him are always a dismissal. The other senator who isn’t on there is Ted Cruz…

      • @[email protected]
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        62 years ago

        Somehow neither of my senators customers cosponsored, but I’m guessing they’ll both sign. We passed someone similar in my state recently, so I’m not expecting much.

        I’ll contact them though. I guess it can’t hurt.

  • nicktron
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    1522 years ago

    More of them “freedoms” that you yanks are always going on about?

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      No, no, it’s “free dumbs”. As in, they were giving away stupidity for free, so we each took as much as we could carry.

    • The Doctor
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      22 years ago

      Pretty much. Just don’t post how much oil your home country has.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 years ago

        Hey now, American kids love oil and it’s good for them. They should rewrite the bill to remove all content that isn’t about oil. Not avocado oil or malarkey like that though. That stuff is bad news, unlike petroleum oil. They may call it crude but we gotta make sure the kids know crude means good. The more crude the healthier the babies, that’s what I always say.

    • Fazoo
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      422 years ago

      Experiencing a protracted regression of sanity, similar to Brexit.

  • Bizarroland
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    382 years ago

    I don’t know if I’m in the right here but I’m practically at the point where I’m just like fuck it, let them ruin the internet.

    I want to hear them scream when because of their own actions they have tanked the companies that their retirements are depending on.

    Let’s see how fast they can fix shit when they have 35 million angry retirees that hold 78% of the wealth in the country mad at them and telling them to fix it.

    • @[email protected]
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      72 years ago

      I wish the “Dark Web” hadn’t turned into shit show, Just looking into it now gets you onto some fuckin watch list but it would have been a perfectly viable place to set up a proper censorship-free web. It also takes care of the user-quality issue by being slightly harder to use than a button that says “INSTALL APP NOW!”

      • Bizarroland
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        52 years ago

        It’s gotten so the “dark web” is any website that doesn’t show up on page 1 of a Google search result.

        It’s all bullshit and they’ll keep shoveling it as long as they have arms to shovel with

    • Skull giver
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      602 years ago

      These people make money through investments in oil and broad ranges of stocks. They’re not going bankrupt and the people voting for them won’t hold them accountable. Even if they do go broke, their corporate friends will help them out of the hole. In fact, they can use their position to short internet company stock ahead of expected action and get rich off their own dickishness.

      They’ll be in office until they’re dead or dying and they still have got plenty of time. They want you to be tired of resisting, that’s how they win. Don’t let them!

      • @[email protected]
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        92 years ago

        They’ll be in office until they’re dead or dying

        Only if they die of old age. If they are found dead before then, the wait could be much, much shorter. After all, aren’t the conservatives (like Matt “child-fucker” Gaetz) openly calling for wide-spread violence now?