I just don’t understand it. The internet exists. Anything your kid could find in a library is on the internet in much more extreme, unvetted forms. And unless you want to go Amish it’s going to be near impossible to keep them in a bubble. Besides the free speech hypocrisy a lot of them follow it just seems like such a waste of time.
They’ve been attacking the internet since at least 2011! (Arguably - even DMCA can be considered an online censorship bill, given how it’s wielded.)
In 2011, they tried Stop Online Piracy Act which would have ended privacy on the internet, silenced free speech, and made it easier to punish those who host it. It didn’t pass, but that hasn’t stopped them.
After many attempts, in 2018, FOSTA-SESTA passed, and as a result, it eroded section 230 safe harbor provisions, killing off Craigslist missed connections (and a number of other sites, too), choked off access to banking for online sex workers, and reduced the number of tools law enforcement could use to find and rescue victims of sex trafficking.
More recently, Kids Online Safety Act passed, but seems to be floundering before being sent to the president to sign. Under the guise of ‘protecting children’, this bill legalizes internet censorship, by allowing the FTC to determine what content is deemed harmful to children. Which can include information they may need to navigate the complex realities of growing up in a challenging world in changing bodies.
I just don’t understand it. The internet exists. Anything your kid could find in a library is on the internet in much more extreme, unvetted forms. And unless you want to go Amish it’s going to be near impossible to keep them in a bubble. Besides the free speech hypocrisy a lot of them follow it just seems like such a waste of time.
Don’t assume it stops with books, unless we stand up to them and stop it.
They’ve been attacking the internet since at least 2011! (Arguably - even DMCA can be considered an online censorship bill, given how it’s wielded.)
In 2011, they tried Stop Online Piracy Act which would have ended privacy on the internet, silenced free speech, and made it easier to punish those who host it. It didn’t pass, but that hasn’t stopped them.
After many attempts, in 2018, FOSTA-SESTA passed, and as a result, it eroded section 230 safe harbor provisions, killing off Craigslist missed connections (and a number of other sites, too), choked off access to banking for online sex workers, and reduced the number of tools law enforcement could use to find and rescue victims of sex trafficking.
More recently, Kids Online Safety Act passed, but seems to be floundering before being sent to the president to sign. Under the guise of ‘protecting children’, this bill legalizes internet censorship, by allowing the FTC to determine what content is deemed harmful to children. Which can include information they may need to navigate the complex realities of growing up in a challenging world in changing bodies.