Summary

The Supreme Court’s hearing of Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton signals potential limits on First Amendment protections for online pornography.

The case involves a Texas law mandating age verification for websites with “sexual material harmful to minors,” challenging the 2004 Ashcroft v. ACLU precedent, which struck down similar laws under strict scrutiny.

Justices, citing the inadequacy of modern filtering tools, seemed inclined to weaken free speech protections, exploring standards like intermediate scrutiny.

The ruling could reshape online speech regulations, leaving adults’ access to sexual content uncertain while tightening restrictions for minors.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    17
    edit-2
    4 hours ago

    If we’re banning content harmful to children why dont we start with Capitalist propoganda and religious indoctrination :3

  • @asteriskeverything
    link
    265 hours ago

    The vague threat of “think of the children maybe being exposed to sexual things” challenging our first amendment right but it becomes some huge debate if a woman is being harassed/stalked/threatened online.

    **they are justififying destroying our rights for their feelings **

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    125 hours ago

    Free speech for pornographers, but instant IP/device ID ban if you criticise Israel online.

  • @esc27
    link
    378 hours ago

    So we can ban content that is claimed to be harmful to minors but not weapons that actually kill children…

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      8
      edit-2
      3 hours ago

      Even in terms of speech, it’s ridiculous to claim that boobs are more harmful than a social media diet of assholes claiming women or racial minorities aren’t people.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      35 hours ago

      Close your eyes for just a moment and imagine the scales of Justice.

      Imagine white kids on one side and brown kids on the other.

      Why aren’t the scales balanced?

    • masterofn001
      link
      fedilink
      25 hours ago

      Might as well just turn off the internet if they are this concerned about harmful content.

  • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️
    link
    9510 hours ago

    Notice how we’re already asking past the sale with the tacit labeling of “sexual material harmful to minors,” with the presupposed declaration that sexual material is automatically harmful to minors.

    The all-consuming mission to look at boobies is essentially universal for all pubescent boys from about 12 all the way to the age of majority. This is well known, and none of us came off any the worse despite widespread availability of older brothers’ back issues of Hustler, Usenet, dial-up BBS systems, and ultimately the world wide web.

    If teens weren’t naturally interested in sex where wouldn’t been all them teenage pregnancies. Q.E.D.

    • circuitfarmer
      link
      fedilink
      128 hours ago

      This is an excellent observation.

      We now no longer have the debate over whether or not this content is necessarily harmful to minors. It’s now automatically bad, and the new framing is: shouldn’t we ban bad things?

      Should expect more of this kind of newspeak/doublespeak as the Trump years continue.

    • TimeSquirrel
      link
      fedilink
      2010 hours ago

      Just saying, the shit you can find on the Internet does not come even close to what Hustler was. There is instant access to all kinds of weird and fucked fetish shit that just wasn’t accessible in the 90s and earlier.

      • @Cort
        link
        178 hours ago

        Bizarre fetish shit was very much available in the 90s and earlier. It just wasn’t in hustler or playboy.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        88 hours ago

        There’s a vid on archive.org of the Spice Channel that must have been off someone’s VHS tape. It flickers a lot and is barely watchable, but I was curious what we were all missing back then.

        Turns out, way more softcore than I was expecting. Slightly more hardcore than Skinamax at the time, but not by much.

  • @reddig33
    link
    359 hours ago

    Get ready for the slippery slope. Anything conservatives don’t want you to see or read will be placed behind an “identify yourself” firewall.

  • Nougat
    link
    fedilink
    5510 hours ago

    Define “sexual material.” What about the minors who get sexual gratification from Linux installation media repository mirrors?

  • @danc4498
    link
    English
    5811 hours ago

    It’s just the first amendment.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1710 hours ago

      Freedom of speech is so important it is literally the first thing they remembered to add in.

      • @danc4498
        link
        English
        1610 hours ago

        They didn’t even mention individuals having the rights to own guns, but god damn they had to add that one to the second amendment through the courts.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          14 hours ago

          “A well regulated militia”

          Back then that meant a gun group with regular training, any civillian in the militia could also own guns for private use

          • @Chip_Rat
            link
            04 hours ago

            Can you explain your position? Honest question, because if I just take your post “Militias are armed citizens” I can use logic to know that to be false. Militia can be comprised of armed citizens, but armed citizens are not militia…

            A log cabin is made of logs, but a log isnt a cabin?

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              04 hours ago

              Can you explain your position?

              Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary’ - Karl Marx

              • @Chip_Rat
                link
                34 hours ago

                I had no idea Karl Marx was an author of the constitution of the United States! Wow! Thanks!

    • Flying Squid
      link
      09 hours ago

      I mean we’ve got plenty of others.

  • @minnow
    link
    2910 hours ago

    What’s taught in schools: the parents should have a say! Don’t let the government decide what to teach our kids!

    Books in libraries and content on the internet: the government must step in and make certain content illegal!

    Of course, fascists don’t care if they’re hypocritical. They say whatever gives them the most power in any situation, so calling out hypocrisy won’t stop them. It’s still good to do, though.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1610 hours ago

    some republicants cheering for the scotus ruling today will be scrambling to try to legislate around it tomorrow… because their porn habits will get hacked and released.

  • Omega
    link
    99 hours ago

    Soon they’ll make sexual partners register with the state or straight up make premarital sex illegal. And anyone found breaking the law (i.e. women getting pregnant) will go to jail.

    • d00phy
      link
      English
      68 hours ago

      … will go to jail and be forced to carry the pregnancy to term, be billed for delivery services, and raise the kid on her own. Nothing screams “stable childhood” like the government forcing your kid on you as punishment for getting pregnant.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        45 hours ago

        And then soon after CPS will be called and they’ll take away the kid and I don’t even want to think about where they’ll send them.

    • @Fades
      link
      5
      edit-2
      4 hours ago

      Stop posting this brain dead take on every post about this topic. Neither of your posts have any value.

      What the fuck does a porn site gaining a “more official standing” (read: jumps through some random government hoops) do for American citizen’s privacy?

      What about every other porn site that doesn’t operate in the US? This shit is unenforceable and only HURTS the “more official” sites by limiting their users limiting the reach of their models etc.

      If you would just open your eyes for one second and get that boot out of your mouth you would see this shit only helps the government control us and what we access, without keeping a single child safe.

    • @SkyezOpen
      link
      126 hours ago

      For every “legal” porn site that abides by these laws there’s 10 that don’t give a fuck and aren’t even in the US. Porn id laws won’t change anything.

        • FuglyDuck
          link
          English
          65 hours ago

          The law isn’t about protecting children from porn.

          The law is about creating a user database where they can then see who’s looking at LGBTQ+ material and targeting them, while also imposing their religious prudishness on everyone else.