Conservative efforts to invalidate trans ID documents, coupled with age-verification laws, could block trans people large parts of the internet.
Platforms from Discord to Bluesky to adult sites are increasingly reliant on valid IDs for age-verification — and thus access.
Right-wing politicians spent the past three years using age-verification to block access to legal adult sites that a) ban deepfakes b) require consent and c) verify performer age.
All while pushing AV exemptions for right-aligned platforms like 4chan and X.
Republicans are using kids as a smokescreen for what Big Tech lobbyists want: a national surveillance program to harvest our data with zero protections for people and their privacy.
We must fight this dangerous expansion of surveillance technology.
I talked to @morgansung.bsky.social about sex work, surveillance, & censorship for close all tabs from kqed!
www.kqed.org/news/12075321
Headline from UnHerd: "UK ban on extreme porn is not anti-freedom"
Labelling someone else's consensual sexuality "extreme" is a time-honored way of limiting sexual freedom and policing sexual practice.
It's been repeatedly used by the state to patrol sex workers, queers, trans people, people of color and kinksters.
Always in the name of protecting society.
"The KIDS Act is being used as a smokescreen for everything Big Tech lobbyist want, which is a national surveillance program where they can harvest the personal and private data of every American, with zero actual protections."
"Stripping anonymity from the internet would constitute one of the most sweeping rollbacks of civil rights in recent history. It would allow for unprecedented levels of mass surveillance and censorship, endangering the most marginalized members of society."
Additionally what so many of the "No one's talking on Bluesky" people are actually saying is "I am lost and confused when there's not an algorithm to shove content into my eyeballs with no effort on my part"
When we talk about Baby Boomers not getting off the stage: In 1997, the US president was born in 1946.
In 2007, the US president was born in 1946.
In 2017, the US president was born in 1946.
And next year in 2027? The US president will have been born in 1946.
1908: the Lancet, one of the most respected scientific journals, calls for 18 age limit on reading in bed amidst a moral panic surrounding children becoming "addicted" to novels, which were "designed to keep kids hooked" and destroy their attention/mental health
I'm going to take another swing at promo for Lovingly Handmade Pornography here, using @lhp-updates.bsky.social I make great porn, but am not-so-great at self-promotion. 🤷♂️
Things automated video stabilization software struggles with: a person standing between two chains holding onto them. The chains look like a high-contrast large stable thing to the software, so when the person shakes them, Things Happen to otherwise pretty stable footage. 😵💫🤢
“Please note the legislature did not include a grace period”
Effective immediately, Kansas begins criminalizing trans existence
The politics of age-verification aside, Apple already is collecting the data.
Communicating that a visitor under 18 — without sharing data — would allow sites to block minors without requiring invasive facial scans and ID uploads every time they open a browser tab.
Apple is rolling out on-device age-verification, using data they largely already have access to, to let an app know if a user is over or under 18.
Adult websites have requested this information to help block underage visitors.
But Apple is refusing to share it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NChZ... 😍 (hat/tip @racebannon.bsky.social )
I think I will spend less time working around Python silliness if I literally write my own replacement for this entire fucking library in Ruby. 😑
BRB grabbing my passport so I can check out One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
Yay thank you!!
Also my goodness the one (D) sponsor of SB130 is… something. 😳
"Websites cannot reliably determine whether a VPN user is in Wisconsin. So, to avoid liability, websites are faced with an unfortunate choice: either resort to blocking IP addresses associated with VPNs, block all Wisconsin users’ access, or mandate nationwide restrictions just to avoid liability."
Blue-sky wishes: an informed electorate. ❤️🩹
There are plenty of harms happening, but not the can't-argue-it-with-a-straight-face kind that are obvious to a layman yet. I wish we didn't need that to happen.
I have a dream that one day "sponsored age-verification bill" will be the same kiss of death that "worked for ICE" is going to be, but I'm afraid that's going to require the same kind of inarguable harms that ICE is doing to happen first.
Totally about 'protecting the children', clearly nothing to do with chilling effects. 😒
But in the US and around the world, lawmakers have been pushing for misguided online "age verification" or ID check laws, which would force you to upload your government ID or submit to a biometric scan of your face in order to create an account, post or access content. www.wired.com/story/age-ve...
CBS censored Stephen Colbert's interview with rising Democratic Texas star, James Talarico?
That's fascism.
But it's on YouTube. If Trump and his fascist media minions are so afraid of Talarico, that means we should watch and share the interview everywhere.
youtu.be/oiTJ7Pz_59A?...
One of my representatives is a sponsor. 😑 Sent feedback, age verification still isn't a viable thing.
“DHS is shutting down because it refuses to obey the law” is excellent framing
Sorry, kid, the government cancelled research into a cure for your disease. The man who swims in sewage and snorts cocaine in public restrooms said it's bad for you. Besides, there's no money now that we're locking up your friend's parents and the guys who mowed our lawn.
tell it to the hague, buddy
