sorry if i'm gonna be quiet for a while. my country recently introduced laws that make it so that in order to use social media to the fullest (not being able to view ns/fw content and in a few cases, not even having access to dms), i HAVE to give the sites my id/face scan.
it goes into effect july 25th. it'll probably effect here too, since this place allows mature content (tho not full on ns/fw)
i'm very distressed about it bc i might end up not even being able to talk to my internet friends. i don't really have any irl ones
if i have to disappear on most socials by then, you know why.
if you're in the uk like i am there IS a petition to sign on the official gov petitions website asking to consider repealing this law. it currently has almost 8k signatures and needs 10k in order for the government to even acknowledge it (and 100k for them to debate it)
idk if i can post it here but please... go sign it! and go write to your local mp if possible. they need to realize how dangerous this law is going to be for uk citizens online. it doesn't protect children, it's just privacy invading AND a huge security risk to boot
and if you are NOT in the uk, spread the word around! especially let your uk moots know about this!
i should've said this before but the law is called the online safety act 2023. look it up, educate yourself about what it does, and learn about just how damaging it will be to the internet landscape as a whole for uk citizens everywhere, as well as, ironically, incredibly unsafe for everyone
it's like those internet laws that the us keeps trying to push in, but the uk somehow beat them. it got almost no coverage from the media bc the gov was super sneaky about passing it through, and there were very few people speaking out about it. they KNOW that if the public knows about this overall, many would be extremely unhappy. absolutely foul.
AND the gov is thinking about adding even more social media 'safety' rules on top of that, such as like... curfews and limiting amount of time spent on social media for 'kids' (so basically anyone who doesn't id verify, which will be a lot of people bc it's a huge security hazard and invasive to boot). insane.
kids won't be protected by this. they'll be encouraged to do more risky behaviours as a result (such as stealing ids, or going to shadier, less monitored parts of the web). parents shouldn't be letting the internet baby their children - they should be actively making sure they're okay and safe, rather than blaming the internet every time something has happened. sometimes it IS the parents' fault for not being more attentive, yknow? you wanted kids, now raise them properly!
We want the Government to repeal the Online Safety act.
800 signatures to go for a response
