hey everyone, i wanted to make a post here for anyone unaware of internet legislation being discussed in government that will hurt the queer community and other marginalized voices, as well as fandom itself.
Kids Online Safety Act — aka KOSA. This bill has gotten support from both GOP and Dems because it advertises itself as a kids safety bill, but it’s anything but that. It will censor large swaths of the internet by what the government deems dangerous to minors. I’m sure I don’t have to spell out how this will hurt queer speech
Shielding Children's Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net Act — the SCREEN Act (these names are that corny) — this will demand that websites like Tumblr and other social media and content hosting sites have to ask for your literal ID to let you into the “non kid” version of the site (whatever that means. how is it a good idea to let social media and tech companies be in charge of how to make a “child friendly version of their sites anyway). some of them will use AI face scans, which can easily get the guess wrong, and the third party companies that provide these services are already getting investigated for privacy concerns.
App Store Accountability Act — same as SCREEN essentially. This would replace the already existing parental controls systems on app stores with ID verification and face scans for everybody. also! from a parents perspective— parents have rights to decide what’s appropriate for their own kids, and this is the government taking away that right if a parent thinks the government is going overboard
Section 230– this one is actually really good and they’re trying to repeal it. Section 230 is a law from the 90s that makes it possible for social media— especially fandom— to exist online at all. It makes it so user speech on social media is not considered the speech of the platform, while also allowing the platform to moderate to the extent they deem appropriate. this law is not perfect but repealing it would be catastrophic
now, i know this is scary, but laws like this have been stopped before. i’m sure some of you have heard of KOSA, it’s been bought to the table and shot down every year for the past few years. this was from people calling their reps and senators to tell them what a bad idea this was! we can do it again!
find your rep and senators and call them, or fax them (faxzero.com gives you free five faxes a day (no account!) and lists fax numbers of US government officials), or snail mail them or email them.
additionally, find your state level representation and tell them you oppose state level versions of these bills too. these people are much easier to actually have a solid conversation with one of the staff members because they represent less people
if you need help with a call script or email script, please check badinternetbills.com. (site by FightForTheFuture) they have helped shoot this type of legislation down before. other people on our side are the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU. this is a winnable fight if we all chip in!
people in other countries, i’m sure you know you’re not immune— Australia’s social media ban and the UK’s OSA are some examples of this. please look into what’s happening in your country or just call your people and tell them you oppose internet censorship and age hating because of privacy concerns.
clickable links to the sites i mentioned in the reblogs
gummygunk
jimmyeatworldofficial
gracieabrams
ellievsbear
blakekathryn
