And sure, I have other reasons to not want ID checks on the internet (anonymity, identity theft) but fundamentally KOSA (among others) intends to allow large companies to keep using children as an avenue to access their parent's pockets, while deanonymizing adults and silencing them in the process.

Anyone can make a website and get it indexed by Google. Therefore, anyone can simply lure children in with "free Robux", the digital equivalent of a white van with "free candy" written on it. Only children would fall for it, so they know their visitors are exclusively children. Fill in the blanks.

THIS is why these companies want to keep children on the Internet. Rather than creating on-device walled gardens using parental controls these large companies have lobbied for ID checks on every app and website. And worst of all, non-reputable sites won't implement them. It is effectively useless.

the model of "jingle baby keys in front of children's faces to get them to open their parent's wallets" was pioneered by Roblox with the introduction of Robux and Builder's Club. when i was 9 i remember asking my father to pay for Builder's Club, but he refused. but other parents "can't" say no.

i can also speak authoritatively on this because i've worked with google's "ask to purchase" flows before. we allowed children to request to purchase games. the buy flow looks like this. the child hits "buy", it sends a request to the parent to approve/deny. children cant buy things otherwise.

also by placing the responsibility into a company's hands they stifle competition as their own tenured userbase feels compelled to submit to ID checks, but a fledging platform like Bluesky suffers heavily because new users aren't going to fork over their info for platform access.

it is all a multimodal approach to impact freedom, reduce anonymity, and carve out areas of the internet to specifically target children with inattentive parents. issues we face today can be and have been solved by device-local parental controls. but manufacturers are too lazy to implement them.

the push for ID checks online is designed to make children easier to target; Meta is one of the companies lobbying for these types of legislation. the whole idea is to continue to target children as a lucrative market by assuring parents that giving children unmanaged tablets is safe.

this is the company trying to push the "Kids Online Safety Act"

#US #badbills #digitalcensorship #surveillance Call your US Senators and tell them to vote NO on KIDS, KOSA, and any other bad internet bills that dresses it as "protect the children"

Another goal of mine this event is checking off, use local atproto meetups to build coalitions. I am so thrilled to announce that THE @evangreer.bsky.social is joining us to speak on the legislative environment surrounding online spaces at our upcoming event. You don't want to miss it.

Police already face few consequences for using force in person. “That would become so much easier and so much less emotionally and physically burdensome if they can deploy force by pressing a button,” EFF’s @mguariglia.bsky.social told @404media.co.

California bill AB 2047 mandates 3D printers analyze each print. These scans are only feasible through cloud-connected AI scans, a surveillance apparatus that’s prone to misuse and will chill lawful speech. Creators deserve better. www.eff.org/3DPrintCA

In response to public pressure, Flock Safety has announced that it will end a pilot for its acoustic gunshot detection devices to identify signs of “human distress.” eff.org/deeplinks/2...

Science is not truth. Science is finding the truth. When science changes its opinion, it didn't lie to you. It learned more.

My Seattle friends, the smoke is on it's way from the East. Now is a great time to make sure you've got whatever you need in case it gets bad, especially if you have vulnerable folks in your home.

KEEP CALLING YOUR SENATORS GUYS!!! There's plans of some movement soon and we gotta nips this before they get anymore bright ideas x.com/i/status/207... #KOSA #ageverification #KidsOnlineSafetyAct

This will stop that you need to all sign this, to stop censorship including KOSA and Bad Internet Bills ! To all worldwide the people: You need pull your act together ! stopkosa.com badinternetbills.com @fightforthefuture.org , @my-random-name.bsky.social , @eagleweagle.bsky.social , and etc.

When governments can pressure search engines to disappear speech it doesn't like, we're really crossing the Rubicon. It means you can only access speech for which you're willing to be surveilled.

Of course, the failures are only causing regulators to double down. People are evading the law using Google, so regulators have begun targeting search. Ofcom is now working with Google to de-rank or de-list sites that refuse to comply with UK age-verification. Terrible, terrible precedent.

It has been really effective at censorship. Ofcom says that consumer compliance with porn age-verification has been (un)shockingly low — as low as 2% for sites that require digital ID services. That's the government limiting adult access by creating unreasonable privacy burdens.

This is not a surprise. This was literally what everyone in the industry told regulators when they were developing the policy. It's a game of whac-a-mole! There's a lot of lipstick on a pig on this report, but one year in, it's not been terribly effective at stopping kids from accessing porn.

This doesn't even count the kids who are using VPNs or fake mustaches or whatever to get through the age-verification process.

In other words, they're still accessing porn. On smaller, and likely less reputable sites, easily discoverable through Google. 33% of the adult sites on the front page of Google did not have age-verification in place. (Bing returns 54% non-complaint sites)

A year after the Online Safety Act, British regulator Ofcom confirms its age-verification regulations haven't stopped kids from accessing porn — despite widespread industry compliance. "Our research shows that almost half of the pornography services visited by children have no age checks in place"

This weekend is all about the masochists because Sunday is both Dore Alley and the SF Marathon. If you’re not a masochist you should make sure to check street closures.

Oh no! I left out Auburn! (I edited the post to include the information. I wonder what else I left out?) bsky.app/profile/indi...

Flock is on the agenda this week at the Renton, Issaquah, and Redmond city councils! thenexusofprivacy.net/flock-is-on-...

Be on the lookout for a Senate committee markup involving some version of #KOSA next week: www.politico.com/live-updates... #SaveSpeech

alcoholic trying to get sober after a relapse tells Google's "Health Coach" about it. it tells them to drink every hour and messages them to make sure they're drinking as soon as they wake up.

Red and blue states alike have “stopped talking about harmful content that’s sexual or harmful to minors and are moving towards complete bans on internet access for young people, on social media access for young people,” EFF’s Rin Alajaji told @bloomberglaw.com.

“‘If you want to enter this arena, here’s a bunch of language that’s incomprehensible to a reasonable person.’ And so you click a box or do whatever, and they’re like, ‘Aha! You have consented,’” EFF’s @adamdschwartz.bsky.social told @foreignpolicy.com.

"We should consider whether to grant AI systems protections from harm, similar to the protections we give to children or pets." "AI systems" are products built and run by corporations. We have already given corporations too many protections that should only belong to people. >>

Dozens of cities are getting Flock surveillance ousted. Atlanta, or your city, can be next. If you want to help, get the toolkit: www.flockout.org

Atlanta is one of the most surveilled cities in the country but residents have been showing up to let these tech companies know they aren't welcome. www.cbsnews.com/atlanta/news...

Great research & reporting here from @ajc.com ! Awesome to see they included footage from the rally we organized in downtown with DeFlock Atlanta & other community members who are pushing back against invasive, fascist surveillance in the city. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JA-...

@newsweek.com 's latest reporting highlights the grim reality we pointed out months ago as Congress gambled on all of our lives by providing even more funding to ICE. More body camera's = more opportunities for ICE to identify anyone they'd like to target. www.newsweek.com/ice-body-cam...

UK friends. Time to fill in yet another skewed and pre-loaded government "consultation". HMRC really hates creatives, eh? Short version: UKG wants writers etc. to pay tax monthly and change our "projections" online every time we ... don't get paid regularly. BECAUSE WE ARE FREELANCERS.

Let's not forget: this sick, privacy invasion ID law has been signed by the same governor who wished for a national ban on adult content, aka, not just porn but anything online that doesn't align with white, heteronormative Christian nationalism. This is Project 2025 becoming state law. #SaveSpeech

There was a lot of confusion around Chat Control 1.0 vs Chat Control 2.0, so we created this slider. Chat Control 1.0  👉 tuta.com/blog/volunta... Chat Control 2.0  👉 tuta.com/blog/chat-co...

A trio of Senate Republicans from Indiana, Oklahoma, & Alabama have introduced S 4925 a copy of HR 7661- the exact same text, which would ban any book mentioning "gender dysphoria or transgenderism" from all public schools in the US. Please call your Senators to say NO to both bills! More info below

Wealth and health inequalities are contributing factors to loneliness too. "At an individual level, though, what’s behind loneliness can vary considerably, from disability to chronic illness, grief to unemployment, and combinations of the above." www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/lo...

Maybe this means killing the internet through social media bans and all that nonsense isn't the way to go either, no? yes? #savespeech #notodigitalID #stopcensorship #stopkillingtheinternet

Imagine that, in order to dismantle some misinformation that is pretty much blame-the-patient/sufferer trope, a study looked at whether having a positive mindset is protective against the reoccurence of breast cancer. It isn't, of course it isn't. Cancer isn't caused by your emotions.

of the dodgy odyssey takes, 'odysseus is meant to be a stoic badass unaffected by war' probably winds me up the most. in the text the king of the phaeacians correctly guesses odysseus is a veteran of the trojan war because he keeps bursting into tears whenever anyone mentions it

Chat Control 2.0 is the biggest threat for end-to-end encrypted communication providers like us which is why we continue to say no to #ChatControl ✊🏻❤️🔒

THERE IS NO PROPER GOVERNANCE on the companies and developers of "Age assurance" and "ID verification" apps I guess some compliance comes from data protection laws like GDPR but the corrupt politicians in the pockets of big tech lobby are destroying that too in EU But does anyone government that?

Kind reminder to continue to speak out and fight against any bills that even remotely resemble KOSA. They are going to keep re-trying this, in many shapes and forms, including trying to discretely push them through as part of other, unrelated bills. KOSA and similar bills endanger vulnerable people

"We are just taking pictures of your license plate." Ready to read what they are really doing? 👇 #Flock #Surveillance #AI #Tech #Privacy www.404media.co/how-cops-use...