3 Huge Tech Companies Endorse Bill That Could Wipe Abortion Info From the Internet.::The misleadingly-named Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) just got a boost from Silicon Valley.

  • herrcaptain@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    Fact: Any time a bill has a name about protecting children, it’s never actually about protecting children.

    Also, what do the big tech companies have to gain by supporting this bill? They’re typically opposed to anything that can open them up to litigation.

    • foggy@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I think big tech companies are trying to figure out which side of politics they need to kiss ass on so that they can continue unfettered growth.

      • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        Don’t fool yourself, they own both sides. The only difference is that each special interest will pick a side to publicly donate to, and then funnel dark money to the other - gotta cover those bases.

        Big Tech is pro-regulation at this point, at least the regulations that make the cost of entry for new companies prohibitively expensive.

        • fidodo@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          No, they don’t kiss up to parties, the parties kiss up to them. They want this so they can force users to hand over PII and let them track them to access content.

          • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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            10 months ago

            Companies handle/hand over PII, not users.

            I never said anything about kissing up, I said donations/bribes.

    • streetfestival@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      I think the tech companies believe they’ll get good PR for a bill that purports to be about child safety. In actuality, the bill will allow them to censor anything they want on their platforms while sidestepping criticism about curtailing free speech because they can say “we’re just trying not to get sued; if you have a problem, take it up with Washington”

    • fidodo@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Seems like what they would gain is forcing users to have over PII and tracking them to access a non blocked content. It’s good for their ability to make money off advertising and forcing users into closed eco systems they control, and killing competition that doesn’t require registration.

    • Alexstarfire@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Same with freedom/patriotism. Or really anything that’s meant to ekove a specific type of emotion.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Shields them from liability, kisses the ring of the powers that be, and makes them look like they are doing something good.

    • EpicVision@monero.town
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      10 months ago

      Ah yes, some of the shittiest tech companies in the world teaming up with the dumbest morons in existence to enforce dumb politics and censor free information, trying to turn the open internet into a shit hole of censorship like China. Amazing!

      • ALoafOfBread
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        10 months ago

        Thanks. Did you know your username is one of a tree’s “nuts”?

        • Jojo@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          Thanks, did you know your username is a wheat product that contains gluten?

          • Koppensneller@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Thanks, did you know your username is an artist who scored the hit single “Too Little, Too Late” in 2006?

            • ohitsbreadley@discuss.tchncs.de
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              10 months ago

              Thanks, did you know your username is a Dutch phrase meaning “headhunter”?

              It could also be Norwegian, meaning “cup snails.”

              • BigBrainBrett2517@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                Thanks. Did you know your username is an exclamation of surprise in New Zealand when someone named Bradley appears unexpectedly?

                • ohitsbreadley@discuss.tchncs.de
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                  10 months ago

                  Ha it totally IS how one would write the Kiwi pronunciation for Bradley. Didn’t even occur to me. I’m just a Brad that likes bread.

    • oDDmON@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Parasites and control freaks endorse “child safety “ bill, what could possibly go wrong?

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    The biggest take away from all this is

    A handful of tech companies manage and control the majority of public information.

    A handful of politicians who are in bed with the same corporations and they are all willing to control that information for their own personal religious beliefs

  • SuperSpruce@lemmy.zip
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    10 months ago

    Serious question: If this bill passes, how will the US Internet be meaningfully different than China’s Internet, if it’s used to censor stuff the government doesn’t like?

    • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Well… The internet was originally built on decentralized communications. We may have to transition more heavily to the darkweb, any attempts to block that would be an attack on freedom of speech.

      Humanity seems to progress/regress in waves. We’ll try to ride this out, and some of us will use ingenuity to make a taller ladder vs the govt’s taller walls. They can never keep pace.

        • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          I say dark web only in protection in transit of important/forbidden info.

          I realize that was confusing, but yeah, any decentralized system should be applicable, just needs to add protecting the data while traveling, and who is looking at it.

        • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          Isps could take them down. Maybe requiring each site to state what it’s using it for and forcing requirements down. If China can do it, U.S could follow too.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          True, my it department has told me no Linux or libreoffice. One of the it guys wasn’t happy about that rule either

        • UNWILLING_PARTICIPANT@sh.itjust.works
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          10 months ago

          But microsoft is unavoidable for work.

          I’ve worked in fintech almost 10 years and don’t recall a single windows machine, let alone a single piece of necessary windows service. Even the sales and marketing people use macs at least

          Google and AWS are much harder to with without.

          E: also just to note you can personallyboycott tech you’re forced to use by work, and even comparing about the company’s ethics at work

  • streetfestival@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    In the fall, Jezebel reported how a bipartisan bill ostensibly meant to protect children from harmful content online could be weaponized by Republican politicians to censor everything from LGBTQ+ content to sex ed info to abortion resources—and for all internet users, not just children.

    This is so dystopian

    • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Always assume the worst case scenario. This bill is another version of the “Patriot Act” that extends to whatever your dumbass state wants it to ban.

  • Devccoon@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    For whatever reason, when I hear KOSA, it conjures up SOPA and PIPA. Feels like it’s been so long since any of these came up but I guess existential-level threats to internet content and privacy never fully die~

    • umbrella
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      10 months ago

      they will keep trying until the most egregious censorship passes

      the system is broken, rebel or your internet is done for.

  • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    Kids Online Safety Shouldn’t Require Massive Online Censorship and Surveillance: 2023 Year in Review

    EFF link - they’re fighting this for us

    Link to check out the merch they have for donors. Cherish my shirt from them.

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I can’t wait for porn to be blurred out crotches and boobs with little stars instead of nipples. Darn!

    It was perfect! In case you are reading this in the future next couple of years, back in 2024, you just typed a few words on the search engine and you too could witness excellent quality videos of various men and women having fun with their body parts in ways that you didn’t even think were possible, and are too weak to do if you had anyone to do them with. We are talking penises, mouths, vaginas, balls and boobs and their various combinations.

  • CaptainProton@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Nobody defended communities discussing illegal things, then nobody defended communities discussing questionable legal things, then nobody defended disfavored things like firearms channels/YouTubers, now it’s your turn.