This bill will censor LGBTQ+ voices and far more. It's a way to heavily restrict the internet not just with respect to harmful content, but also "controversial" content. It also mandates identity verification if you're interacting with that content. It's a deeply regressive way of looking at publishing. There's still time to read up about it and tell your representative that you don't want it passed. #Democracy https://www.techdirt.com/2023/07/25/influencers-starting-to-realize-how-the-kids-online-safety-act-kosa-will-do-real-damage/?utm_source=werd.io&utm_campaign=mastodon&utm_channel=mastodon
@ben
I think the issue IS, that companies such as Facebook, google etc have had had 20 years+ to get their act together and protect users from online content, they have failed, the porn industry has enough money to implement age checks, tech companies could have worked together to find ways to ensure content filtering works.
I remember being told (and I agree) that the W3C foundation are not there to censor the internet, they provide the framework so the tools can be developed to help with that, putting in the right meta tags would allow filtering systems to work better, but that is up to the web designer to implement this (Ok I don't fully understand that, but I think people get my meaning).
The result of this 'in action' has resulted in politicians stepping in and trying to come up with laws that force tech companies to actually do something, I agree there will be winners, losers, consquences that are unitended.
I remember being told by parents they don't understand stuff, and that was followed by laughing, so even parents were not taking issues of what their child is looking at, or talking to seriously.
I have said on here about children being here, we are NOT a child minding service.
If you look at the Molly Russel case, even instagram admit that the content she saw, should not have been on the platform in the first place, that girl was bombarded with self harm and suicide messages / content based on algorithms etc.
I am not sure how much of this has to do with how women are treated, how people like Andrew Tate could influence so many young minds, the fact he was allowed to do this for so long. If you look at the recent McDonanlds disclosure or abuse, it is pretty shocking, esp as many of the victims were under 18 and were too afraid to come forward. There has to be links somewhere.
Mental health issues seem to have skyrocketed, and social media has partly been blamed for this, look at the conspiracy people denying the holocaust, covid, vaccines, and climate change, all very influential and free to just do stuff. Granted so far one person has been hauled in to court, and I think that was the person who said Sandy Hook Massacre was a hoax.
In some ways the US laws and upcoming Uk laws are a result of our own failings, or rather failings of big tech, the fediverse was been created to make a fresh start, by users for users, so we have better control, different way to do things. We know and admit there are problems and are trying to deal with that.
So thank you Microsoft, google, facebook, et al for putting profits before users, you only have your self to blame, and everyone is going to suffer as a result of your inaction.
