thenexusofprivacy

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/20332183

Fight for the Future writes:

"The controversial and unconstitutional Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is officially dead in the House of Representatives. Reporting indicates that there was significant opposition to the bill within the Republican caucus, and it faced vocal opposition from prominent progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rep Maxwell Frost (D-FL)."

Evan Greer:

"KOSA was a poorly written bill that would have made kids less safe. I am so proud of the LGBTQ youth and frontlines advocates who have led the opposition to this dangerous and misguided legislation. It’s good that this unconstitutional censorship bill is dead for now, but I am not breathing a sigh of relief. It’s infuriating that Congress wasted so much time and energy on a deeply flawed and controversial bill while failing to advance real measures to address the harms of Big Tech like privacy, antitrust and algorithmic justice legislation. "

Thanks to everybody who took action ove the last year to stop this bill!

Legislators are considering attaching KOSA (the anti-LGBTQ+ censorship bill, aka the Kids Online Safety Act) to must-pass legislation authorizing the FAA. As EFF points out, the latest version of KOSA is still a censorship bill.

So if you're in the US, it's once again a good time to contact your Congresspeople. EFF's got an action here that makes it makes it easy, and so does https://www.stopkosa.com/

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/12214925

The good news is that the secret session of Congress didn't happen so they didn't sneak something through behind closed doors. Thanks to everybody who took action! and it now looks like the House won't be voting on Section 702 this week.

Elisabeth Goitein of Brennan Center has an excellent Xitter thread here describing it as HPSCI (House Intelligence Committee) leaders (who oppose reforms and want to broaden surveillance) forcing Speaker Johnson to cancel the floor vote. She suggests they'll try to get weak language into the continuing resolution, and if that happens we should be ready to make some noise.

Then again, as @dell@journa.host of Wired suggests on Bluesky, if they don't take action by April 19, the FISC (FISA Court) can just extend certifications for a year, so that's also a way they can delay reforms. We may also need to make some noise to demand a vote.

So stay tuned!!!!

cross-posted from: https://infosec.exchange/users/thenexusofprivacy/statuses/111847834655628571

Worth noting: Microsoft owns LinkedIn, which wouldn't be particularly affected by KOSA.

There's a hearing on Wednesday, and potentially a Senate vote soon, so if you're in the US now's a good time to contact your Senators. https://stopkosa.com and EFF's page make it easy!

#kosa #microsoft

The horrible Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is once again moving forward in Congress, so now's a key time to contact your Senators and Representative. https://stopkosa.com has a summary of why this bill is so bad, including its harmfulness on LGBTQ+ youth, as well as a form to contact your Senators. But Republicans are just fine with bills that are harmful to LGBTQ+ youth, so they may well see that as a good thing!

Here's an alternate script designed for Republicans legislators. You can use it to call -- for a phone call or email -- from jamie quinn on Bluesky (shared with permission).

You can call the Senate switchboard at United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Or, use EFF's page.

(cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/11378867 )

Even though millions of people left Twitter in 2023 – and millions more are ready to move as soon as there's a viable alternative – the fediverse isn't growing.1 One reason why: today's fediverse is unsafe by design and unsafe by default – especially for Black and Indigenous people, women of color, LGBTAIQ2S+ people2, Muslims, disabled people and other marginalized communities. ‌

Here's how EFF desribes the situation in You Can Help Stop These Bad Internet Bills

"Red alert! For the last six months, EFF, our supporters, and dozens of other groups have been sounding the alarm about several #BadInternetBills that have been put forward in Congress.We’ve made it clear that these bills are terrible ideas, but Congress is now considering packaging them together—possibly into must-pass legislation. I’m asking you to join us, ACLU, Fight for the Future, and other digital rights defenders in a week of action to protect the internet."

Can the fediverse help? The fediverse has some potential advantages for activism on topics like privacy, digital rights, and LGBTQIA2S+ issues. So it’s worth experimenting, and the July 20-28 week of action on Bad Internet Bills is a great opportunity – to learn, and hopefully to have an impact as well.

Here's four easy ways to help:

1. Upvote and boost posts in !bad_internet_bills@lemmy.sdf.org -- and cross-post them to other communities and magazines where they're on-topic
2. On Mastodon, boost posts on the #BadInternetBills and #KOSA hashtags
3. Get the word out on other social networks too
4. If you live in the US, contact your legislators using Fight for the Future’s https://www.badinternetbills.com/