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If you haven’t heard about it yet, SISEA is a bipartisan bill introduced in the US senate by Ben Sasse (R) and Jeff Merkley (D)

It includes a series of overly strict regulations to be imposed on the online porn industry, and would basically have the same results as the tumblr porn ban, but internet-wide.

Here’s just a few of the rules it proposes:

Requires verified ID and signed consent forms for everyone involved in the production and uploading of adult content

Requires the PLATFORM, not the user, hosting pornography to include a banner or notice on the site that tells you how to request the removal of content if you didn’t consent to being in the video

Prohibiting VIDEO DOWNLOADS on all platforms that host pornographic content within three months of the legislation passing

These platforms are ALL required to have a 24hr MANNED hotline, staffed by the platform, for content removal requests. (No clarification on how the person requesting the removal would be expected to prove their identity, and this is IN SPITE OF the rigorous verification process the proposed law ALSO REQUIRES, so this is likely to be abused by trolls)

Requires removal of flagged videos within TWO HOURS.

Requires all platforms to have an algorithm to prevent videos that have been removed (by the host, not the uploaded) from being reuploaded after removal

The above is to be enforced by the FTC

Creating a DATABASE OF PEOPLE who do not consent to being in adult videos, which must be checked BEFORE ANY NEW CONTENT CAN BE UPLOADED, the specifics of which are to be decided by the Department of Justice, and failure to comply with this requirement will be punished with a fine

So I’m sure by now that everyone has an idea of how bad this will be for not only sex workers, but any and all platforms that people use to post adult content, whether it’s the platform’s intended use or not, as well as anyone who consumes said content.

The rules concerning digital content, as many are probably wondering, are incredibly vague. Here’s a breakdown on twitter of why these rules in particular would be disastrous:

So, you’re probably wondering

“What can I do to stop this from being passed?”

Right now, I haven’t seen any petitions about this particular legislation, but I 100% advise and advocate for calling your state’s representatives and senators and demanding they speak out against this bill and it’s absolutely impossible requirements.

Here’s a list of current US Senators and their official contact info:

Here’s the info for US Congresspeople:

And here’s the article where I originally heard about SISEA, because I don’t see many people talking about it yet:

Look, we remember old filthy tumblr, right? And how SESTA/FOSTA absolutely wrecked it? Because the path of least resistance was to be overly restrictive.

For SISEA, the easiest and cheapest route to compliance will simply be to ban anything NSFW. Boom, done. Fan art, erotic sexting, you name it - it will get nuked.

The group orchestrating all of this, Exodus Cry, is a far-right-wing organization: https://medium.com/@justinethalley/the-siren-song-of-exodus-cry-d507a594c05d

The US Congress has been so absolutely wrecked by getting nothing accomplished that this would be an easy win for them, legislatively. This could coast alone on the need to show that they’re bipartisan.

Please reach out to your representatives. This will be disastrous for sex workers who are already disproportionately impacted because of the epidemic. It will censor social media platforms with impossible requirements. It will absolutely stifle creativity and sexual expression.

Goblet Squat

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