tide / jAsper

the bill “claims” it doesn’t require age verification. but it keeps applying restrictions whenever a platform “knows or should have known” a user is a minor, and you can’t know that without checking everyone. so everyone gets checked. licenses, passports, facial scans. the disclaimer is a fig leaf.

who gets hurt? the trans teenager trying to understand their own body. the kid in an abusive home trying to get help without their parents finding out. anyone in a state with an abortion ban. anyone who needs anonymity to be safe. the “harmful content” categories are vague enough for any hostile AG to aim at whatever they want. in texas that means queer content. reproductive health. harm reduction spaces. im not trying to be scary, its just how it works and, chances are, how its gonna go.

disappearing messages are a privacy feature, through and through. the bill pressures platforms to restrict them without ever explaining how you address harms inside encrypted conversations you can’t read. draw your own conclusions.

they bundled this with fentanyl bills and a law named after a dead teenager so voting no becomes an attack ad. nobody wants to be the ‘Bully McPunchPuppiesAndBabies’, and to make matters worse, the act is being fast tracked under a process that skips amendments. you get all of it or none of it.

the senators who wrote the original version of this bill hate what the house did to it. the senate is where this dies. contact yours.

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