#digital freedom

Welcome to 1984 - The Fingermen are Coming

There’s a quiet storm brewing in Washington, D.C. It’s not about war, not about inflation, not even about climate change — though all of those matter. No, this one cuts deeper. It strikes at the core of what we’ve long taken for granted: our right to speak, explore, and exist freely online. The bill in question? The Kids Online Safety Act — known as KOSA — and its shadow twin, COPPA 2.0.

On the surface, it sounds noble. Protect children online. Prevent exposure to harmful content. Shield young minds from predators, self-harm, and addiction. Who could argue with that?

Yes, I hear you. I’ve asked the same question.

But here’s what they’re not telling you: this is not about kids. This is about mass surveillance — under the guise of safety.

Time to Look Into the Mirror

Let’s be clear. I am a parent. I care deeply about what my child sees online. I install filters, I monitor screen time, I have conversations about digital responsibility. But I also understand the danger of handing over unchecked power to lawmakers — especially when those same lawmakers are the very people who’ve failed to regulate Big Tech for decades, who’ve taken campaign money from social media giants, and who now claim to be our digital saviors.

And some of them? They’re not just flawed. They’re compromised.

Did you know that some of the loudest advocates pushing KOSA have faced serious personal allegations — including, in at least one high-profile case, charges related to predatory behavior? The hypocrisy is staggering. We’re being asked to trust our children’s safety — and by extension, our digital freedom — to people whose moral authority is, at best, questionable.

And that should terrify every single one of us.

Living in a Comic Book — The Age of Lark Hill, in Reality

KOSA, as currently written, would force tech companies to scan private messages, analyze user behavior, and implement "duty of care" frameworks that hold platforms legally accountable for any content that might harm a user — especially minors. On paper, that sounds responsible. In practice, it’s a backdoor to unrelenting surveillance.

COPPA 2.0 takes it further. The original Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was designed to protect kids under 13. The updated version expands age verification across platforms — meaning websites, forums, social media, even encrypted messaging apps, could be forced to collect biometric data or government ID just to log in.

That is not child safety. That is a surveillance state.

Because once the infrastructure is built to track every minor online, guess what? It’s already built. And as history has shown — from the Patriot Act to facial recognition tech — tools created for "targeted" protection are almost always expanded to monitor everyone.

Privacy advocates have sounded the alarm. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has called KOSA “a solution in search of a problem” and warned it could “undermine end-to-end encryption and chill free expression.” The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has stated that “well-intentioned laws must not become instruments of censorship or mass monitoring.”

And they’re right.

The Fourth Amendment Is Being Completely Ignored

Let me say this plainly: No warrant. No probable cause. No due process. And yet we are hurtling toward a future where every online interaction — every search, every message, every like — could be monitored, stored, and potentially weaponized.

This isn’t speculative. This is already happening in other countries. China has its social credit system. Iran censors and tracks dissidents online. Russia uses digital surveillance to silence opposition. We call those regimes oppressive. But if we pass KOSA and COPPA 2.0 without critical reform, we’re paving the same road — just with better branding.

They’ll say: “If you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide.”

That argument has been used to justify every erosion of liberty in history.

I’m not hiding. I’m protecting — my right to think, to explore, to dissent. Because in a free society, privacy is not the absence of guilt. It’s the presence of liberty.

Time to Stand Up for What We Believe In

The Senate has already passed its version of KOSA. It’s now moving to the House of Representatives. This is our window — narrow, but real — to stop it.

Because make no mistake: This is not about protecting children. It's about control. It’s about creating a digital panopticon where every user is suspect, every conversation monitored, and every dissenting voice potentially flagged.

And it’s happening fast. Tech companies — the same ones we’ve blamed for the mess — are oddly quiet. Some even quietly support KOSA because it gives them legal cover and increases their power over user data. Republicans and Democrats alike are pushing it, wrapped in moral urgency, while ignoring the civil rights implications.

They say they move slowly. But they’re not — not when it comes to surveillance.

Do What We Need to Do to Stop These Wannabe High Chancellors

Enough waiting. Enough trusting.

We have to act — now.

Call your Representative. Email them. Flood their inboxes. Attend town halls. Demand they reject KOSA in its current form and strip out COPPA 2.0’s overreach.

Tell them: "I am a parent. I care about my child. But I will not trade my child’s future freedom for a false promise of safety."

Send letters. Organize with friends. Make noise. Because the moment we stay silent is the moment we surrender.

"The right to be let alone is the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men."

— Justice Louis Brandeis

That right is under attack.

“Privacy is not an option, and it shouldn’t be the price we accept for just being online.”

— Edward Snowden

He wasn’t wrong. He was prophetic.

Final Warning: Before You Lose Everything

They’re coming for our anonymity. They’re coming for our encryption. They’re coming for the open internet — the one place left where a teenager in a small town can research, question, and dream without being watched.

If we don’t stop them, we will lose it.

Not because we’re lazy. Not because we don’t care. But because we waited too long.

So do what you have to do. Be loud. Be relentless. Be the parent, the citizen, the human being who said: “No. Not here. Not now. Not on my watch.”

Because if we don’t stomp this now — before it becomes law — they’ll stomp on us.

The time to act is today.

Contact your member of Congress. Speak up. Protect your rights. Protect your children — not just from online harm, but from the real threat: a government that sees every citizen as a suspect.

Our freedom is not negotiable.

Stop KOSA. Stop COPPA 2.0. Stop the surveillance.

Before it’s too late.

First and foremost, contact any senators who you know opposes these laws. The more political officials oppose this, the more likely our governments will repeal it. Please do background checks on them. If people find that the leading senator(s) opposing these laws is a confirmed predator, the media will eat us alive!!!

Contact and tell everyone you know about these new laws. Not just your online friends, but your family, your local businesses, your teacher, your professor, your co-workers at work, your boss. Don't harass them, be polite and tell them exactly what these acts do and how it can affect them. And if they agree that it's bad, great! Tell them to spread the word further!

Offer different alternatives to these laws. Put a parental lock on your child's account, put a parental lock on your child's device, filter sites from your router

Print flyers opposing these laws along with summaries of what's happening, what these laws mean, and why people should oppose it (again, we are saying "no" to something called the Kids Online Safety Act. We are going to need to use every strong argument we have)

Don't have a printer? Create a public presentation!!!

If you're favorite content creator is streaming, ask them if they know about the Online Safety Act and AI age verification (remember, it's not just YouTube being regulated, but the entire internet) in their chat. Please don't harass them!!! You will be blocked. Even if they say, "Yeah, I heard about it." Someone in their audience probably didn't

[EDITED 8/30/25] On top of contacting your senators, you should also contact tech companies, large and small, to fight these new laws being introduced. Convince them to band together to protect their user's privacy and put forth better solutions to KOSA, the SCREEN act, and COPPA 2.0. Also, throw your support behind companies who are already fighting these laws. This not only negatively effects us, but them as well

As a frequent Australian social media user, as someone who has found more friends on the internet in the past year than I ever have in my entire life, and as an anarchist, I am strongly opposed to this. And if you aren’t, wake up. Read the bill. Understand that this is going to negatively impact all of us, especially teenagers, queer people, and disabled people.

And the worst part is, the majority of Australians don’t care or even know that this is happening. And that’s why I’m making this post, and asking you to help bring attention to this. If you are Australian, write to every government official you can. Join a protest if you are able.

And, most importantly: strike. Strike from the internet, work, school, anything that will get the government’s attention. Make this backfire in their faces as soon as possible. And don’t think that none of this will do anything. There are almost twenty-eight million people in Australia. Do you know how much we could do of even a few hundred thousand could cooperate on this? Do you know how much good striking has done in the past? Community can make this possible, I believe in us.

I am begging you, don’t take this lying down. It is your right as a human being to have freedom.

The bill: https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/legislation/bills/r7284_first-reps/toc_pdf/24150b01.PDF

More information: Not just kids: Everyone to be age verified for social media | Information Age | ACS

[Post was sent on our-trans-youth-community by user @crowdrinkingcoffee , and has been with permission copied over here by @our-trans-youth-experience to reach a larger audience. Look after yourselves and each other, trans punks and youth, and stay safe <33]

KOSA & the KIDS Act harm vulnerable teenagers by cutting them off from online communities & support systems, & could be used to censor LGBTQ content for minors.

Knock, knock!

Time to wake up.

It’s not about the children.

Sooo… I gotta make a lil unfortunate announcement for everyone who sees this. I’m being shipped back to my dad’s house (aka family hell ft. my dad, his wife a.k.a my “stepmom,” and my grandma).

And this time it’s not just two weeks or whatever… I’ll be stuck there for like a whole ass YEAR until I finish my first year of college 💀 The only time I can come back to my mom’s side is for Thanksgiving and Christmas, which feels like forever away. And y’all already know how strict my dad's side of the family (which includes my dad, his wife (my "stepmom", and my grandma) are with me using tech… so there’s a slight possibility I might not be able to post for a while.

But!! I refuse to say goodbye because I don’t wanna believe I’ll be gone that long. Hopefully if my mom + stepdad help me out with some money (and if my mom can talk things out with my dad), I might be able to get back here sooner. If I get enough money, I can get myself a new phone and maybe they won’t be so damn nosy about what I’m doing on it 👀

So yeah. Wish me luck y’all 🙏💔 manifesting that I’ll be back faster than a month. I don’t wanna vanish.

Tagging all my mutuals @ruinationz and @turbotasticnumberone and @cartoon-cat7241 and @cru5h-cascades and @seleyaaaa and @mono-squamblo and @strayfelinez and @strangelilangel and @yukihirop and @rivertheemoo and @meatmedallion and @eeeeeeeeep-lolz and @drownedsilverforever

Additional Note: I also wanna apologize to my two mutuals ( @ruinationz and @turbotasticnumberone) on Discord 🫶💜 Before y’all go “but if you couldn’t be online on Discord, how come you sometimes posted on Tumblr??” — lemme explain. At my mom’s house, she had a strict time limit on how long I could use tech (phones, iPads, etc… not TV tho lol). And the time I was given wasn’t enough to properly hang out on Discord, it only let me do small things like make a quick Tumblr post or scroll a bit. So I wasn’t lying about not really being online — I just literally didn’t have enough time to spend in Discord convos the way I wanted to.

"an employee from retro storefront ZOOM alleged that, during conversations with payment processors, titles such as Grand Theft Auto, Duke Nukem, and Saints Row were described as "potentially at risk." Violent video games have been under scrutiny since their inception, but now political groups like Collective Shout have shown that this puritanical panic can be leveraged to pressure payment processors into taking action, setting a new precedent."

Steam