#earnitact

UPDATE 09/05/2023:

Well well well, if it isn’t the consequences of her bigotry

So Marsha Blackburn, in her infinite wisdom, decided to admit in an interview with the bigoted Family Policy Alliance that the Kids Online Safety Act is a GIANT anti-transgender bill (or at the least, it’s so poorly written that it makes targeting transgender people easier). Naturally, after this blunder, she and Blumenthal are trying to do damage control. But WE have the videos, and people’s responses to this open confession in the links below:

Alejandro Caraballo’s Tweet with the Video.

Erin Reed’s followup article

Attempts at damage control commented on by Ari Drennen

PinkNews’ article about it.

Beacon Broadside Article

Mashable Article

So with all that in mind, please make way to the Bad Internet Bills website to tell your Senators that you STRONGLY advise them to drop their support/refuse to support this awful bill in light of this, or that their re-election chances will drop considerably.

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UPDATE 02/14/2023: Richard Blumenthal is a lying snake who’s trying to get both KOSA and EARN IT Act back into law.

He persistently continues to ignore all of the backlash against these bills, the criticisms and highlighting the serious flaws of the bill by numerous human rights and LGBTQ organizations, and it’s telling that there seems to be no one who opposed the bill at the hearings today.

Fortunately, there are those are speaking up against it, such as Evan Greer from Fight For The Future.

Keep your eyes and ears open. We will be hearing more about these bills as time goes on.

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UPDATE 01/30/2023: Well, Chuck Schumer has chosen to backstab human rights and pro- LGBTQ communities, as well as the internet by trying to fast-track KOSA. The time table is as follows:

REINTRODUCTION OF THE BILL IN FEBRUARY

HOLDING MARKUPS IN MARCH

And holding a floor vote in JUNE

https://twitter.com/evan_greer/status/1620088145554579456

KEEP IN MIND, this was the man who blocked legitimately good anti-Big Tech bills like AICOA on the pretense they would be “too much”, but was perfectly fine with the travesty of KOSA.

This man is in Big Tech’s pockets, because only they can afford to pay the fines that such a restrictive pro-censorship bill would enforce. The only people this bill helps are the exact people it claims to stop, while LGBTQ people have to pay the price for the greed of the corrupt congressmen and women.

All of the relevant links are still below, but I will be updated this as we go.

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UPDATE 01/17/2023: Nothing has happened yet, but there have been rumblings of our “favorite” Senator Blumenthal talking about trying to push KOSA in again. I’ll mostly be keeping an eye on things for now, and you guys should too on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media and news outlets.

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UPDATE 12/20/2022: KOSA BILL HAS NOT BEEN INCLUDED IN THE FINAL OMNIBUS BILL! WE DID IT!

https://twitter.com/evan_greer/status/1605261800479547392

That being said, this is very much a reprieve, since Blumenthal and Blackburn, and their cohorts have made it clear they intend to get this bill back into Congress next year. But WE DID IT. We managed to get this bill stopped from being added in the omnibus bill.

I want to thank all of you who helped to reblog this post, signed the various petitions and the open letter, and especially if you went and called your Senators. Without your effort, this might have turned out VERY differently!

Thank you all, and I hope the rest of this year is a pleasant one!

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So, this is a particularly long post, but it’s an absolutely IMPORTANT ONE. PLEASE REBLOG! LIKING IS USELESS!

UPDATE 12/14/2022: Two weeks ago, 90+ human rights, LGBT, and tech orgs signed onto an open letter telling Senators NOT to pass this bill. in response, over 230 orgs led by the American Psychological Association signed a letter urging senators to push this bill forward.

An updated version of the bill has been pushed forward by Senators Blumenthal and Blackburn, who claim to have changed the bill in response to feedback, but insight by the likes of Evan Greer and Ari Cohn have made it clear that the changes are superficial at best, and arguably fail to properly address the problems of the original bill.

https://twitter.com/evan_greer/status/1603139423071309825

We got blindsided by this, and we REALLY need your help!

Further explanation HERE: https://www.tumblr.com/fullhalalalchemist/703545300138262528/urgent

POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, etc. about your opposition to this! The more voices speaking out the better, and we can’t do this alone!

The Hashtags are:

#KOSA

 #STOPKOSA

 #KidsOnlineSafetyAct

“Kids Online Safety Act” (no hashtag and quotes, just the regular words)

And PLEASE call your Senators at (202-224-3121).

ESPECIALLY CALL THESE THREE, SINCE THEY ARE THE MAJOR PEOPLE WHO COULD END UP PUTTING THE BILL INTO THE OMNIBUS/MUST PASS SPENDING BILL:

Maria Cantwell (202) 224-3441

Chuck Schumer (202) 224-6542

Nancy Pelosi (202) 225-4965

LINKTREE WITH ALL INFO HERE: https://linktr.ee/stopkosa

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ORIGINAL POST:

In a particularly scummy move, the Kids Online Safety Act is going to be put into the must pass end of year spending bill: www.axios.com/…

The two laws best positioned to get rolled into big year-end legislative packages, according to advocates and lawmakers, are:

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which would require platforms to guard kids from harmful content using new features and safeguards and to make privacy settings "on" by default for children. The law also mandates privacy audits and  more transparency about privacy policies.

At first glance, the bill doesn’t sound bad, since it’s about helping “protect children” online. But like every “protect the children” type law, this would censor the internet of anything “harmful” to children aka any LGBT, NSFW, or whatever the Right doesn’t like, force everyone to upload their govt ID’s to even access anything online, and surveil everyone else. Gutting everyone’s privacy in an era where we see massive state violence and encroaching fascism globally. This is not only pushed by the same people (Senator Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn) who created the awful EARN IT Act, but also has many of the same flaws, such as pro-censorship, anti LGBT resources and content, and pro-mass surveillance.

But the biggest problem, as Mike Stabile has pointed out, is HOW the mechanism to which this works: The State Attorney General.

This addition would allow states like Texas and Florida to sue companies for having LGBTQ+ content, along with sex education resources, incentivizing these platforms to ban that content. To be more specific, the bill allows the state attorney general to sue if they believe that platforms do not protect minors from a list of harms that includes politicized terms like "grooming" which, as we've seen can include any sort of LGBTQ information, entertainment or literature.

RuPaul on TikTok?

A clip on transgender youth on Facebook?

A gay character in a Disney movie?

Suicide hotlines for gay youth?

Cue a suit from Texas or Florida targeting the entire web.

And the problem is that given the current political climate and the cruel behavior of a number of GOP aligned political groups in positions of power, this only ends up making things RIPE for abuse and mass censorship (since companies will probably end up choosing to acquiesce to their demands rather than risk being subject to liability) not to mention the damage this would cause to children who might need resources regarding LGBT or sex education.

Furthermore, the definition of “sexually exploitative material”, “grooming”, and “child porn” has been used in the past year to target transgender people, drag queens, and the wider LGBTQ+ community by likening their very existence as sexually violent. Yet another way this bill’s language will be used to target a community that is already facing violence. Every night, Fox News blasts a story on “sexualization of children '' to fear-monger around the LGBT community. One needs to not look any further than the right-wing ecosystem to see how KOSA would easily be weaponized.

This article by Mike Masnick on Techdirt also goes further into KOSA and its adjacent bills.

To make matters even worse, on top of the usual suspects of NCOSE ( They used to be called Morality in Media, and are a far right group disguised as an anti sex trafficking org infamous for being religious assholes who HATE anything to do with sex or LGBT) supporting this travesty of a bill, it’s been revealed that the Senate leader is claiming there’s no opposition.

This is literally giving the fascists a dangerous tool to abuse, all for the sake of political brownie points against ‘Big Tech’. A tool that far right groups like the Heritage Foundation have OPENLY stated will abuse to silence LGBTQ+ or sex-ed content for youth everywhere if it passes.

The ONLY way this works is by making sure who is and isn’t a minor is to have some form of age-verification scheme. And the only way to do that is through a third party like ID.me which has recently come under scrutiny for, you guessed it, data leaks. So everyone who accesses anything online will be forced to upload their govt IDs. How is this protecting anyone’s privacy?

With all that said, what can we do?

Well, the same thing we did for the EARN IT Act; we make a LOT of noise, and get the word out.

If you have read all of the above and want to fight this, sign this open letter against KOSA.

And PLEASE call your Senators at (202-224-3121).

ESPECIALLY CALL THESE THREE, SINCE THEY ARE THE MAJOR PEOPLE WHO COULD END UP PUTTING THE BILL INTO THE }OMNIBUS:

Maria Cantwell (202) 224-3441

Chuck Schumer (202) 224-6542

Nancy Pelosi (202) 225-4965

There is a call script with phone numbers here.

Fax them, email them. Tell them they MUST oppose this bill. CONTACT any major human rights, LGBT, and cybersecurity related organizations aligned and let them know about this bill, and the harm it can cause to LGBT rights and children! If you need more information on KOSA, we have a LINKTREE HERE.

EMPHASIZE THE HARM TO CHILDREN WHEN YOU CONTACT PEOPLE, SINCE THEY’RE TRYING TO CLAIM THAT THIS WILL HELP PROTECT CHILDREN’S PRIVACY, WHEN IT DOES THE EXACT OPPOSITE.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation, formerly known as Morality in Media and Operation Yorkville, presents itself as a charitable support organization for victims of sex crimes. However, their claims are far, far from the truth. In reality, they are a far-right queerphobic religious organization (whose ​CEO is associated with an already registered hate group by the SPLC) that aims to eliminate all LGBTQ+ and all sexual kinds of speech and expression online under the guise of "Protecting children from harm". This organization has been known to fabricate statements, including that they are a secularist group with no religious background. Unfortunately, that is absolutely untrue as​ NCOSE was founded by an interfaith group of three New York City clergymen in 1962, as "Operation Yorkville". In 1968 they rebranded as "Morality in Media", and some of their past endeavors include:

Claiming gay marriage was linked to mass murder

Suing famous comedian George Carlin for swearing on the radio

Claiming Monty Python movie "Life of Brain"  "direct, aggressive, deliberate violation of the rights of believing persons".

In 2015 Patrick A. Trueman a registered lobbyist with a known history of working with hate groups like the American Family Association rebranded Morality In Media as "National Center On Sexual Exploitation"

They have rebranded and hidden their faith-based roots and are pretending to be a legit organization that has "expertise in sex crimes". That is extremely far from the truth as anti-trafficking review states, in which NCOSE "uses misleading 'research reports' to fabricate a false medical consensus about the harms of pornography."

However, that has not stopped some people from believing in them, including large corporations like...

Meta

Google/youtube/alphabet

Valve/Steam

Tumblr

and many more...

People and politicians on both sides are falling for their statements. Many online queer spaces are being deleted or censored because it has become a trend in far-right circles to falsely label anything LGBTQ+ as "porn", "sexual", or "grooming" through misinformation. To give an example these people think that this picture right here is "porn"

That leads us,

We are an organization formed of members sick and tired of NCOSE willfully fulfilling their selfish purposes, censoring and erasing our online spaces, and disguising their true goals under the false pretense of "protecting children".

What we want is plain and simple: we are fighting fire with fire. As such, we are calling upon the Southern Poverty Law Center to register NCOSE as a hate group in order to enforce honesty about their past deeds. The purpose of our campaign and petition is to raise awareness and make NCOSE admit they are a religious organization and unveil their shady past. We hope to make companies such as Meta, Google, and Visa/Mastercard to end their relationships with NCOSE upon exposure of their hateful past.

If you have any additional questions, comments or information about NCOSE, please feel free to reach us at our website or on Twitter!

Like, I’m one of those folks who knows McCarthyism is bullshit but also knows that the USSR and CCP loooooooooooooooooooove(d) mass surveillance so it’s great going “Do YOU want to be associated with the commies?!”

Anyways, if you don’t want tumblr, twitter, google drive, etc to start scanning every private thing you post AND would rather like your Signal, Whatsapp, etc to remain end to end encrypted AND live in the US, mosey on over to EFF’s little take action thing (tumblr is still weird about links if I recall so I’m going to pull a Biden and say to google it) regarding the EARNIT Act. Send a message to your Senators. Even call ‘em up. Tell them to Vote No and publicly oppose it.

Are you familiar with the EARNIT Act?

It's an online censorship and surveillance act that was introduced 2 years ago by Senator Blumenthal and Graham, and is supposedly about protecting children online. But various online privacy groups and human rights groups have noted that it not only doesn't protect children, it actually makes them LESS safe while being heavily aimed at attacking encryption.

Well, it's back. As of 2/10/2022, The same people have managed to get it past committee, and now it's currently being fast-tracked to reach the Senate Floor. If this bill gets through, there's a good likelihood that the follow will happen (copied from a list made by a bunch of people on the EARNIT Act's biggest flaws):

there’s a high chance that LGBT and race-related content will be targeted and censored, since the bill is being pushed by a known Hate Group called NCOSE (formerly known as Morality in Media). If you're part of any LGBT groups, whether it be a fandom, a support group, or even just posting anything related to LGBT or racial content, THEY CAN CENSOR IT against your will. They can choose to silence you just because you saying anything LGBT related, being LGBT might be "unsafe for kids". And given the kind of people pushing this, who's to say they won't find loopholes or excuses to expand that definition to include other things that we take for granted? Like NSFW content, or just simply having views that contradict what they consider to be "correct"?

it will remove encryption from the internet, making privacy nonexistent. All of your private messages/anything will no longer be private. This puts a lot of people who rely on encryption to protect themselves in serious danger. Activists in countries where they are considered a menace will no longer be able to protect their identities. Abuse victims, who rely on encryption to hide themselves from their abusers cannot do so anymore. And the average person will have to deal with the government spying on all of their private messages, details, photos, sensitive information, and so forth.

making the internet (And the United States for that matter) much less secure against hackers, foreign entity attacks, because to be able to enforce this act, all websites would be required to stick a backdoor into their site's defenses for the government to have a guaranteed entry. But in doing so, they give hackers and foreign spies an easy entry point as well, thus also making this bill an impending national security nightmare for the USA on TOP of being invasive.

And (ironically), not only making the internet LESS safe for kids, but also making the internet and government less able to deal with child and sexual predators. By letting third parties spy on kids' most private thoughts and photos, they are basically making it much easier for child abuse to occur, making it much easier for predators online to find and target these kids. And by forcing websites to become state actors and collect CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material), they basically make that evidence completely inadmissible in court due to violating the fourth amendment (unreasonable/unlawful search and seizure). Which means that sexual predators are more likely to run free.

Yeah, this is a terrifying bill.

Twitter posters and various groups have been gearing up to try to spread awareness of this bill, along with it's newer siblings the "Child Online Safety Act" and the NUDGE act, and I was kinda hoping you could help spread the word as well.

These are the tags associated with this on Twitter: #EarnItAct #StopTheEARNITAct2022 #STOPTHEEARNITACT #StopTheEARNITAAct2022

There is a script being passed around that might help.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1huD5Ldd1lPTECYTEb9Gg2ZzrqW6Y9tryHT-MdjOl8kY/edit

https://www.noearnitact.org/

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/campaigns/oppose-earn-it-act/

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/activists-writers-and-security-experts-all-oppose-earn-it-act

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20220201/11235048400/senators-myths-facts-about-earn-it-is-mostly-myths-not-facts.shtml

Hello!

We are Expose NCOSE a group dedicated to exposing and combating the group The National Center on Sexual Exploitation, formerly known as Morality in Media and Operation Yorkville. And other Anti-pornography and so-called “Anti-Sex Trafficking” groups.

We are an organization formed of members sick and tired of NCOSE and others willfully fulfilling their selfish purposes, censoring and erasing our online spaces, and disguising their true goals under the false pretense of "protecting children" or “Stopping sex trafficking”.

Though sometimes pointing out the self-appointed do-gooders tends to make them mad and isn’t an easy job. 

But We are committed to pointing out and exposing their hypocrisies, hidden agendas, facts, and misbehavior.

Such as

-NCOSE is tied to multiple registered hate groups by the SPLC.

-Exodus cry member Laila Micklewaite having CSAM on her devices

-Fight the new drug being attached influenced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

-And many more!

Now… we all agree too much porn isn’t good that constant masturbation is not healthy and that sex trafficking is bad. But we don’t agree with how these groups go about it. We're here to make sure the conversation keeps going and make sure you don’t hear one side of an argument. 

We Hope you enjoy our articles and hope you support us in bringing more honesty and accountability to these groups

Thank you!

ExposeNcose.com

Register NCOSE as a HATE GROUP today!

For links to other Internet Censorship Bills like RESTRICT Act and Kids Online Safety Act, click here.

WHAT IS THE EARN IT ACT, AND WHAT DOES IT DO?

EDIT: Updated for 2023 reintroduction of EARN IT Act.

It’s an online censorship and mass surveillance act that was introduced back in 2020 ago by Senator Blumenthal and Graham, and was re-introduced in 2022 and now 2023 and is supposedly about protecting children online dealing with material that is deemed “unsafe for children”.

But various online privacy groups and human rights groups such as the ACLU and Fight For the Future have noted that it not only doesn’t protect children, it actually makes them LESS safe while being heavily aimed at attacking encryption.  And it’s been re-introduced with most of the changes were extremely minor at best, with the core problems of the bill pretty much being exactly the same as it was back in 2020. 

It also bears an uncanny similarity to the EU’s current attempts at the same thing with Chat Control and the Online Safety Bill, as is shown via these two links here:

(Following image credited to EDRI)

https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/posts/messaging-and-chat-control/

The long version is that if it passes:

It will ironically and MOST IMPORTANTLY for this bill’s supposed intentions not only making the internet LESS safe for kids, but also making the internet and government less able to deal with child and sexual predators. Through EARN IT, websites would essentially be made to become state actors and collect CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material). But by doing so, they basically make that evidence completely inadmissible in court due to violating the fourth amendment (unreasonable/unlawful search and seizure). Which means that sexual  predators are more likely to run free. In other words, the exact OPPOSITE of what they claim this bill will do. In addition, by letting third parties spy on kids’ most private thoughts and photos, they are basically making it much easier for predators online to find and target these kids, as well as risk the possibility of kids having their most private information revealed to those they might not be safe to reveal to, like abusive parents.

Making the internet (And the United States for that matter) much less secure against hackers, who can now steal your information more easily, because to be able to enforce this act, all websites would be required to stick a backdoor into their site’s defenses for the government to have a guaranteed entry. But in doing so, if you thought people stealing your identity and accessing your accounts for online banking, online work/work at home was already a risk, this will only make things WORSE. It also gives foreign spies an easy entry point as well, thus also making this bill an impending national security nightmare for the USA on TOP of being invasive.

It will put activists, refugees, and abuse survivors in serious danger. Activists and refugees rely on a strong encryption in order to be able to conceal themselves from hostile nations and oppressive regimes. And with how inter-connected the world is online, having back doors in the very websites and apps they depend on to stand against dangerous regimes would only make them far more vulnerable if those regimes manage to hack and find them. Abuse survivors also rely on encryption in order to minimize the possibility of their abusers finding them, something that could be put at serious risk if the EARN IT Act renders said encryption pointless. America has a significant chunk of the world's internet and application sites, so this reckless bill would be only helping dangerous groups harm the very victims this bill is supposedly trying to protect.

LGBT, race-related, and non-EARN IT Act conforming content will likely be targeted and at high risk of being censored.. To make matters worse, this bill is being pushed by a known Hate Group called Morality in Media, a religious fundamentalist group who rebranded themselves into an anti-trafficking organization called NCOSE around 2015.

If this bill passes, they will be likely heavily involved with the commission set up to oversee this bill called NCOSEP. They’ve been noted in the past as having a very shady history, as well as heavy anti-LGBT sentiments and a religious zeal against anyone they deem as promoting any form of sexual expression, or even just MENTIONING sex (yes, that includes sex education).

And it’s being fast-tracked through the Senate as of February 2022. It’s being sent for markup sometimes between now and Thursday, May 4th 2023. We don’t know how long it’ll be until it reaches the Senate Floor, but if it does, the internet as we know it could basically cease to exist. Freedom of speech will be greatly crippled, information can be silenced and censored on a whim, LGBT and minorities will be even more vulnerable without encryption to protect them, and children will not be safe AT ALL.

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TAKE ACTION:

linktr.ee/StopEarnIT For more immediate info.

Spread the Word online! Link to the various petitions and other info-dense articles about this Act below! Twitter Hashtags: #EARNITAct, #STOPTheEARNITAct, #NoEarnItAct

Contact the organizations and online personalities/journalists in this Master List. It contains a list of emails, phone numbers and fax numbers that should hopefully make this a bit easier for you, as well links to other useful information. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SsuZ2_0wOmmu2lHFFlWYZXYm4xHnOb6E8fLsu9_83xE/edit

Contact your Senators directly. Here is the Call Script and contact numbers for the ones who might be most likely to oppose this Act, although you should still contact your regular Senators: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1huD5Ldd1lPTECYTEb9Gg2ZzrqW6Y9tryHT-MdjOl8kY/edit

You Can Also Freely Fax the Call Script using this link: https://faxzero.com/ Just remember to make changes so they don’t think it’s being sent by a legion of bots please.

Contact the organizations on these 2020 letters to get them to publicly speak out against the EARN IT Act like they did back then.

PETITIONS:

https://www.noearnitact.org/

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/campaigns/oppose-earn-it-act/

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/earn-it-bill-back-again-seeking-scan-our-messages-and-photos

https://twitter.com/fightfortheftr/status/1648331999902400513?s=20

LINKS FOR MORE IN-DEPTH INFORMATION:

https://www.tiktok.com/@kingtaku97/video/7227977176061070634

EARN IT MegaPost: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xcjeKqml8QbqiaTfDiciMQ5AnjxoVHh6T6sAMM5D2EU/edit

https://www.tumblr.com/fullhalalalchemist/715886672338878464/urgent-earn-it-act-is-back-in-the-senate

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/18/earn-it-act-is-back-and-its-still-terribly-destructive/

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2023 Posts:

https://twitter.com/fightfortheftr/status/1648690043962400770?s=20

https://twitter.com/evan_greer/status/1643387493402791936

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/the-earn-it-act-will-be-introduced-to-congress-for-the-third-time-192619083.html

2020 - 2022 Posts (Still relevant mostly):

https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/unintended-consequences-of-the-earn-it-act/

https://www.inputmag.com/tech/activists-warn-earn-it-act-hurt-lgbtq-communities-most

https://www.article19.org/resources/us-senate-must-drop-the-earn-it-act/

https://twitter.com/fightfortheftr/status/1491094890805358592

https://www.internetsociety.org/news/statements/2022/internet-society-statement-on-earn-it-act-2022/

Medium Article: How the EARNIT Act Hurts Kids

https://www.techdirt.com/2022/02/10/senator-blumenthal-after-years-denial-admits-hes-targeting-encryption-with-earn-it/

https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/unintended-consequences-of-the-earn-it-act/

https://techfreedom.org/earn-it-act-could-hurt-kids-and-undermine-privacy-of-all-americans/