Follow the Red Brick Road

HAPPY PRIDE! It’s time for our fourth-annual Pride Bundle charity drive! We’ve got three bundles this year: a general imprint bundle with 25 titles totaling 381 pages; an explicit bundle of 15 stories, 237 pages; and an art bundle with 10 artworks, 250 mb of digital artwork! In the first three years of this initiative, we’ve raised over $725 for the charities we’ve selected, and we’re delighted to be back, this time in an effort to raise money for the Queer Liberation Library ( @queerliblib ) and the Transgender Law Center.

The General Imprint Bundle costs $25 USD (60% off normal!). 40% of this sales price will be divided equally between the two charities.

The Explicit Imprint Bundle costs $15 USD (60% off normal!). 44% of this sales price will be divided equally between the two charities.

The Art Bundle costs $10 USD (66% off normal!). 24% of this sales price will be divided equally between the two charities.

How This Works

You buy one or both bundles between now and June 30th, 2026.

We tally up all the proceeds earned and do some math-e-magic to figure out how much we’re donating!

Before the end of July, we divide our total raised amount in half and donate equal amounts to the Queer Liberation Library and the Transgender Law Center.

We post the proof that we’ve made the donation (you can see past proof here, here, and here.)

You get fantastic stories!

We all get that happy, glowy feeling of knowing that money has been well-spent on fantastic causes!

About the Press

Duck Prints Press is a queer-owned indie press, founded to publish original works by fancreators. We’ve been in operation for over 5.5 years, and in that time we’ve worked with well over 150 creators to publish ten anthologies and over 200 other stories, from shorts to novels, and we’ve got more on the works (five anthologies in progress, multiple novels slated for the later half of 2026, an art project, and more). The vast majority of our creators and their creations are queer/LGTBQIA+ (maybe even all, but we don’t out anyone and we don’t ask demography because, frankly, it’s none of our business).

About Our Selected Charities

Note: These charities are not affiliated with the Press, do not know we’re doing this fundraiser, have not endorsed this in anyway and are, as such, utterly uninvolved in this beyond being the beneficiaries of our efforts! Text is from their webpages.

The Queer Liberation Library: “Queer Liberation Library (QLL) is fighting to build a vibrant, flourishing queer future by connecting LGBTQ+ people with literature, information, and resources that celebrate the unique and empowering diversity of our community.”

The Transgender Law Center: “Transgender Law Center is the largest national trans-led organization advocating self-determination for all people. Since 2002 we’ve been organizing, assisting, informing and empowering thousands of individual community members towards a long-term, national, trans-led movement for liberation.”

About the Bundles

We are offering three bundles: general imprint stories, with 25 works; explicit imprint stories, with 15 works; and art, with 10 works. The shop listings include details about and excerpts from all the stories and previews of all the art. Purchasing book bundles gets you access to the e-book (in ePub and PDF formats) of each title included in the bundle. Purchasing the art bundle gets you access to high-quality print-ready images, sized to print clearly at 8.5 in x 11 in (21.6 cm x 27.9 cm) (FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY!). Here’s what you’ll get!

Works in the General Imprint Charity Bundle:

Farm to Table by Andi Rigby

The Problem with Wishes by Annabeth Lynch

Of Loops and Weaves by Catherine E. Green

Starstruck, Adrift by Cedar D. McCafferty-Svec

Let the Solstice Come by D. V. Morse

Red Ink, Black Water by Dei Walker

Old Books, New Friends by Genevieve Maxwell

A Galaxy Run in 30 Minutes or Less by J. D. Harlock

Seal Island by K. B. Vimes

Quintessentially You by Len Amin

Sonic Boom of My Heart by Linnea Peterson

Night Birds by Max Jason Peterson

Snow Day Memories by Merlin Grey

Sarisa by N. C. Farrell

Wolven Dance by Neo Scarlett

It’s Witchcraft! by Nicola Kapron

Living Room Beauty Shop by O. E. Hendrickson

One Moon at a Time by R. L. Houck

a name to call by Rascal Hartley

Nycticorax by S. J. Ralston

Bubble, Bubble by Sage Mooreland

The Wayward Timekeeper by Terra P. Waters

To Fill My Cup by Violet J. Hayes

Tincture of Clarity by Willa Blythe

Chrysopoeia by Zel Howland

25 stories. 381 pages. 130,140 words of fiction! Price: $25.00 USD

GET THE GENERAL IMPRINT BUNDLE

Approximately 40% of the list price of this bundle will go to charity.

Works in the Explicit Imprint Charity Bundle:

Snowbound and Love Sick by A. L. Heard

Heart’s Scaffold by Alec J. Marsh

Heated Desperation by Aria L. Deair

A Safe Place to Land by boneturtle

Can’t Let Go by Dei Walker

Like it Sharp by E. V. Dean

then, too, at sea by ilgaksu

Sinking by Lyn Weaver

We the Hunters by Lyonel Loy

Goals by R. L. Houck

Easier Than Expected by Samantha M. Piper

Worlds Apart (but Still Close)by Sanne Burg

Taken at Sea by Shea Sullivan

Warm Anything You Want by Tris Lawrence

Allay the Burning Fever in My Blood by YF Ollwell

15 stories. 237 pages. 80,768 words of fiction! Price: $15.00 USD

GET THE EXPLICIT IMPRINT BUNDLE

Approximately 44% of the list price of this bundle will go to charity.

Works in the Art Charity Bundle:

Devour by Aaron Kotze

Warm by Aceriee

Aurora by æonswinter

Forever Halloween by Max Jason Peterson

Demi Dragon by May Barros

Bar on the outskirts. by MizuShiba

old truths, new patches by radicalhoodie

The Riddle by Shea Sullivan

[untitled] by swev.art

Another Spring by Zel Howland

10 artworks. 247 mb of art! Price: $10.00 USD

GET THE ART PRINT BUNDLE

Approximately 24% of the list price of this bundle will go to charity.

Check out our bundles for charity now, and help us help others!!

This is open for public comment until the end of May 19th. Please comment and make your voice heard.

Then, if you can join me for Phase 2. March 7 2025 thtough March 14 2025? No Amazon. None. 1 week. No orders. Not a single item. Not one ebook. Nothing. 1 week. Just 1.

If you live outside the USA boycott US products on February 28 2025 and stand in solidarity with us and also join us for the week of no Amazon.

Are you with me?

Don’t let Chrome’s big redesign distract you from the fact that Chrome’s invasive new ad platform, ridiculously branded the “Privacy Sandbox,” is also getting a widespread rollout in Chrome today. If you haven’t been following this, this feature will track the web pages you visit and generate a list of advertising topics that it will share with web pages whenever they ask, and it’s built directly into the Chrome browser. It’s been in the news previously as “FLoC” and then the “Topics API,” and despite widespread opposition from just about every non-advertiser in the world, Google owns Chrome and is one of the world’s biggest advertising companies, so this is being railroaded into the production builds.

If you try to click on any of the sites, you get a link to the App Store app, which is called "WordStream - Audiobooks".

Who is Ofek Weitzman? Apparently he's also known as Cliff Weitzman, the CEO of Speechify, an AI Voice generator app famous for its partnership with Snoop.

Also, Cliff Weitzman is named as the copyright holder at the bottom:

If you search for Ofek/Cliff Weitzman, you find his name in the terms and conditions for Speechify.

Strange that someone with a legitimate company with a partnership with Brandon Sanderson would put their name behind a shady company stealing works from fanfic writers, but it may be worth reaching out to him on X.

Best case scenario is that someone has stolen the name for an app, but in that case, it would be good for him to know.

Per @echoekhi 's advice (who's done invaluable work for fandom with their project Copy-Knight) I have contacted OTW Legal, hoping they can help. Because word-stream doesn't list a formal policy regarding copyright violations, and Weitzman doesn't appear to publically own up to his connection to the website anywhere, (correction: I just watched the YouTube shorts Maki linked to and his face is right there along with the boast that we can access all of these free works for just one teensy payment, isn’t that just SO GENEROUS OF HIM) I agree with them that it's inadvisable to file a DMCA takedown at this point. I wouldn't trust it 1. with my personal information and 2. for it to actually go anywhere. That being said it's definitely something to keep an eye on and obviously anyone whose work is listed there should do their own research and decide for themselves which steps they want to take.

Warning! These works contain: homosexuals, bisexuals, lesbians, pansexuals, asexuals, polyamorous folks, genderfluid humans and nonhumans, and two (or maybe three) varieties of queer magic-users, as well as gay science-users, wizards, and Dragons. And they’ve all been there since 1979. Welcome to one universe where whom you love and how your genders intersect is between you, your lover(s), and the Goddess. And another where wizards come in so many species and sexualities that getting sniffy about something as wildly variable as local sex and gender may well be seen as kind of provincial… when you’re just one more of a million kinds of humanity, and the serious question is: “Never mind the tentacles—do you think we can date?” Under the cut: the contents! (And a note for would-be UK purchasers)

Irina Cisternino, a PhD candidate of Stony Brooke University, is writing their research on topics related to technology, art and fandom. You can participate by filling out a survey and additionally, signing up for an interview. The survey is expected to last until at least the end of April, those, who signed up for the interview, will be contacted later. You need to be at least 18 years old to participate in either, be able to understand and speak English and identify as a fan.

THE IRS website will let you fill out and file your return THERE ON THE IRS SITE.  You pay like $12 for the actual electronic filing process, and THAT’s IT!

Unless you have tremendous amounts of Schedule D stock shit, TurboTax is NOTHING BUT A RIPOFF!!!

The IRS website is EXCELLENT.  They allow you to look up your past returns, and have every bit of information you MIGHT POSSIBLY NEED!

FUCK TURBOTAX!

Have at it kiddos:

This is a HUGE deal, made possible by funding from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. TurboTax et al are SUPER mad and trying to stop it, which is how you know it’s a great idea :)

This is a huge step towards the end goal of being able to log on, see how much the IRS thinks you owe, and then just confirm or deny - so if you’re eligible, please give it a shot!

Participating states are: Arizona, California, Massachusetts, New York, Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming.

The tool will be mobile-friendly and available in Spanish, and the IRS is hiring dedicated customer support to help people via live chat or phone if you need help!!

It’s going to be a limited pilot with a phased rollout, so won’t be immediately available to everyone in those states, but will slowly open up so that they can make sure everything works. They’ve pulled this together on an INSANELY fast timeline, so please give them a round of applause :)

One flag: because of various security rules that the IRS can’t do anything about, the tool will say that you have to verify your identity through facial recognition. YOU CAN OPT OUT OF THIS so please don’t let it stop you.

The Biden admin is working to update these rules (with a huge focus on equity) but unfortunately that takes a while - and in the meantime, the IRS is legally obligated to be super super careful about who gets access to your data! (One of many reasons they’re a better bet than TurboTax)

US Helplines:

Depression Hotline: 1-630-482-9696

Suicide Hotline: 1-800-784-8433

LifeLine: 1-800-273-8255

Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

Sexuality Support: 1-800-246-7743

Eating Disorders Hotline: 1-847-831-3438

Rape and Sexual Assault: 1-800-656-4673

Grief Support: 1-650-321-5272

Runaway: 1-800-843-5200, 1-800-843-5678, 1-800-621-4000

Exhale: After Abortion Hotline/Pro-Voice: 1-866-4394253

Child Abuse: 1-800-422-4453

UK Helplines:

Samaritans (for any problem): 08457909090 e-mail [email protected]

Childline (for anyone under 18 with any problem): 08001111

Mind infoline (mental health information): 0300 123 3393 e-mail: [email protected]

Mind legal advice (for people who need mental-health related legal advice): 0300 466 6463 [email protected]

b-eat eating disorder support: 0845 634 14 14 (only open Mon-Fri 10.30am-8.30pm and Saturday 1pm-4.30pm) e-mail: [email protected]

b-eat youthline (for under 25’s with eating disorders): 08456347650 (open Mon-Fri 4.30pm - 8.30pm, Saturday 1pm-4.30pm)

Cruse Bereavement Care: 08444779400 e-mail: [email protected]

Frank (information and advice on drugs): 0800776600

Drinkline: 0800 9178282

Rape Crisis England & Wales: 0808 802 9999 1(open 2 - 2.30pm 7 - 9.30pm) e-mail [email protected]

Rape Crisis Scotland: 08088 01 03 02 every day, 6pm to midnight

India Self Harm Hotline: 00 08001006614

India Suicide Helpline: 022-27546669

Kids Help Phone (Canada): 1-800-668-6868

FREE 24/7 suicide hotlines:

Argentina: 54-0223-493-0430

Australia: 13-11-14

Austria: 01-713-3374

Barbados: 429-9999

Belgium: 106

Botswana: 391-1270

Brazil: 21-233-9191

China: 852-2382-0000

(Hong Kong: 2389-2222)

Costa Rica: 606-253-5439

Croatia: 01-4833-888

Cyprus: 357-77-77-72-67

Czech Republic: 222-580-697, 476-701-908

Denmark: 70-201-201

Egypt: 762-1602

Estonia: 6-558-088

Finland: 040-5032199

France: 01-45-39-4000

Germany: 0800-181-0721

Greece: 1018

Guatemala: 502-234-1239

Holland: 0900-0767

Honduras: 504-237-3623

Hungary: 06-80-820-111

Iceland: 44-0-8457-90-90-90

Israel: 09-8892333

Italy: 06-705-4444

Japan: 3-5286-9090

Latvia: 6722-2922, 2772-2292

Malaysia: 03-756-8144

(Singapore: 1-800-221-4444)

Mexico: 525-510-2550

Netherlands: 0900-0767

New Zealand: 4-473-9739

New Guinea: 675-326-0011

Nicaragua: 505-268-6171

Norway: 47-815-33-300

Philippines: 02-896-9191

Poland: 52-70-000

Portugal: 239-72-10-10

Russia: 8-20-222-82-10

Spain: 91-459-00-50

South Africa: 0861-322-322

South Korea: 2-715-8600

Sweden: 031-711-2400

Switzerland: 143

Taiwan: 0800-788-995

Thailand: 02-249-9977

Trinidad and Tobago: 868-645-2800

Ukraine: 0487-327715

0800-800-566 (adults)

0800-500-333 (youth)

I don't post very often unless it's a meme, but I just found out I have cancer and I could really use some help. I've already started having to take leave without pay for medical appointments and am the sole wage-earner in my home. Any help you can give, or even just reblogging, is greatly appreciated!

Reasons why I will not be voting for Audrey R. in the OTW Election and don't think you should either

by fairestcat [ORIGINAL POSTED HERE]

I've spent the past few days catching up on the platforms and Q&A answers of the six candidates for the four open OTW Board seats, and while there are several candidates I am quite impressed by, I want to start by talking about one who I am absolutely appalled by: Audrey R.

This is an expansion of a thread I posted on twitter. I'd been meaning to write a post about Audrey R for several days, but was finally spurred into action by this post by mozaikmage

I assure you, being a registered Republican who ran for office in 2022 is reason enough not to be on the OTW Board, but it's way down on the list of reasons Audrey R shouldn't be on the OTW Board.

All quotes from here on out will be from her official platform/Q&A answers.

Let's start with the fandom elephant in the room, right from her Bio and Platform.

Audrey R.: is a policy lead at a nonprofit, continuing a decade-long career in government and policy work. In her spare time, you will find her shoe shopping or listening to the newest Qveen Herby EP. Her first fandom was Harry Potter, but she didn’t discover fanfiction until taking a college course on fandom. It took two years of reading before she took the plunge into writing her first story, and she now has over seventy works published on the archive. She currently writes in the Harry Potter fandom on AO3 and is a member of the Strategic Planning committee.

Being in Harry Potter fandom isn't in itself an immediate red flag. I absolutely know some people who are still in HP fandom for various reasons. But someone who in 2023 says they're in HP fandom, but does not follow up by disavowing and distancing themselves from Rowling's TERFdom? Red fucking flag.

Further down in the platform post she's asked to discuss one or two goals for the OTW that are important to her, and I'd like to highlight part of her answer:

The second thing has arisen recently, but we need a solid conflict resolution system. I believe there should be a paid employee (we need to make a financial investment in key positions throughout the org) whose only responsibility is conflict management & resolution. If someone has a concern or complaint and does not feel comfortable going to their supervisor, there should be an independent authority of some kind. Dispute resolution is key to an organization’s success and we should invest in it to ensure the wellbeing and satisfaction of volunteers.

This is on the surface a good answer, but it highlights a large gulf in Audrey's knowledge and experience that becomes even more clear in the Q&As. I am a big proponent of the OTW hiring some paid staff, however there is nothing recent about OTW's need for better conflict resolution. Talking to a single long-term volunteer would tell you that.

But as near as I can tell, Audrey R.—who by her own admission has only been an OTW volunteer for one year and "did not initially believe [she'd] put in enough time to merit the position"—doesn't feel any need to research aspects of the OTW that she is unfamiliar with and she certainly doesn't seem to have consulted many long-term volunteers.

The below three answers illustrate this perfectly.

Preserving fan culture is a OTW mission, but when preserving & recording history, how do you think say Fanlore can acknowledge, warn or prevent replicating of harassment & hate speech? In your volunteer experience, what resources are available for volunteers & users on what to do when encountering such cases? I do not understand the premise of this question. It is my understanding that Fanlore editors do their best to remove any hateful or harassing comments on articles. Referencing replication, I initially thought this was a question about the Open Doors imports. I am confused by this question to the point that I don’t have an answer.

The question of preventing replication of harassment & hate speech when preserving fandom history is a very important one, and one that's been ongoing since well before the founding of the OTW. And yet, it's apparently so beyond Audrey's experiences that she doesn't even know what the question is.

I would like to think that if I ran across a platform question that I fundamentally did not understand, I would ask somebody, in an official or unofficial capacity.

But in what I'd argue is a perfect example of mediocre white woman privilege, Audrey apparently doesn't think she needs to.

By comparison, other Board candidates, when approaching topics they don't have experience with describe all the people and committees they've talked to in order to develop their stances.

Anh P, for example, repeatedly references discussions they've had with relevant committees.

Fandom cultures can vary significantly. How would you best reflect the specific fandom’s expectations in tag canonization and synning? May I please know if you support speeding up the conversion of large and small non-canonical tags into Canonical ones? Canonical tags make it easier to include or exclude works from search. I don’t have enough knowledge to fully understand and answer this question. I’ll learn and increase my understanding of tag wrangling procedures.

This is a fairly technical question, but it's a big issue in some parts of fandom right now. Q&A questions are not rapid-fire, candidates have time to research and consider before giving their answers. This is a very good example of something Audrey should have researched before answering, rather than just brushing off the question and promising to research it later.

And then there's her answer to the PAC question.

What are your thoughts on PAC and how to improve things there in response to the current controversy? I do not know what this is referring to, specifically. PAC volunteers need support, they need adequate training on handling CSAM, and they need to feel like their voices are heard at the high levels of the organization. They should also be consulted when decisions made at higher levels will impact their regular business. There have been many internal issues that have come to a head recently, so “current controversy” does not give me enough context to fully understand this question.

The idea that someone running for the OTW Board isn't aware of the current conversations about PAC and volunteer safety and accusations of targeted harassment of a specific PAC volunteer by the Legal Committee and the Board absolutely terrifies me.

But then her answer clearly indicates that she's aware of at least some of what's going on, which leads me to wonder if in this case, "'current controversy' doesn't give me enough context to fully understand this question," is code for, "I don't want to answer this question, so I'm going to play dumb."

I've made it all this way without even talking about the greatest example of Audrey not doing her research and also my particular special interest: fiduciary duty.

Explain in your own words what “fiduciary duty” means for a US non-profit. Are you comfortable with that level of legal commitment? Does being on the Board of Directors of a US nonprofit pose any risk to you or your family in your country? Have you discussed this risk with your loved ones? Most of my family did not want me to run for this board; including one member who is an active user of the Archive. They have no context for the organization’s scandals, internal hiccups, etc. My family is US-based, so their concern is more about whether the OTW is something I want to publicly attach my name to; based on the attacks last year. I believe they view this as something that could hurt me both personally and professionally if something like that were to happen again. To be honest, I am still quite wary of that reality.

Reading this answer I'm led to conclude that Audrey R has no idea what fiduciary duty is, and even more apparently, felt no need to look it up.

This is a really fucking important question.

Fiduciary duties are the central tenant of working for a non-profit Board. And Audrey R. apparently couldn't even be bothered to google the term, so she just ignored it and only answered the other half of the question.

But believe it or not, I've been saving Audrey's worst Q&A answer for last.

And it's her answer to the question about #EndOTWRacism (which the question incorrectly calls #EndRacismInTheOTW)

Apologies, this one is long, but I think I need to quote the entire answer.

What specific actions would you have the Board take to 1) fulfill its commitments made in 2020 to reduce racism on AO3 and across the OTW and 2) continue to expand anti-racist efforts in the OTW? How will you support Black fans, Indigenous fans, and fans of color in feeling welcome on the Archive of Our Own and in avoiding harassment? How do you feel about #EndRacismInTheOTW? Some of the actions addressing these issues within the strategic plan include individual committees reviewing and identifying ways to decrease bias in the recruitment process, forming volunteer coalitions, and implementing procedures to deal with interpersonal conflict. We should also review the comms style guide to ensure offensive language has been properly identified and contextualized. (This would be a conversation for the board to have with the communications committee.) Regarding #EndRacismInTheOTW (henceforth #EOTWR), the impetus for the movement is valid; there are clear concerns that need to be addressed. That being said, no one from #EOTWR recruited existing volunteers to the movement, nor encouraged their followers to volunteer and eventually run for board. Instead of taking steps and involving existing volunteers and board members to genuinely make change, the only coordinated effort has been to disrupt a board meeting. It feels like the movement expects change to be done in their way on their terms. I am offended by their demand that candidates go to their platform to make our voices heard, as if our own platforms and the work we have put in is not enough. We are addressing this formally, as a professional organization should, while acknowledging the limitations of being entirely chat-based and volunteer-run. The timelines for these changes move quite slowly because we are, again, run entirely by volunteers. One of the most important things I learned on the campaign trail was this: it does not matter how loud your voice is if you don’t have a seat at the table. My advice to #EOTWR is recruit and/or run so they can get a seat, and find ways to involve the people currently in the positions to make change.

This answer is so bad.

SO BAD.

I'm having trouble breaking down how bad it is. I'm *kermit flail gif* here.

Audrey R. is disappointed that #EndOTWRacism didn't ask nicely

Showing once again her ignorance of fandom history in general and OTW history in specific, she's upset that fans of colour haven't tried to change the OTW from the inside.

[insert hollow laugh here]

And of course she assumes that none of the supporters of #EndOTWRacism are already volunteers within the OTW.

And it's all so goddamn patronizing.

"We are addressing this formally, as a professional organization should."

As opposed to that uncivilized rabble who's "only coordinated effort has been to disrupt a board meeting."

So, no, I will not be voting for Audrey R for OTW Board. And I don't think anyone else should either.

Hi folks. There seems to be a lot of confusion about what we as fans can and can't do with the striking happening. So I made a flowchart.

Let me make this SUPER DUPER EXTRA CLEAR. Unless an AMPTP studio reaches out and says "We would like to give you X (money/swag/whatever) to create content for us" (that would include writing or acting in anyway on your part) you will NOT be crossing a picket line.

Cosplay, fanart, fanfic, going feral, sharing marketing posts, watching your favorite show, getting your friends to watch your favorite show, etc does not count.

It is ONLY scabbing if you are getting REIMBURSED by the STUDIO.

Please take this flowchart, repost it, spread it everywhere!

April 28, 2023

I’m so sorry for the long post but please please please pay attention and spread this

What is the EARN IT Act?

The EARN IT Act (s. 1207) has been roundly condemned by nearly every major LGBTQ+ advocacy and human rights organization in the country.

This is the third time the Senate has been trying to force this through, and I talked about it last year. It is a bill that claims "protects children and victims against CSAM" by creating an unelected and politically appointed national commission of law enforcement specialists to dictate "best practices" that websites all across the nation will be forced to follow. (Keep in mind, most websites in the world are created in the US, so this has global ramifications). These "best practices" would include killing encryption so that any law enforcement can scan and see every single message, dm, photo, cloud storage, data, and any website you have every so much as glanced at. Contrary to popular belief, no they actually can't already do that. These "best practices" also create new laws for "removing CSAM" online, leading to mass censorship of non-CSAM content like what happened to tumblr. Keep in mind that groups like NCOSE, an anti-LGBT hate group, will be allowed on this commission. If websites don't follow these best practices, they lose their Section 230 protections, leading to mass censorship either way.

Section 230 is foundational to modern online communications. It's the entire reason social media exists. It grants legal protection to users and websites, and says that websites aren't responsible for what users upload online unless it's criminal. Without Section 230, websites are at the mercy of whatever bullshit regulatory laws any and every US state passes. Imagine if Texas and Florida were allowed to say what you can and can't publish and access online. That is what will happen if EARN IT passes. (For context, Trump wanted to get rid of Section 230 because he knew it would lead to mass govt surveillance and censorship of minorities online.)

This is really not a drill. Anyone who makes or consume anything “adult” and LGBT online has to be prepared to fight Sen. Blumenthal’s EARN IT Act, brought back from the grave by a bipartisan consensus to destroy Section 230. If this bill passes, we’re going to see most, if not all, adult content and accounts removed from mainstream platforms. This will include anything related to LGBT content, including SFW fanfiction, for example. Youtube, Twitter, Reddit, Tiktok, Tumblr, all of them will be completely gutted of anything related to LGBT content, abortion healthcare, resources for victims of any type of abuse, etc. It is a right-wing fascists wet dream, which is why NCOSE is behind this bill and why another name for this bill is named in reference to NCOSE.

NCOSE used to be named Morality in Media, and has rebranded into an "anti-trafficking" organization. They are a hate group that has made millions off of being "against trafficking" while helping almost no victims and pushing for homophobic laws globally. They have successfully pushing the idea that any form of sexual expression, including talking about HEALTH, leads to sex trafficking. That's how SESTA passed. Their goal is to eliminate all sex, anything gay, and everything that goes against their idea of ‘God’ from the internet and hyper disney-fy and sanitize it. This is a highly coordinated attack on multiple fronts.

The EARN IT Act will lead to mass online censorship and surveillance. Platforms will be forced to scan their users’ communications and censor all sex-related content, including sex education, literally anything lgbt, transgender or non-binary education and support systems, aything related to abortion, and sex worker communication according to the ACLU. All this in the name of “protecting kids” and “fighting CSAM”, both of which the bill does nothing of the sort. In fact it makes fighting CSEM even harder.

EARN IT will open the way for politicians to define the category of “pornography" as they — or the lobbies that fund them — please. The same way that right-wing groups have successfully banned books about race and LGBT, are banning trans people from existing, all under the guise of protecting children from "grooming and exploitation", is how they will successfully censor the internet.

As long as state legislatures can tie in "fighting CSAM" to their bullshit laws, they can use EARN IT to censor and surveill whatever they want.

This is already a nightmare enough. But the bill also DESTROYS ENCRYPTION, you know, the thing protecting literally anyone or any govt entity from going into your private messages and emails and anything on your devices and spying on you.

This bill is going to finish what FOSTA/SESTA started. And that should terrify you.

Senator Blumenthal (Same guy who said ‘Facebook should ban finsta’) pushed this bill all of 2020, literally every activist (There were more than half a million signatures on this site opposing this act!) pushed hard to stop this bill. Now he brings it back, doesn’t show the text of the bill until hours later, and it’s WORSE. Instead of fixing literally anything in the bill that might actually protect kids online, Bluemnthal is hoping to fast track this and shove it through, hoping to get little media attention other than propaganda of “protecting kids” to support this shitty legislation that will harm kids. Blumental doesn't care about protecting anyone, and only wants his name in headlines.

It will make CSAM much much worse.

One of the many reasons this bill is so dangerous: It totally misunderstands how Section 230 works, and in doing so (as with FOSTA) it is likely to make the very real problem of CSAM worse, not better. Section 230 gives companies the flexibility to try different approaches to dealing with various content moderation challenges. It allows for greater and greater experimentation and adjustments as they learn what works – without fear of liability for any “failure.” Removing Section 230 protections does the opposite. It says if you do anything, you may face crippling legal liability. This actually makes companies less willing to do anything that involves trying to seek out, take down, and report CSAM because of the greatly increased liability that comes with admitting that there is CSAM on your platform to search for and deal with. This liability would allow anyone for any reason to sue any platform they want, suing smaller ones out of existence. Look at what is happening right now with book bans across the nation with far right groups. This is going to happen to the internet if this bill passes.

(Remember, the state department released a report in December 2021 recommending that the government crack down on “obscenity” as hard the Reagan Administration did. If this bill passes, it could easily go way beyond shit red states are currently trying. It is a goldmine for the fascist right that is currently in the middle of banning every book that talks about race and sexuality across the US.)

The reason these bills keep showing up is because there is this false lie spread by organizations like NCOSE that platforms do nothing about CSEM online. However, platforms are already liable for child sexual exploitation under federal law. Tech companies sent more than 45 million+ instances of CSAM to the DOJ in 2019 alone, most of which they declined to investigate. This shows that platforms are actually doing everything in their power already to stop CSEM by following already existing laws. The Earn It Act includes zero resources for proven investigation or prevention programs. If Senator Bluementhal actually cared about protecting youth, why wouldn’t he include anything to actually protect them in his shitty horrible bill? EARN IT is actually likely to make prosecuting child molesters more difficult since evidence collected this way likely violates the Fourth Amendment and would be inadmissible in court.

I don’t know why so many Senators are eager to cosponsor the “make child pornography worse” bill, but here we are.

HOW TO FIGHT BACK

EARN IT Act was introduced just two weeks ago and is already being fast-tracked. It will be marked up the week of May 1st and head to the Senate floor immediately after. If there is no loud and consistent opposition, it will be law by JUNE! Most bills never go to markup, so this means they are putting pressure to move this through. There are already 20 co-sponsors, a fifth of the entire Senate. This is an uphill battle and it is very much all hands on deck.

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES.

This website takes you to your Senator / House members contact info. EMAIL, MESSAGE, SEND LETTERS, CALL CALL CALL CALL CALL. Calling is the BEST way to get a message through. Get your family and friends to send calls too. This is literally the end of free speech online.

(202) 224-3121 connects you to the congressional hotline. Here is a call script if you don't know what to say. Call them every day. Even on the weekends, leaving voicemails are fine.

2. Sign these petitions!

Link to Petition 1

Link to Petition 2

3. SPREAD THE WORD ONLINE

If you have any social media, spread this online. One of the best ways we fought back against this last year was MASSIVE spread online. Tiktok, reddit, twitter, discord, whatever means you have at least mention it. We could see most social media die out by this fall if we don't fight back.

Here is a linktree with more information on this bill including a masterpost of articles, the links to petitions, and the call script.

DISCORD LINK IF YOU WANT TO HELP FIGHT IT

This person has HUNDREDS of books on Amazon. On the supernatural/vampires/werewolves section alone I saw other KC stories, even one I recognized by @willowaus (being sold on print form as well). So I highly suggest that anybody with published fics out there, be it on tumblr, wattpad, AO3, anything, check this person's profile on Amazon. A quick twitter search showed me they've been identified as stealing stuff from other fandoms as well. There are definitely some Teen Wolf and other Vampire Diaries stuff there. Some of it seems to be rather recent (The Wolf was published on Amazon this November). They've also published some of this stuff on Barnes and Noble.

I am trying to figure out how to file a plagiarism complaint on Amazon. The form is not really that intuitive, so I'm not sure how to do it exactly. If anybody has dealt with this before and has any idea on how to address it, I'm all ears. I would really love some tips on how to procede here, because I have no clue and am kind of in shock right now.