Stop KOSA. Why the KOSA Bill is Dangerous and Should be Rejected

trashhalo@beehaw.org to Technology@beehaw.org – 397 points – Stop KOSA
stopkosa.com

KOSA is a bill that aims to protect children online but it would do so in harmful ways. First, it would pressure platforms to install content filters that would censor large amounts of content, including important suicide prevention and LGBTQ+ support resources. Content filters have a history of overblocking important information. Second, KOSA would ramp up online surveillance of all users by expanding age verification and parental monitoring tools. These tools are unnecessarily invasive and pose risks to young people trying to escape abuse. Over 90 rights groups agree that KOSA is dangerous and cannot be fixed through amendments. If you value a free and open internet, contact your lawmakers to reject KOSA.

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"Protect the children" is the new "fight terror". Big empty phrases that only end up taking away rights and targeting minorities.

True, but not new. It's been this since before "fight terror" in fact.

It's coined as the "Helen Lovejoy Syndrome" after a Simpson's episode from the nineties.

"The war on drugs" has entered the chat

Won't someone please think of the children?!

If I recall correctly, that began because white men were afraid that non-white men would rape their wives. I'm not exactly sure how banning drugs was supposed to help, though.

Yes, true. I guess its more of a shitty comeback, worse than before.

Possibly even worse since it's very often used as a cover for CSA. Not just minorities in this case that are being harmed, we're talking about literal children. It's fucking horrific.

"Fight terror" has only really be an excuse since 9/11. Before they had others including protecting children. Only the anti-trans stuff is newish.

protect children online

I've yet to see any single new law proposal, that actually tackles this problem rather than misusing it's emotional trigger to get acceptance for surveillance and control

Meanwhile... child labor protections? Who needs em? Protections against child marriage (or let's call it what it is, rape)? They'll be fine. God wills it, after all, and it's in the Bible (or so they're told, very few of them actually read it).

Meanwhile, actual abuse is happening constantly in the Catholic (and others) church, and what do they do? Just shuffle 'em around a little bit. They "repented", so that means we can leave him alone with kids in Montana now instead of New Mexico. Problem solved! Thank the lord!

These fuckers have zero interest in actually protecting children, and for a good chunk of them, they're actively working toward the exact opposite.

Why is there always an authoritarian law being proposed every month?

Because we've hit the point of capitalism where the system is imploding on itself, and so those in power turn to fascism in order to protect their capital.

Rights for everyone when there's a boom, cracking down on rights when the cake stops growing.

we've hit the point of capitalism where...

Oh, you mean its literal inception? This shit never worked.

That's kinda historically illiterate. The reason people tolerated Capitalism in the first place was that it smashed old forms of oppression and replaced them with less bad forms of oppression.

Being marginally better than feudalism isn't a very high bar.

What does this have to do with capitalism?

When people are starting to starve and there are no more monkeys that can entertain the masses, the spirit of rebellion starts to rise from the ashes.

So the established powers that be have two options: violently suppress the masses. Or acquiesce some level of control, power, or ultimately capital.

The powers that be would rather die than give up their money. So fascism it is!

Very dark and edgy 👏 Heres your award 🥇

Well excuse me for trying to write an entertaining explanation while the earth is burning down from unchecked capitalist greed.

I guess people just aren't allowed to have fun anymore :/

Here's your award for being a boring and unhelpful person 🥇

Because someone has to care about the children.Don't you care about the children? The chidlren. CHILDREN!

Well, yes, I do care about the children. That's why I want these legislators to stop trying to harm them.

Because some folks really seem to like power? And emotion is a solid button to press because a lot of folks are irrational monkeys.

Edit: most - > a lot of

I like the phrase "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely".

KOSA is not the only thing one should be worried about, illiterates from UK are bringing in an Online Safety Bill which needs all services with encryption to provide a backdoor for the UK government under the reasoning of "monitoring for CSAM content".

This doesn't just impact UK citizens, but will do for the world.

If I recall correctly, Australia did something similar.

Interesting to see how the 5-eyes try to push similar dumb ideas together.

Australia did something recently, yes. It's called the AA Bill. And it allows for the government to demand a worker put a backdoor in to an encryption product. The absolutely stupid thing is that if the government does this, the worker can't tell a soul about it for fear of prison. If (when) it comes up in code review, they're still not allowed to tell anyone. If they do, it's straight off to prison. Where does it stop. I was hopeful that tech companies would abandon australia when this happened, but they didn't. They just rolled over and took it up the arse pipe. Fucking hell. This is a good write up

That's not even mentioning what google is trying to do currently.

What in the name of fuck is that bill. That's one of the worst pieces of legislation I've seen in a longer while. Companies and open source communities will immediately catch that an employee is trying to sabotage their system on behalf of the government by means of code review and version control history. The programmer will be questioned, then likely fired or ostracized in case of open source works and the code will hit the bin. This idiotic... thing will accomplish nothing but harm their own citizens who will now be treated like potential therats and denied employment opportunities.

On a funnier note, every time Australia introduces some horrible tech-related bill I remember this beautiful clip summarising just how well politicians understand technology.

These bills are going to keep coming. The goal is erosion of rights and privacy at all costs.

My entire life, they have never, ever once stopped trying to push the same bullshit through, over and over and over.

It's so goddamn exhausting. A constant battle of attrition.

I'm just tired.... When do I get to just enjoy my life?

When the populace collectively grows a brain and replaces these clowns with someone honest. People voted for these legislators, keep in mind.

It's not like there aren't already a lot of people trying to vote better people in, it just never seems to be enough... ~Strawberry

People need to take more responsibility for their kids - if you let them online, you'd better fucking understand what that entails and if not (gasp!) don't let them on the internet.

And if that's impossible for someone then why the fuck did they reproduce in the first place?

Because their god told them to reproduce and not question it.

Religion is a hell of a drug.

Same thing with banning books. This is fascist bullshit and it's not about protecting children or anyone else. It's about pushing their false Christianity, their christofascism on everyone whether they like it or not and trying to turn the country into a fascist "Christian" theocractic dictatorship where they can say and do whatever they want whenever they want about anything or anyone but no one else can.

I was with you til the "false" part. As someone who grew up in a sect that actually read the book, ain't nothing false about this Christianity or these Christians.

It's inconvenient to admit, but the bible is an awful awful book.

I have actually read it cover to cover as well. But just because something is written in a book doesn't make it true. The genre of fiction exists. And the very concept of religion, all of them are made up. As in there was a time in the history of Earth where no religion existed. Dinosaurs didn't have religion for example, and they came before humans, who created religion.

Jesus, whom they claim to love/worship/etc., would be labeled a dirty commie/socialist by them for wanting to help the poor, sick, and needy. And for loving everyone. They hate Jesus. They worship supply side Jesus AKA Republican Jesus.

I think maybe you misread (looking back my comment wasn't worded great). I don't believe anything in the Bible is true.

What I'm saying is that they are acting consistently with their faith. Jesus said a lot of some cool stuff, but it doesn't erase all of the horrific shit that their god did before, and how their god tells them to act. And don't forget their god is literally also Jesus. The guy who killed every first born Jew in Egypt (unless you performed a blood magick ritual), and ruined the life of his most faithful servant, killing his family in the process, just to make a point to "the devil". The guy who almost made his #1 prophet murder his own son just for the lulz.

That's Jesus too. And any Christian who disagrees is a heretic.

And no, Jesus didn't "replace" the old law or whatever bullshit people like to tell themselves. The bible is very clear that those rules are still in place.

Jesus himself said he was there to fulfill the law. Meaning the Old Testament. And that is problematic. He was literally ok with owning humans as property, and that it's ok to beat them as long as you don't kill them. Because they're a thing that you own. That's the law Jesus came to fulfill, and not once did he renounce a single word of it.

"Oh but that was just the way things were then..." Yeah, so the son of God (who is also literally God) can't say, oh I don't know, "slavery is an abomination. You cannot own humans"? Didn't want to cause trouble? Jesus, the guy super well known for staying in line and not rocking the boat 🙄.

A book that would go on to be used as justification for chattal slavery in North America, and cause more pain and suffering than any of us could possibly imagine.

People like to act like their bible doesn't say this shit, and that folks like Westboro Baptist don't follow the same book (when they actually follow it more closely). The reality is, Christianity is ugly stuff, and it's wholly incompatible with a modern (peaceful) society.

Since it is "for the children", I'm sure they won't give a shit about censorship.

Prepare your VPNs. This will be one hell of a ride.

teach your kids about privacy online, later to use tor and I2p

Using Tor is considered terrorist activity in France

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/336989

Why couldn't the US just do the same?

Internet freedom and privacy needs not only needs protection by technological tools like Tor or VPNs, but also needs legal protection. Would anyone use Tor if the government starts raiding houses? Tor users are such a small minority that the government can easily throw you all in prison.

I’ve known about Tor since like middle school but have been scared downloading it will get me on some watchlist. Or at the very least, tracked harder whenever I’m not on a Tor browser for whatever reason.

I live in the United States of America. Tor was developed by my own country’s naval research laboratory.

I've heard that most Tor nodes are controlled by the US government and the whole system is basically a honey pot, so why would they worry?

problem is the government in the usa would never make it illegal to use because they built the whole system. They would be breaking the law themselves

IIRC I2P can't access the clear net and Tor is still absurdly slow. I'm not sure what to do there. ~Strawberry