#anti modern disney

[doverstar]

I can't bring myself to watch the live action Lion King because it feels like a slap to the face towards the original animated lion king I grew up knowing and loving. What are your thoughts?

I 100% agree with you. The original Lion King was the first-ever movie I watched. Ever. It's my favorite Disney film. Simba is in my bloodstream. Free serotonin every time I see him! I hate the live action version. We saw it in theaters in 2019 because we loved the original so much, and were horrendously disappointed. We sort of went into it knowing it wouldn't hold a candle to the OG, but we didn't expect it to be quite as soulless as it was. I mean, it's the most boring thing I've ever seen. You're working with talking, singing animals and not one of them is able to show an ounce of emotion? And my eyes were crying out for real color throughout. At least in the cartoon I can differentiate Simba's coat from the terrain. I might as well have been watching Animal Planet. The voice cast was fine, but overall, like all of Disney's foolish, insulting, disrespectful live action remakes, it's a completely unnecessary movie. Icky cash grab wearing the original Lion King's corpse. Why, why would you watch a shell of a story, a painful, mind-numbing 2.0 when you could go and enjoy the full thing, the original? It's a total waste of time. It takes everything good about the source material and removes it, replacing it with lifeless realism and a lack of any proper intentionality or heart. Ew ew ew. And don't get me started on the new Mufasa film. Draw that sucker by hand or throw it in the garbage, you brainless, insatiable leeches. Stop treating us like idiots. We will not all hand you our earnings for every underdeveloped cop-out piece just because you used to be trustworthy and make great art. Modern-day Disney has lost 90% of my respect. I haven't seen a film of theirs in theaters since Encanto. I refuse to see any more live action remakes, I refuse to pay money to ensure their moldy leftovers get one more box office number, and I refuse to believe they're ever going to go back to the way it used to be: good stories, for good reasons. And The Lion King (2019) makes my point for me. sorry got a little winded there-

[the-overanalyst]

science vs. art is not the real conflict.

science is the study of reality. it just exists. it has no agenda. technological progress is the natural way of the world, it has been for thousands of years.

the real conflict is between art and business. which one gets to harness science for its own ends?

the frustrating thing about our current era is not that science is rising. it's that business is rising and carrying science up with it ever further away from art.

[selkiesstories]

And that’s not even getting into when production companies themselves openly say they hired X actor because they wanted to “diversify a franchise” only to loudly denounce any critics who point out that the character in question is very poorly portrayed and was clearly only hired for diversity brownie points.

Oh my god. What is with Disney these days? No one wants a “woke” Princess and it’s like they don’t even understand the word anyway.

Pixar does because look at Merida. She still got help from “a man” even if they were her little brothers. It was still “female empowerment” because her mother is actually the one who killed the bad guy anyway and it was because he was about to kill Merida. It wasn’t just “women strong!”. Hell, Merida refuses to get married and actually ends the movie that way but she never comes across as “ew, men” but that she simply doesn’t want to. I can relate.

But back to Disney. They changed Little Mermaid so Ariel literally did EVERYTHING including killing Ursula despite the fact that she shouldn’t even know how to drive a damn ship. 🙄 There was nothing wrong with Eric doing it!

And now we’re getting “woke” Snow White who is named as such because her skin is WHITE AS SNOW! But noooooo… she has to be a person of color too so Disney can have lazy writing and call everyone racist when we call them out on this BS. POC are just shields for them now although Rachel Zegler tried to accuse everyone of hate already. Lady, that’s not going to get people to see your point. And frankly, it’s not even about her. It’s about Disney and what they’re doing.

Also they’re apparently planning to change the Prince coming in to wake her up at the end. Like, what? And most of the seven dwarves are gone too. I think there’s only one now while the others are “normal”. They thought(and Zegler said) that the Prince was “acting stalker-ish” so that’s why they wanted to change him. Hah. They clearly didn’t watch “Once Upon a Time”. Now THAT is a live-action Snow White.

Frankly, their movie is not even Snow White anymore and I can tell already that it’s going to flop with all these unneeded and unnecessary changes. All it shares in common now is the name. Nothing else.

This is just my opinion. You don’t have to agree.

[hitchell-mope]

(After one of Hades’s increasingly frequent non-sequiturs)

Chad: Who’s that?

Ben: He's my wife’s father. Oh, you look confused. A wife is somebody who loves you that you don't have to pay.

[ditzycore]

As an old Disney fan I can't help but notice that the Elio movie looks so "Cocomelon" and childish. I miss when Disney made movies the whole family could enjoy. Especially after seeing what Wish had to offer it's like Disney keeps straying further and further from serious and/or dark themes. I miss when most Disney movies had a dark/villain death scene.

Might I remind you that this was in the first Disney movie:

Literally plummeting to her death and being killed by a boulder falling.

And this was in two of Disney's most beloved movies:

Scar being surrounded by fire to be eaten alive by hyenas. Gothel turns so old that she falls to her death and becomes dust.

Disney made the Notre Dame movie which is incredibly dark for a family movie. Up until recently almost all Disney movies had a dark/frightening scene or villain death scene. Now Disney is so tame it's actually so boring.

[tljisthegoat]

The cruel irony of Disney, a company that used to be known for Happily Ever Afters & overall wholesome family-friendly shows/movies, absolutely butchered & disrespected Reylo's story just boggles my mind. They really looked at what Rian Johnson did with TLJ & and said, "Let's ruin EVERYTHING" just because the internet had the equivalent of a temper tantrum mixed with a mental breakdown over Luke not being this perfect Jedi that he was in the Old Canon/Legends continuity.

They must've mentally blocked out all of Yoda's warnings to Luke about the consequences of using the dark side.

Like when he flat out told Luke & us as the audience that if Luke used the dark side, it would start him down the dark path. Forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you it will. As it did Obi-Wan's apprentice. This proved to be true when Luke's use of the dark side allowed him to overcome & defeat Vader. But at the cost of changing his destiny. This is further explored in TLJ when Luke tries to kill Ben in order to stop him from becoming Kylo Ren in the future.

Sooo we're just gonna ignore that the biggest difference between Darth Vader and Kylo Ren is what Luke sensed in them? People lack critical thinking & literary analysis skills, and it shows.

Luke to Darth Vader - "I've accepted you were once Anakin Skywalker, my father. It is the name of your true self. You've only forgotten. I know there is good in you. The emperor hasn't driven it from you fully. That was why you couldn't destroy me. That's why you won't bring me to your emperor now."

Luke continues on. "Come with me."

Luke walks toward Vader, his eyes hopeful and determined. "Search your feelings father, you can't do this. I feel the conflict within you let go of your hate."

Vader responds with such overwhelming sadness, "It is too late for me, son..."

Luke: "Then my father is truly dead."

Luke: "Your thoughts betray you, father. I sense the good in you. The conflict"

Vader: "There is no conflict."

Yet, when he looks into Ben's mind, he sees darkness. He's an unreliable narrator as well to Rey, who has to force the truth of what happened to Ben out of him.

Luke: "I saw darkness. I sensed it building him in moments during his training. But then I looked inside, and it was beyond what I ever imagined. Snoke had already turned his heart. He would bring destruction and pain and death and the end of everything I love because of what he will become. And in the briefest moment of pure instinct, I thought I could stop it. It passed like a fleeting shadow. And I was left with shame and consequence. And the last thing I saw was the eyes of a frightened boy whose master had failed him."

Rey believes in Ben being their last hope, and she was right in the end. She was also right to tell Luke that his fatal mistake was believing Ben's choice was made already. It wasn't.

Rey & Ben found belonging in one another in TLJ and had that story been given a proper conclusion with lots of kisses, sex and all that good stuff, then we would've had a future that truly lives forever instead of one that's a pathetic shell of what it could've been.

[firerose]

Modern Media needs to realize something

Women who act like their better than men and put them down for even the tiniest mistakes does not mean they are strong women!

[fryingpan1234567]

wow some of you (those calling the live-action remakes unnecessary cash-ins) don’t know that Walt Disney put it in his will that all the Disney classics are to be remade every ten years so that every generation can enjoy them and it really shows

[calebjorgens2024]

Mickey’s Journey to Idaho.

in light of Steamboat Willie’s release into the public domain after it’s 95 year copyright expired, I immediately have gotten into work my Fic, known by the title as above, I feature the historic American Empress Riverboat in my Story as a talking ship who welcomes Mickey and Minnie aboard for their trip to Idaho.

I cannot wait to eventually begin progress on my Fic!

[terriblygrimm]

i haven’t watched rebels season 5 oops i mean a.hsoka and i dont ever plan to (disney can burn after mando 3) but i gotta say dave fil.oni making s.abine a force sensitive mandalorian is some kind of next level piece of shit move

[im-just-a-br0adway-baby]

((I came up with this after watching the Smosh video a couple weeks ago. This is crack and not meant to be taken seriously.))

Felix and Pepa sat on the couch in the living room, giggling and kissing each other after coming home from a date. They assumed they were home alone, so they decided to hang out in the living room and have their private time together.

“I had so much fun, Felix! I hope to do it again sometime!” Pepa giggled as Felix moved her closer to him.

“We still have some time to have some more fun,” Felix replied as he moved closer to Pepa and began to kiss her.

The couple tasted each other’s lips as Pepa wrapped her arms around Felix’s neck and he wrapped his arms around her waist. Felix pushed Pepa on the couch as they continued to kiss each other. But before they could go any further, Bruno burst into the living room, interrupting their session and startling them.

“PEPA! FELIX! You would not believe what I just found!”

Pepa began to thunder as she got up from the couch. “I thought you weren’t going to be home until late!”

“Plans changed. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. But I found this weird story that I need the two of you to hear. I already lost most of my brain cells reading it!”

“...And you want us to lose brain cells with you because…?”

“Because this is something you both can see the stupidity in more than I can. It’s called “I Am Sad That My Child Isn’t Dark Skinned.”

That was when Pepa and Felix’s curiosity got the best of them. They sprang up from the couch and made their way to the office with Bruno. He opened the story on the family computer for them to see, but Bruno decided to read it out loud to them as Pepa and Felix sat on the open chair next to the desk.

“Throwaway account. I know I am going to sound horrible, but I finally need to tell someone. I have been feeling like this for more than four years. I am a white man, who is married to a black woman. I always knew I would marry a black woman, because that’s the only ‘type’ of woman I am attracted to.”

Pepa and Felix looked at each other with a somewhat disgusted look on their faces. “The only type of woman they’re attracted to!?” Felix said in disbelief.

“This is only like the first sentence and it’s already off to a bad start,” Pepa added.

“Then you’re in for a treat,” Bruno said before he continued reading. “I met my beautiful, wonderful, intelligent wife. We dated for five years before getting married. I love my wife, nine years together and I am still so in love. We have a four-year-old son. When she gave birth, he was white. But aren’t all babies?”

Pepa and Felix could not help but laugh at the last sentence as Bruno paused to let them. “That’s probably the stupidest thing I’ve heard all this week!” Pepa blurted out.

“I can only imagine how stupid the rest of this post is going to be,” Felix added.

Bruno continued to read the post. “But the months passed, and his color didn’t change. Now he is four and he looks just like me. With blue eyes, blonde hair and his hair isn’t even curly or afro. He looks like a little white boy.”

“You wouldn’t be upset if we had a kid and they looked more like you than me, right, Pepi?” Felix asked after a brief pause.

“Absolutely not! Our children will be beautiful no matter which one of us they look like.”

“Even if they don’t look like either of us?” Felix joked.

Pepa gave her boyfriend a glare. “I wouldn’t push it that far.”

Bruno continued reading the story. “My wife often gets upset because people assume she is babysitting, or that she is the step-mom. I try to comfort her as much as I can. I pretend I am so happy he looks like me. But the truth is that I am gutted. When she was pregnant, I envisioned a black/brown skinned kid. I was excited to share ‘black culture’ with him. I am into things that can be classified stereotypically as ‘black’. And so is my wife.”

“The fact that he said he called that kind of stuff ‘stereotypically black’ things, I’m lost already,” Felix interrupted.

“The other day, she bought him a black doll. I asked her what the point was since he looks white. She just said to me ‘He looks white, but he isn’t and I want him to be part of my culture, his culture’,” Bruno continued reading.

“Why would you be upset because your wife bought your son a black doll!? Just because he doesn’t look black doesn’t mean you can’t buy him a black doll!” Pepa said.

“Besides, even if both of the parents were white, why would buying your child a black doll be an issue!?” Felix added.

“I have NEVER said anything to anyone, or treated him as if he wasn't my son. I love him. I wouldn’t trade him for any mixed toddler. But I still have this feeling that I wish, when I took him to his appointments, outside in the park, people would just see that he is not one hundred percent white.”

“He probably thought about trading his son at some point, though,” Pepa snarked as Felix and Bruno could not help but laugh.

“Look, I would not trade my son for a mixed toddler, but I thought about it many times in his life,” Felix said, attempting to imitate the original poster. Pepa and Bruno continued to laugh before Bruno could finish reading the story.

“My wife wants another baby, but I have been saying no, because I am scared baby number two will also be white.” 

Pepa and Felix laughed again. The fact that someone did not want to have another child because he was scared it was going to look white was enough for them and Bruno to burst into so much laughter that they felt like the entire Encanto could hear them.

“So if they do have another child and the second child ends up being white, will he actually disown them?” Felix asked as Pepa continued laughing.

“Maybe him not wanting another child is a blessing because that will mean one less child will be disowned by their parents,” Pepa replied, still laughing.

“There’s an edit to the post, so there’s more,” Bruno said before he read the edit. “Since some of you cannot understand what you are reading, this only describes my feelings, NOT my wife’s feelings. She and her family have no problem with our son’s skin/hair color. Her labor was so awful, that she is just happy she is just doing fine, and is there for her son. Yes she gets upset at the strangers’ comments. You’d be surprised how many strangers open their mouths like ‘did they give you the wrong kid… take a DNA test… check if there was a black kid born that day… where’s the mom… ma’am I need to see an ID to check if this is really your son… Hey, kiddo, do you know this woman’ etc. etc. Even my own family ‘Oh he had the good genes’. Of course she is going to be hurt. But she never ever expressed or showed any resentments. I am only talking about myself. I have never discussed this issue with my wife. Because I am afraid she would leave me or at least be super upset and mad at me.”

“She should leave him,” Pepa said.

“Everything about that post just screamed ‘fetishize’ to me. I lost at least five brain cells just from you reading that to me,” Felix added.

“I’m sorry, chicos, but I found this so funny and wrong that I had to share it with you,” Bruno replied.

“Felix, didn’t you date someone when we were in high school that thought the exact same way?” Pepa asked.

“I did. I remember her saying that I was ‘physically her type’ and I knew exactly what she meant. She only dated black men prior and even after we dated. It was one of the weirdest dating experiences I ever had.”

“I probably would have been just as annoyed, if not more, if I was in the same situation. I don’t understand how anyone could have that mindset.”

“I actually want to read some of the comments now.”

“I can read some of them for you,” Bruno said before he began reading. “It’s so funny how he wanted to experience blackness through his son. He has a black fetish, married a black woman, has a biracial son but is disappointed his appearance might not give him access to some aspects of blackness and by extension neither can he. What a world!”

“That is true!” said Pepa.

“I’m just still caught on the fact that he wants to share ‘black culture’ with his son but he didn’t want his wife to buy him a black doll because it didn’t look like him,” Felix added.

“Another comment says ‘I wonder if his wife knows about his fetishization of her skin color’,” Bruno read from the post. “And there’s a response to it that says ‘Extremely doubtful, as he mentioned he didn’t tell his wife his feelings about his child’.”

“I’m actually scared his wife is going to find out from this post,” Felix commented.

“I’m even more scared that his child is going to find this post when he grows up and ask his dad if he never loved him,” Pepa added.

“There is a high chance that’s going to happen. Everybody can find everything from everyone these days,” Bruno mentioned.

“And that’s exactly why I’m terrified for this child when he’s older.”

“Can we read one more comment before we go upstairs?” Felix asked.

“Okay; here’s one more that I feel like would hit Pepa pretty hard,” Bruno answered before he began to read the comment. “What he isn’t getting is that the child is mixed, regardless of what his skin color is. He has just as much chance of passing on his mother’s genes when he has kids, as he does his father’s. I remember this one Maury episode, the father didn’t believe the child was his, because the baby was ‘white’, both parents were ‘black’. The child was his. Genetics are interesting and something that has been recessive for generations, can pop up.”

Pepa could not help but pause at that comment. So many things were going on in her head that she did not know what to say next. All she could think about was all those times people asked if she was adopted or comments wondering if Alma cheated on Pedro which was why Pepa was ginger. It took a while for her to put her thoughts together, but she then was able to talk after organizing them.

“This did hit me as much as you said, Bruno. I’ll never forget about when we were children and all the other kids in our class would make comments about how I wasn’t actually your or Julieta’s sister because I didn’t have the same skin tone or hair color as you guys.”

“And Julieta would be the one to constantly tell them that we’re triplets and came out of the same womb?”

“Exactly. And how people would assume we had a different father because of that since I looked like neither mama nor papa.”

“Those guys were absolute cabrons. Genetics really are interesting, like the commenter said, and you looking the way you do can be a combination of so many genetics from your family,” Felix added.

“That reminds me of that time when we were teenagers when you asked mama about papa and why you didn’t look like either of them while Julieta and I did, and mama showed a whole photo album of our family tree and it showed several great-grandparents that looked just like you,” Bruno explained.

“It did make me realize that I really was a Madrigal, and mama showed a couple of pictures of her when she was younger, and how I had a similar smile, nose shape, and face shape to her and papi’s eye shape.”

Felix grabbed Pepa’s arm and signaled Bruno to let them know they were going upstairs. Bruno gave them the thumbs up and Pepa and Felix made their way to her room as Bruno sat back down to read more weird internet stories.

[doverstar]

So question: The disney sequels have a mostly-deserved reputation for being unnesscary cookie-cutter cash grabs. Are the any that you think were actually enjoyable?

Hi, you mean the live-action remakes, right? Actually, yes! Read below.

Yeah, I enjoyed:

Alice in Wonderland (2010) Cinderella (2015) Beauty and the Beast (2017) Christopher Robin (2018) That's it. 1. I love Alice in Wonderland (the book, and the story in general). It's special to me. Burton's Alice is an actual, genuine sequel film supposed to take place years after the events in Alice's in Wonderland. It borrows elements from the novels Disney didn't fit in in the animated version, and it brought together creative minds who were perfect for bringing Lewis Carroll's Wonderland to life in fresh ways. I like Alice in it in particular; Alice is the only female character I will tolerate people calling a 'feminism icon' or any variant of that, and in this movie, my reasons why are on full display. I could elaborate, but that would take too long, so I won't. I love Alice in Burton's movie; she's book-accurate to a T, right down to the wild mane of hair from the original illustrations, and having her champion Wonderland and rekindle her 'muchness' was a perfect character arc for an older Alice. Again, could elaborate, again, not going to. 2. Cinderella (2015) is a national treasure and there's nothing wrong with it. Nothing. It's exactly as colorful, magical, and moral as it ought to be. The writing is exquisite, the simplicity of the theme "have courage and be kind" is so well-done, and again, perfectly cast. If you're going to remake an animated classic, this is how it's done. Take the best points of the original story and expand on it; try to make it even brighter. A++. 3. Let me be clear. Let me explain about Beauty and the Beast (2017). I would rather watch the original, animated BatB every single time. I only included this film on my list because I like snow, and I like the new songs, and I like the costumes (except Belle Watson's dress, put that zipper AWAY-) and I like Ewan McGregor, and I like Emma Thompson, and I like Dan Stevens. It's a feast for the eyeballs and the ear holes, sort of like the original (but nothing even close to the original). I won't duck my head and act like I didn't have fun with this film when it first came out, or like I wouldn't turn it on late at night if it was snowing outside and I had a fire going. In the right mood, I would. Visually appealing. Musically delightful. Everything else about it is garbage, and a waste of time. I spit upon it all. Emma Watson played a plank of wood in a dress whining about women, the Beast's character arc deserved more, Gaston should have been worse, Lefou was a joke, no. No. Ew, ew, ew.

4. Christopher Robin (2018) was an actual sequel, like Alice, and everyone should watch it. Everyone should make their favorite warm drink and go get a blanket and watch it. Again, nothing wrong with it. Absolutely wonderful from start to finish. Pooh is himself, Piglet is himself, they're all themselves. All of them. And Ewan McGregor was stellar. The theme, the execution, the pacing, genuinely a flawless love letter to everything about Winnie the Pooh, and Disney's version of Pooh, and the whole Hundred Acre Wood, including the ones we all had when we were children. Exactly what it should have been. No notes. A++. Yes! I enjoyed those. Had fun with those. None of the others.

[untouchable234]

THIS is why people don’t like Rey. Her gender has nothing to do with it.

[coverteyes]

This is not how a writer starts out!! Start out with the end in mind!!! Sure, you might not know how you're going to get there, but you need to have an end-goal to work towards! This is just another reason for me to hate Disney.

gonna tell you the truth brother. this is not a sentence I love to hear from the writer of a show

[hitchell-mope]

Ben: my father can’t come to the wedding. He was at a yoga retreat and he fell out of the warrior pose and he broke his hip.

Mal: should we consider the possibility that someone pushed him?

Ben: Mal please. They were a bunch of peace loving hippies who spent two weeks in the rainforest with my father. Of course someone pushed him.

[fullhalalalchemist]

URGENT: 🚨🚨EARN IT ACT IS BACK IN THE SENATE 🚨🚨 TUMBLR’S NSFW BAN HITTING THE ENTIRE INTERNET THIS SUMMER 2023

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

TLDR: The EARN IT Act will lead to online censorship of any and all adult & lgbt content across the entire internet, open the floodgates to mass surveillance the likes which we haven’t seen before, lead to much more CSEM being distributed online, and destroy encryption. Call 202-224-3121 to connect to your house and senate representative and tell them to VOTE NO on this bill that does not protect anyone and harms everyone.