#fuck online censorship

[dimonds456]

ATTENTION MINORS

I know you guys have been seeing the posts going around about Earn-It and KOSA and things of the like, and talking about how bad those things are. And you're right, they're really, really bad. But, you're not old enough to help participate in helping out, right, since you're a minor? 

WRONG.

Minors out there who are concerned about these issues: YOU CAN HELP US. KOSA and CSAM specifically are acts to create widespread censorship and invasion of privacy to "protect kids," so if anything, your younger voices are stronger than ours! 

I've compiled some resources for you guys to help out. Note that if you sound old enough, you do not have to disclose your age if you don't want to. The point is that there is a public outcry, not that you're under 18.

If you don't know what the bills are or what they do, here's a Doc that explains all that with links to different reading material where you can learn all about it there (note: as of posting this, the Restrict Act is not currently updated. Check back in the future for updates to the doc). 

The two we really need to worry about right now are KOSA and CSAM. 

KOSA is a bill being passed that would effectively let the government censor anything they want online, which can and will include minority voices, LGBTQ content, and anything they deem "unsafe" for kids (such as the suicide hotline).  

CSAM is another law that preaches about protecting kids, but would actually be used to spy on everyone. It's a trojan horse. 

There are a couple more, which are all covered more in-depth here on this site (scroll down):

Here's a few more resources for you guys, and then I'll get into how you guys can help!

KOSA

CSAM

EARN-It

(Light flash warning for this one, just in case)

RESTRICT Act

Alright, with all the reading out of the way, let's get into what to do.

How YOU can help!

Minors: you are not helpless. You are not powerless. The point is that there is a public outcry, and the fact that you are so young could be an advantage to stopping bills like KOSA and CSAM. 

If your voice can pass as an adult's, YOU CAN CALL. If you don't think your voice can pass, YOU CAN EMAIL, TEXT, SIGN PETITIONS, and honestly, you MAY STILL be able to call. 

Here's how calling works. It's gonna be scary the first time around, I know, but you've got this.

First: find out who your representatives are. This website right here makes that very easy. Go to the dropdown for your state and find it, and your two reps should automatically pop up.

Next, see if they're a Republican or a Democrat. This should be in parenthesis next to their names. Here's Michigan's and Mississippi's reps as examples of what that looks like:

How you phrase your words will differ depending on the party they're in, this is important.

Next, you'll see under their names an address, phone number, and some bibliography. (I kept using the Michigan ones cuz I was already on their page, so if you're from Michigan, here's the numbers right here.)

Let's get ready to call now.

Now, when I say "call," I don't mean exclusively by phone. You can also fax them or email them. 

Here's a website you can use to fax them.

To find their email address, google it. [Name] email, and if they've got one, it should pop up there. 

Now, the hard part: actually calling.

Before we go any further, reminder that these people are just that: people. They're not idols, they're not gods, they're not worth any more than you are. Dehumanize them as much as you need to in your head. They're not scary, they're human. 

Now, for each bill, you can either make it all separate or keep all your words in one email, as it were. How you want to do this is up to you. But, if you're feeling lost for words, there are also scripts you can use as a base. 

Here's an email to a Democrat about KOSA, for example:

And this one has emails for both sides:

The long and short of it goes like this:

Your name and something about you (I'm a retail worker) (I'm a minor) (I go to [name] school)

Explain why you're calling (I urge you to stop [bill])

Explain why the issue matters to YOU. (I am a minor, and pushing this law would do irreparable damage, not help us. Here's a bit of why.)

Ask the representative you're calling to help 

Thank them for listening. 

Keep it courteous- they'll be more likely to listen to you if you're calm and collected. I know emotions are high right now, and it's okay to let desperation in, but don't yell or scream at them, you'll only drive them away from trying to stop anything. 

More than likely, you won't be speaking to that rep directly, but the message should still be clear and reach them. 

If you're faxing or emailing, there's more room to go off about issues in more depth, since there isn't someone on the other end of the line. You can say as much as you'd like, but still try to keep it polite. 

You guys are powerful, and your young voices can add to this fight. You do not have to be an adult to call something unjust. Stand with us. Together, your voices will make us stronger.

[bunnie-the-idiot]

the kids online safety act passed the u.s. senate.

long story short (for anyone who hadn't heard of this before) the kids online safety act, aka kosa, is a bill that will censor online content and resources for lgbtq+ matters, reproductive healthcare, activism (INCLUDING PALESTINE AND LIKELY OTHER CRISES GOING ON LIKE IN CONGO OR SUDAN), mental health, etc. everywhere--its effects likely won't be contained to just america.

today, july 30th, 2024, the senate passed it 91-3. it has officially moved to the house of representatives.

is this a pretty massive setback? yes. do you have every right to be scared, sad, angry, or whatever else about this happening? absolutely. but should you give up hope completely? NO!

even though kosa passed the senate, the house is on break/august recess at the moment. we have around an entire month to get emails, calls, and faxes in to house reps, maybe more depending on when they decide to vote on it.

should it pass the house and get signed into law, we still have a whole 18 months before it actually goes into effect. this is plenty of time for digital rights orgs (e.g. fight for the future, the electronic frontier foundation) and other groups that oppose it to file a lawsuit against it. even if, worst-case scenario, it flies through the house immediately after the recess ends, we can still fight this up to march 2026.

so, yes, remember what's at stake here, but also remember that it's not over yet. we lost a battle, not the war.

below are some resources to learn more about kosa and how to contact your reps (first link) + a page that lets you directly contact progressive house reps, sign an open letter opposing the bill, and view others' testimonies against it (second link):

FIGHT. FIGHT. FIGHT.

[mollyjimbly]

🚨🚨🚨EARN IT ABOUT TO BE PASSED🚨🚨🚨

PLEASE SOMEONE ANYONE HELP US

WE WILL BE SPIED ON DUE TO NO ENCRYPTION

LGBTQ+ CONTENT WILL BE WIPED FROM THE INTERNET

SEX WORKERS WILL BE CRIMINALIZED

THIS BILL WILL KILL THE INTERNET AS WE KNOW IT

what to do?

CALL YOUR STATE REPS

SIGN PETITIONS

DONATE

JOIN DISCORD SERVER

I AM BEGGING YOU PLEASE DO SOMETHING!

🚨🚨🚨🚨 URGENT 🚨🚨🚨🚨

[unityrain24]

if you are a USAmerican and care about any of the following:

fandom spaces and activities, such as shipping, fanart, fanfiction, and more

the LGBTQ+ community

sexism, feminism

racisism, racial equality

the genocide in palestine

the things happening in sudan, congo, lebanon, yemen, etc...

equality and equity

being able to voice your opinions on the government

government transparency

your right to freedom of speech, expression, and press under the constitution

THEN PLEASE HELP STOP KOSA

[the-rad1o-demon]

So far, chances of KOSA being enacted is 31% according to the site linked below.

Let's get that fucker down to zero, guys!!

Stuff to help us do that is linked here!

The call scripts linked below were originally for Congressional representatives, but now that the bill is in committee consideration by Senate Commerce, you should call your Senators instead and you can use the scripts for them. Also, when calling your Democrat senators, make sure to add that Senator Blackburn explicitly stated in interview that it would be used to "protect children from the transgender." I think it's pretty clear that this is not meant to protect children. It's just going to harm children further, especially trans children.

(Article below with a video of the interview embedded.)

Please help stop this bill in its tracks. Reblog, donate, call your senators, and keep an eye on the bill's chances of being passed. We can't stop now. 31% is still kind of a big number. We need to shrink those chances by a lot more.

[lordoftablecloths]

stopkosa.com

change.org petition

more helpful links

[august 2024 update]

KOSA or the Kids Online Safety Act is an Internet bill being pushed by the American government. It claims its purpose is to "protect" kids, but really its methods of enforcing this is mass censorship and control of the Internet. The passing of this bill would lead to LGBTQ+ related information, reproductive healthcare, and other topics that government officials may find "dangerous" to children be restricted or censored.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

In the website linked above, there is a petition you can sign as well as a pre-filled message you can send. You can also write to your representatives, and if you don't want to come up with an entire message, I've attached sample scripts. Also, go to badinternetbills.com for another petition that references similar bills. For more information about KOSA, you can see this article: eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/don… .

Spread information about this, and do what you can. This bill being passed would mean an era of censorship for the Internet.

[spiritmander13]

KOSA has passed the Senate, and it seems like it was also almost completely unanimous. But THIS IS NOT THE END OF OUR FIGHT!

There will be a final vote for the Senate and the House also has to vote on the Kids Online Safety Act. There is more opposition in the House and some people within the Senate are up for election (don't know which states, so I'd recommend researching that).

Vote KOSA supporters out of the Senate. Raise our voices and gain enough traction for the House to block this bill.

WE ARE ALWAYS WATCHING.

[suncatstudiosyt]

________!!URGENT!!_______

KOSA IS BEING VOTED ON EARLY NEXT WEEK! ACT NOW, CALL SENATORS AND VOTE AGAINST IT

OR YOURS AND EVERYONE ELSE'S PRIVACY ONLINE WILL BE GONE!!!

Omarsbigsister on tiktok

Linktree for resources to help stop kosa

[musicofthenightphantomoftheopera]

Plz watch this all the way through. We are on RED ALERT. we need to focus all our energy into making sure our house reps know we don’t want KOSA. I have links in the pinned post on my page with all the links you need

[sortanonymous]

Welp, here I go again...

UPDATE: KOSA was not added to the bill, losing by a resounding 85-12. We've won the battle, but the war is not over! Don't! Let! Up!

[wackypomko]

it does not matter if you are from USA, im chilean and I will still gonna help them!

[elhopper1sm]

https://linktr.ee/stopkosa

Lawmakers can and will use this to censor information about Palestine let's be clear. This will harm queer kids

Also look up Fax Zero to fax your Representatives. If you have ideas for an Anti KOSA demonstration. Please let me know. And please forward it to @omarsbigsister on TikTok. Again she's done so much amazing work regarding this bill.

Also shout out to BypassCensorship.org for providing resource sin restrictive areas for people to BypassCensorship. Again if you have other anti censorship resources please forward them to me. Also look up Fax Zero to fax your Representatives. Thank you

[fletchah]

Sorry to be posting about KOSA again, I dislike getting involved in politics, but as a queer minor on the internet this is the one time i will.

I had a theory a while back that i considered withholding because it’s honestly really upsetting to think about. Realizing that it could even be a possibility hurt, and i’m sorry if it hurts you too.

I’ll keep it short. What if the governors who are trying to pass these bills know that cutting LGBTQ+ kids from information WILL encourage them to commit suicide, and they’re doing it to cleanse the “filth”? They’d have to find a roundabout way to end LGBTQ+’s future because they can’t just outright kill them.

I don’t know if it’s true, but it feels like it’d be pretty on-brand. Nevertheless, encouraging minors to off themselves in any way is RANCID, and even if they are trying to protect kids this is a shitty way to do that.

So how do we ACTUALLY keep minors safe on the internet?

TEACH THEM SHIT. Talk to them about how grooming happens, how to avoid getting into dangerous or illegal situations, how to be FUCKING KIND and MINDFUL, both because people are inclined to retaliate against rude comments even if they’re from children and because it’s just good to know how to be polite.

Wiping LGBTQ+ off the internet isn’t going to protect kids from a made-up threat of queer people brainwashing them into being gay. LGBTQ+ media isn’t going to make them gay either, because we grew up watching content with typical straight relationships and we still know who we are.

You know what i’ve seen firsthand? A little boy pretending to be trans like his big sibling. But that was okay, because at the end of the day he knew who he was.

Why do they think kids have no sense of their identity, and the notion that people can change their gender will immediately make them trans too? What significant damage will that do? Minors aren’t really allowed to get gender changing surgery besides puberty blockers so they can’t worry about kids “destroying” their bodies, and if they’re a functioning member of society then I don’t see the problem?? Maybe capitalism would benefit from accessible gender affirming care. Just sayin. More cash being circulated is better than a bunch of dead bodies :/

[i-stare-back]

Why fuck KOSA?

"Its a good act that'll help stop teens and children from being exposed to the worse parts of the internet right?"

NOPE

KOSA is going to basically eliminate most forms of internet anonymity and endanger kids. Let me tell you a few key things;

KOSA is going to make users register their identity to companies. You are no longer anonymous and your activity can be traced back to you.

KOSA is going to make companies that display and distribute social media control what they allow so that it blocks anything loosely deemed "inappropriate". This includes most information about mental health, LGBTQ+, and more. Its essentially going to sweep everything not completely G rated under the rug.

KOSA is going to allow parents full access to see what their child is doing online. This is letting parents completely control what might be their kids only respite from life. Its also going to endanger children of parents who might be homophobic, transphobic, or just extremely strict.

"Well it doesn't say any of that in the .gov site. It says that it'll stop teens from being exposed to stuff that might harm their mental health!"

Do you have any idea how vague that description is? At that point, basically everything could be taken down or hidden because there was a slight debate on whether it was "negatively affecting mental health or not".

This isn't even all of what it could do. I'm just restating everything I've gathered from reading posts and news articles. If you want to know more, there's a ton of information if you go to #kosa or related.

If you want to stop KOSA, spread the word. Protest against it with sites like badinternetbills, reblog and share this post and similar posts on tumblr and other social media sites, and tell your friends and family to as well.

[bear-cubs-art-things]

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"

-Evelyn Beatrice Hall, The Friends of Voltaire

The first amendment allows us to say what we want, whenever we want, without our government punishing us for our words. KOSA, therefore, is violating our first amendment rights. It's mass censorship of the internet, and our right to freedom of speech is being suppressed BY THE GOVERNMENT. Our founding fathers created this as THE FIRST AMENDMENT, and clearly thought this was important. Oh, wouldn't they be disappointed to see what their descendants are doing now. KOSA, a mass censorship bill that will contradict our constitution as we know it. KOSA, which instead of protecting the kids is in fact putting them in harms way. KOSA, which will put so so many people in danger. And we can stop it, but we have to fight. We MUST fight

To hear one voice clearly, we must have the freedom to hear them all

[nats-revival]

What’s even going on right now.. Twitter, Snapchat, and Microsoft announced their support for KOSA. I don’t think yall are actually conceptualizing how BAD this bill is. If this bill is put in motion, this would mean that every single user of the internet would be required to upload a photo of their ID’s, yes, your ID. This would also mean that our state attorney generals would have the choice to decide which content is “inappropriate”. Now, this is harmful to three things. The first being sex workers because some people literally have to rely on that to pay bills, buy food and clothes, etc.

The second one being that you may not be access to information about major world issues. We all know that anything that is Pro-Palestinian is labeled as “anti-semitic”, and they will probably take this information down aswell. This could also (probably) apply for issues in the DRC, Sudan, Tigray, etc. All around, this is harmful to every group of people on the internet.

The third thing, as I’ve stated previously, this is harmful to LGBTQIA+ youth. If you want a more in depth explanation, then you can check my linked post on it. But basically, this bill would prevent them from learning more about their identities.

A video posted on tiktok (click here!) can give you, pretty much the same information. There are also ways to stop the bill from passing within the video aswell. Please look into reaching out to your representatives to stop this bill from passing.