Thank you for bringing this to everyone's attention u/Restonic_Rez, the r/lgbt moderator team has [pinned a statement that you can read](https://www.reddit.com/r/lgbt/comments/sno1c5/an_open_letter_from_the_lgbt_moderators_on_the/) which contains links to more authorative sources that expand on the harm that this act could cause. We've locked this thread because the incoming questions are answered by the sources we've linked in our own statement.
This is what I've been doing literally all day. I don't know what other big communities I could go to though, so if you have any suggestions I'd be happy to hear them.
I think you should post to r/technology maybe
They have a rule against "calls to action" though so just post a link to an article about it or something
[This one maybe?](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/its-back-senators-want-earn-it-bill-scan-all-online-messages)
Try some crypto and privacy folks- maybe some of the piracy subs too (r/piracy r/freemediaheckyeah )? They seem like they’d be pretty against this too.
Edit: *Maybe* r/solarpunk or r/punk but I’m not sure if this would be out of place there? They seem like they’d not like this tho, trying to think of all the possible places that this would fit 🤷 . This would fit on r/aboringdystopia too I bet
The argument the ACLU puts forward is that this conflicts directly with the first and fourth amendments. Unreasonable search and seizure and free speech. So technically there’s like sorta laws against this? But since our country is super broken the only way that would be enforced is if it came before the Supreme Court and they ruled it unconstitutional. Which would mean that it goes very slowly through the courts system as websites slowly kill digital freedoms to try and comply with the law for as long as it’s on the books.
IANA runs under federal contract, however they don't really have jurisdiction over the data sent through it, they are doing this as part of CDA section 230 under the pretext of CSAM
It would end up the same way American sites get around gdpr when they don't feel like complying with data laws in Europe, they just simply block access to the site in gdpr countries with a "we're sorry" splash screen
America can regulate sites that provide service to America basically
Ok, this might be a bit crazy, but I have a proposal. If we want this to change, signing petitions and writing at government officials helps, but it's not enough on its own. We need to get straight to the powerful old white men. Where are the powerful old white men? **Twitter.**
I have no idea if i'm even allowed to start something like this, but if you have a Twitter, I urge you to tweet out the hashtag **#StopTheEARNITAct2022**, along with possibly an article or a petition to help people learn about the matter. This is an uphill battle, and there is no guarantee this will do much of anything. But we need to try. We need to push all boundaries and exhaust all options available to us, because these are lives we are talking about. Censorship is no fucking joke.
Who knows, if there is enough of a commotion maybe this will actually take off.
But, yeah. Tweet #StopTheEARNITAAct2022. Lets fucking go.
You know that many politicians don’t actually check their twitter? Staff run it for them. Just like staff pick up the phone when you call them and read emails you send them. It’s unlikely you’d get more direct access by changing the message format. The way to get politicians attention is to send a massive amount of messages to them.
That means, if you use twitter, @ the politicians account. They might not pay attention to trending as much, they are looking for numbers of messages
Source: uncle who did some lobbying for a tech company like 5 years ago
I can understand not wanting your kids to see porn. I can see how that makes sense to some. Not wanting your kids be exposed to stuff like that to early on. But sex education and the LGBTQ? What?! The Kentucky Fried Frick is this?
Edit: I posted this before reading the whole thing. It got worse. HOW TF ARE PEOPLE ALLOWING THIS??
They got to have the internet do their job for them. Stick your kid to a pc all day their entire childhood because you can't be arsed to actually do stuff with them then wonder why they're addicted. And if you did nothing to protect them, wonder why they know about stuff they shouldn't, and cry for sites to prioritise kids over everyone else and to protect the kid from everything for them. It's laziness like we've never seen before.
It's never actually about protecting children. That's not what they are after, so the filters make no difference to them, other than that they might need to tweak a few talking points.
Excuse me but I have a little question. Is this thing also affects the internet outside of the USA? If no I can't do anything since I'm not from the USA. If yes, I will make sure people will be aware
I think every LGBTQ content from the US will be banned even in other countries. And since most of the LGBTQ content and education comes from users in the US, it will certainly affect people outside too, who won't have the resources available, when they question their sexuality or gender identity. And this is horrifying.
Hm, curious how self proclaimed "free speech advocates" are *suspiciously* quiet about this.
Almost like the people who say that "they disagree with what you say but will fight to the death for your right to say it" are disingenious haha
That's why they aren't getting any prisoners from us in Germany when we catch somebody that's important.
Well not any, there's exceptions, but any that could be subjected to torture or the death penalty.
They aren't happy about it from what I know xP
All they got to do is to sign and enforce human rights though, then they can have all their prisoners for intel on things in the middle East or whatever.
I’m pretty sure there is nothing binding in the UN convention on human rights so it’s kinda just a piece of paper. Also to my knowledge we don’t recognize the authority of international courts on our citizens so, even more just a piece of paper.
yes and no.
if you aren't in the US it won't affect what you can say or do. but nobody in the US will be creating content, or able to look at content you create.
Well, yes and no.
People outside the US can't stop it even if they tried. People everywhere can still say and do whatever they want, but if they use services by US companies the US gov't can also see anything they say. If you use non US companies this doesn't affect you regardless of where you are.
well, with all due respect, get some. The only way we can stop this from happening is by talking about it. The main issue atm is that nobody is. If nobody speaks up, there will be no opposition. There are less than 100 tweets about it on twitter, and a good amount of those are by people promoting it rather than against it. Nobody knows what's happening. If that doesn't change soon, it will be too late.
Freedom to get sick and die, or worse, live with a permanent disability and unpayable medical debt. Freedom from housing and food. Freedom from an inhabitable planet. Every time you get paid, you must set your entire hard-earned paycheck free to pay your rent, student loans, and medical debt.
They don't need to. All the big companies (twitter, reddit, tumblr, whatsapp) are american, and so the US can go after them by changing its own laws. If you make it that reddit can't have lgbtq content because it's american, that will affect the entire world
I looked into the law and can't find anything particularly anti lgbt. Are you sure this isn't just propaganda from a group that includes MAPs under LGBTQIA?
YES. PLEASE DO THIS. I'd also recommend tweeting #StopTheEARNITAct2022 along with the original tumblr post/this post linked.
You can also contact your representative (unless your a minor) and tell them not to support this.
There's an even higher chance they'll ignore you, but you can still try calling or emailing or anything else. I doubt most if any have screening for minors
I know there are 5 people on this page rn, so if any of you have an idea to take this further, i'm willing to listen. This has gotten a crazy amount of engagement for what it is, but it's not nearly enough to cause anything significant on a broad scale. I need to make people know. Currently, there are only 3 tweets under the twitter hashtag, and since twitter is probably the only way anyone is going to listen to us, that a massive fucking issue. I need people to know. That is the biggest goal right now. The general public must know about this before it's too late.
the effing US really be out there like: *"oh yes, our country works perfectly and there is truly nothing we should fix, let's meddle with the internet of the rest of the word."*
I am genuinely so upset I'm gonna scream
It would allow the committee to ban encryption. That wouldn't just hurt sex workers, the LGBTQ+ community, and sex education — this bill would take out the entire internet, including the US government's dirty laundry.
The biggest problem I see is that congress doesn't understand basic internet security and will try to pass it anyway despite the glaring threat it is to their own jobs, safety, and secrets
There are a few things.
1. (the Prostasia Foundation has an iffy background, just use the Mozilla one)
2. Spread the word. ESPECIALLY make it clear that this **WILL** effect people outside the US
3. Tell any American friends or family to do the things that you can't.
They are doing the same in Europe. The commission will be proposing a legislation similar to the EARN IT act and I doubt it will not pass, that's because in EU is very difficult to successfully protest against a legislation.
It doesn't have an official name yet but the internet and opposition named it "chatcontrol", the precedent version that became law is called "eprivacy derogation" which is a law that allow but does not oblige the practice of scanning images and video content in private chats to detect and report illegal material. The next legislation will be proposed in march 2022 and it will require every provider to scan every single message you send (including text message) regardless of encryption.
Lol parents can’t keep an eye on their kid’s internet use so all “naughty stuff” is banned _INTERNET_ wide.
Thats like saying that bars are now banned because “what about the children”
This is gross stupidity. It shows how low the government has sunk over in the US.
Encryption is needed in many cases, and this shows up tbe tech-phobe government for who they are.
People will just host the LGBTQ material in Canada, the EU, the UK as a workaround.
We don't want or need another Great Firewall, and the US doesn't either.
Here in the UK, people are actively trying to stop this.
Hopefully this'll get shot down.
It's an attempt to try and distract from the disastrous governments of the past few years.
Worth noting that foreign people signing a domestic petition undermines it in the eyes of law makers - in their eyes signatures from foreign folk don't count, and if foreign folk are able to sign the petition then the entire petition is worthless in their eyes because every signature might belong to a foreign person.
With the Subtext they're using as a guise for their malice and hatred, it's abundantly clear that the GOP is effectively trying to tie us all up with unsavory, illegal groups and say that we're all criminals and evil! That's the truth of the matter. It's not about just censoring us, it's about making us seem like something we're not. About painting us as the villain they so desperately want us to be so they can justify continued persecution of us! They know that they're losing power over the country, and they're trying more desperately than ever to hold on to that power, even if it means going after people just for who they are.
Oh for fuck sakes it's the fearmongery shit about section 230 of the CDA again (among other things.) It looks like this bill was killed in 2020 because of public opposition. Let's make that happen again.
We’re even more fucked now... Now the only outlet for most of the world is gonna go away, the only way we can meet each other, the only way we can have a large community and survive...
I swear I want to stop existing
Keep fighting. They can never fully snuff us out, worst comes to worst we can go underground. Make a Neocites site or something that they'll never find.
* [Bill](https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/3538/text) with text available
* [Analysis](https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2022/02/earn-it-act-back-and-it%E2%80%99s-more-dangerous-ever) at Stanford University’s Center for Internet and society
* this also has links off to other analyses
* [The EFF’s comments](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/its-back-senators-want-earn-it-bill-scan-all-online-messages)
I think the idea that this will directly limit LGBT+ material is a overblown. It requires either that such material is directly considered “child sexual abuse material (CSAM)”, or that providers actively refuse any material that goes anywhere near LBGT+ topics for fear that it would be considered such. I wouldn’t put it past some of the Republicans to try to make LGBT+ stuff considered CSAM, but they could do that independently of this bill. Plenty of LGBT+ material is out in the open now and easily findable through various search engines.
I do still think the whole bill is ripe for abuse via government scanning and threatens end to end encryption with backdoors that will threaten online commerce. Those with bad intentions from around the world would likely exploit any backdoors that are added. It is government overreach playing at “protecting children” to seize that power.
ETA: I worry that casting this bill as a direct threat to LGBT+ people and content is going to lead to “WTF?” responses from many and discredit the opposition to the bill. The bill will have a much broader and real impact than just LGBT+ people.
After reading the bill, I have to totally agree and I wonder if people are reading the bill properly. The closest it gets to "redefining pornography" is it's explicitly redefining "child pornography" as child sexual abuse, which seems like a totally reasonable change. I'm not quite understanding how it will directly lead to LGBT+ content being removed, and any attempt to make it so should be criticized *when it happens* because it would be a bizarre interpretation of the bill.
We need to be laser-focused on Section 5's amendment to 230(e) which absolutely decimates the legal viability of encryption.
My most uncharitable interpretation would be that emphasizing threats to LBGT+ is an attempt to seed discourse saying LGBT+ people support child abuse (nonsense of course) because they are afraid of getting caught by the act’s provisions. Then they would use that to turn more people against LGBT people AND give Republicans the media storm to support the EARN-IT act in a two for one deal.
On the other hand, very few people in the US want random government people scanning personal documents and information at their whim while also leaving holes for others to do the same.
Wouldn't this be against the first and fourth amendment?
Update: If it does get voted in, we could get it to the supreme court and they could check it to see if it follows the constitution.
The Supreme Court might. If it does get voted in it is basically our only hope. I really don't know much about law, but if they're reasonable it will get taken down.
Highly suggest texting the resist bot if you can. It was surprisingly well set up. There were a few extra steps for me such as verifying an email address to sign with, but the whole process was quick and easy.
Ok I feel the sentiment, but for anyone thats actually freaking out over this: We've largely crossed into the territory of fear mongering at this point. There is very little (if at all) chance of this passing, and even if it does somehow, the unconstitutional nature of the act coupled with the extreme pushback means it would swiftly be challenged in the court system and repealed.
Everyone just take a breath and stay calm. Please stop making this scarier than it has to be.
The caps lock and spooky phrasing isnt helping anyones mental health, honestly.
it's good to raise awareness with the general public, but by far and away the most impactful way to get the attention of your congresspersons is to write them a letter.
I don't think you can. I'd suggest just spreading the link and the word. Right now my main goal is to get something started on twitter, but it's helpful to spread awareness in other places too.
this seems really, really, really bad, what should/will we do if it does end up passing? I really hope it doesn't, it would separate me from my favorite subreddits, prevent me from watching my favorite youtubers, and if they can control discord, separate me from all of my friends, which would be very bad.
That's what the GOP wants to do my friends. Cheney was the one who wrote it and after all those innocent civilians he bombed in Iraq, he felt he needed to make our lives even worse! Talk about a disgusting man.
1. Have y’all checked if this is 100% true? No trusted sources have info on this.
2. If this is true, I’m sure this will go to shit almost as soon as it’s published. People’s opinion on the govt will lower and cause riots and civil war. If this does get passed, it’ll probably be gone within the year. I’m gonna go ahead and say it’s safe to say America as we know it won’t last the century.
From my understanding, it's main goal is to eliminate NSFW from the internet. The people helming it in the first place will consider LGBTQ+ as NSFW (even if educational or SFW). If you want a more graceful explanation, read the og tumblr post.
No. It means that if this bill passes, LGBTQ+ will likely be censored off the internet due to it being conflated with sexual content. All under the guise of preventing CSA and CSAM.
This still makes no fucking sense, and yet, here we are.
Land of the free...as long as your cishet, white and rich But i guess thats what happens when you give all that power to some bitter old men. Thanks for giving me such a shit world to grow up in, bigots.
How would this affect me and others who live outside of the United States? Region locking could be the option they take but I feel like they would most likely take unilateral action well beyond there jurisdiction and harm the rest of us too.
Why aren't Joe Rogan and Ben upset by this? Oh right! It's the GOP who made the bill in the first place! Why would they be enraged when it's literally their own act?!
Oh and guess who created it - Cheney! Of course! Like that's a huge surprise.
I must be missing something, because I read the entirety of the bill and I didn't find anything related to lgbt content. The bill basically did two things: it established a governing body for combating child sexual abuse material, and it redefined "child pornography" to "child sexual abuse material" in several existing laws. Unless they're planning on giving the term "child sexual abuse material" some perverse anti-LGBT meaning, I don't see what parts of this bill are anti-LGBT. Can someone clarify?
It doesn't have anything clearly anti-LGBT in it, as far as I can tell thats some hyperbolic panic.
The reason everyone should be worried about this bill is the damage it would do to secure communications - mandating backdoors be installed in all encrypted services is going to result in a wave of cybercrime like nobody has ever conceived of. The minute backdoors are created, criminals will be working to figure out how to exploit them.
They claim it has no distinguishable difference in meaning from child pornography.
>(a) Sense of Congress.—It is the sense of Congress that the term “child sexual abuse material” has the same legal meaning as the term “child pornography”, as that term was used in Federal statutes and case law before the date of enactment of this Act.
Its entirely to do with the people pushing this, and those who will be controlling it. It supported by many "BUT THINK OF THE CHILDREN" type of organizations, making it likely that sexual content and LGBTQ+ content will be conflated.
Weakened encryption would put American tech industry in a massive disadvantage compared to the rest of the world. Especially in the age of teleworking from home. If corporations are smart, they don't want this thing to pass. If the NSA is smart, they realize the risk to American infrastructure and defense, all run by private companies.
Corporate greed and overzealous patriotism could keep this human rights violation from happening.
CALL/EMAIL YOUR SENATOR: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
CALL/EMAIL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
Hello, my name is is __________, and I am a registered voter in the state of _________, voting district number _____. I am calling to implore you to oppose the recently reintroduced “Earn IT” act. This bill will make it harder for LGBTQ and other at-risk individuals to seek help online, under the false pretense of protecting children. It will also weaken data encryption, which as a privacy advocate, I strongly oppose. This bill reeks of right-wing religious conservatism, extremism, and censorship, and you must oppose it if you want my vote. I hope I can trust you to do the right thing.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (which seems to have a very high score and rating amongst the public and charity review boards) has comprehensive and recent articles on EARN It, as well as the new SHOP SAFE Act. Their articles have a way to send a personalized email letter to your local representative as well
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/its-back-senators-want-earn-it-bill-scan-all-online-messages
I... really don't think any government has such control over the whole internet. It's a bad thing, it would certainly reduce accessibility, and should be stopped as possible. But don't panic over it, it's not good for your health to start
Having a parent who works at ARIN, trust me when I say, if the US passes this, at the very minimum, the entirety of ARIN's area of service, including the US, Canada, and technically things like Antartica and potentially Outer Space, when that becomes a problem. And again, this is the absolute minimum area of effect. LANIC tends to follow ARIN's example, so that would include Mexico and the entirety of South America.
So, while of course it’s best to hope (and fight it), how do we get around it if it passes? VPNs? Or would they be able to tell that you’re using one, or even get past it? Any ideas? Data hoarding now might be a good idea (especially e-books for books currently being banned) if you can, but what about seeing the actual internet?
encryption will be useless, so privacy will be a bygone era.
I'm gonna be honest, i have no idea what will happen. I hope whatever it is, we can work around it and adapt, maybe even build up enough strength to demolish it.
So with my rough understanding of international law and how it affect the internet:
If the law makes the content itself illegal then creating or hosting a website/content in that area would be illegal.
Impportant is thats this is not the same as If the viewing of the content is illegal.
This all is obviously not mutually excluse but needs to be specified as to what is exactly illegal.
What s important here is that a law only affects the area its designed for and websites might not need to follow these rules if they arent based in the area.
What usually happens with these blanket content bans is that the power in charge basically threaten large internet sites that they will be blocked/controlled when viewing them in the area if they dont adhere to the rules.
From here there are mutiple ways this can go.
1. Either the sites change overall and for everyone to follow the guidelines so they dont loose a large part of their users.
2. The sites do nothing and get blocked by the power.
3. The main sites get blocked in the area but the company creates a special version of the site that follow the guidelines.
These sites are usually only avalable in the affected areas.
So even if this is just America it could still affect the internet at large.
WHAT THE FUCK! I sort of get the porn part but trying to get rid of sex ed and lgbtq+ stuff?! Do they fucking know that the main reason behind homophobia, transphobia, STD's, and many more problems relating to knowledge is BECAUSE it is so taboo? Not to mention the backfire effect! By doing these things there will be even more effort to rebel against it and uneducated people making it worse.
Thank you for bringing this to everyone's attention u/Restonic_Rez, the r/lgbt moderator team has [pinned a statement that you can read](https://www.reddit.com/r/lgbt/comments/sno1c5/an_open_letter_from_the_lgbt_moderators_on_the/) which contains links to more authorative sources that expand on the harm that this act could cause. We've locked this thread because the incoming questions are answered by the sources we've linked in our own statement.
Holy shit this is horrifying. I'll try to inform people about this. Please keep posting about this on large subreddits, hopefully enough people listen
This is what I've been doing literally all day. I don't know what other big communities I could go to though, so if you have any suggestions I'd be happy to hear them.
I think you should post to r/technology maybe They have a rule against "calls to action" though so just post a link to an article about it or something [This one maybe?](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/its-back-senators-want-earn-it-bill-scan-all-online-messages)
Done, currently awaiting moderator approval.
Try some crypto and privacy folks- maybe some of the piracy subs too (r/piracy r/freemediaheckyeah )? They seem like they’d be pretty against this too. Edit: *Maybe* r/solarpunk or r/punk but I’m not sure if this would be out of place there? They seem like they’d not like this tho, trying to think of all the possible places that this would fit 🤷 . This would fit on r/aboringdystopia too I bet
r/trans maybe?
Good work.
thanks. its not only my work anymore though. It's everyone.
How can they even regulate the internet. I don’t understand how governments can have jurisdiction on the internet like this!!
I swear to god, there should be laws against this shit.
The argument the ACLU puts forward is that this conflicts directly with the first and fourth amendments. Unreasonable search and seizure and free speech. So technically there’s like sorta laws against this? But since our country is super broken the only way that would be enforced is if it came before the Supreme Court and they ruled it unconstitutional. Which would mean that it goes very slowly through the courts system as websites slowly kill digital freedoms to try and comply with the law for as long as it’s on the books.
in this case, the US did create ARPANET, which led to the internet. So it's likely our government feels like it has some form of ownership over it.
IANA runs under federal contract, however they don't really have jurisdiction over the data sent through it, they are doing this as part of CDA section 230 under the pretext of CSAM
Then again, the technology and concept itself originates in CERN, though used at a smaller scale.
They’re not doing it directly, they’re blackmailing private companies to do it
That sounds illegal but I guess that makes sense how that could be effective
It would end up the same way American sites get around gdpr when they don't feel like complying with data laws in Europe, they just simply block access to the site in gdpr countries with a "we're sorry" splash screen America can regulate sites that provide service to America basically
Oh right I see. I still think it’s a bit annoying tho lol
We need more data protection regulation from trackers (think GDPR in the EU) and not this legal abomination.
yo, oh shit. Sorry if I messed up, mods. Im just trying to stop the internet from shambling into dust./gen Didn't mean to break any rules/gen
This post seems like the kind of a post that might break a rule but the moderators approves because it is important
You know I would say try and start a protest but the government doesn't care about the people.
Make enough noise until they can't help but look.
Yea
They’ll look, but they won’t listen
we have to at least try. What do we have to lose? It's not like it can get any worse.
Ok, this might be a bit crazy, but I have a proposal. If we want this to change, signing petitions and writing at government officials helps, but it's not enough on its own. We need to get straight to the powerful old white men. Where are the powerful old white men? **Twitter.** I have no idea if i'm even allowed to start something like this, but if you have a Twitter, I urge you to tweet out the hashtag **#StopTheEARNITAct2022**, along with possibly an article or a petition to help people learn about the matter. This is an uphill battle, and there is no guarantee this will do much of anything. But we need to try. We need to push all boundaries and exhaust all options available to us, because these are lives we are talking about. Censorship is no fucking joke. Who knows, if there is enough of a commotion maybe this will actually take off. But, yeah. Tweet #StopTheEARNITAAct2022. Lets fucking go.
You know that many politicians don’t actually check their twitter? Staff run it for them. Just like staff pick up the phone when you call them and read emails you send them. It’s unlikely you’d get more direct access by changing the message format. The way to get politicians attention is to send a massive amount of messages to them. That means, if you use twitter, @ the politicians account. They might not pay attention to trending as much, they are looking for numbers of messages Source: uncle who did some lobbying for a tech company like 5 years ago
HOLY SHIT GO GO GO WE HAVE TO STOP THIS SHIT THERE'S NO WAY THIS CRAP WILL BECOME A LAW????? IT VIOLATES THE CONSITUTION .
>THERE'S NO WAY THIS CRAP WILL BECOME A LAW????? IT VIOLATES THE CONSITUTION yeah that's not a barrier to something becoming a law
But the supreme court is full of the far right now
Which even further demonstrates how it isn't a barrier to something becoming a law.
Since when has the US govmt. cared about that, aside from when it directly benefits them to do so?
Because the government doesn't give a fuck about us
I can understand not wanting your kids to see porn. I can see how that makes sense to some. Not wanting your kids be exposed to stuff like that to early on. But sex education and the LGBTQ? What?! The Kentucky Fried Frick is this? Edit: I posted this before reading the whole thing. It got worse. HOW TF ARE PEOPLE ALLOWING THIS??
If they care so much, that’s what parental controls and filters are for.
Exactly! Just freaking use parent controls. It’s not that hard. It takes like 20 minutes to download and set it up.
But don’t you realize… that would be expecting them to be *responsible parents* and they can’t possibly be responsible for their children! /s
They got to have the internet do their job for them. Stick your kid to a pc all day their entire childhood because you can't be arsed to actually do stuff with them then wonder why they're addicted. And if you did nothing to protect them, wonder why they know about stuff they shouldn't, and cry for sites to prioritise kids over everyone else and to protect the kid from everything for them. It's laziness like we've never seen before.
It's never actually about protecting children. That's not what they are after, so the filters make no difference to them, other than that they might need to tweak a few talking points.
The porn thing seems like a distraction and a case of the "think of the children" fallacy. They're only after surveillance
the law doesnt ban LGBTQ stuff directly. It's more of an inderect consequence of causing sites to strictly regulate sexual content.
I'm getting the sense that if this domino falls, interracial marriage and sex will be the next target.
Excuse me but I have a little question. Is this thing also affects the internet outside of the USA? If no I can't do anything since I'm not from the USA. If yes, I will make sure people will be aware
I think every LGBTQ content from the US will be banned even in other countries. And since most of the LGBTQ content and education comes from users in the US, it will certainly affect people outside too, who won't have the resources available, when they question their sexuality or gender identity. And this is horrifying.
Isn't this bill against the human right convention? The right for privacy as well as freedom of speech?
Hm, curious how self proclaimed "free speech advocates" are *suspiciously* quiet about this. Almost like the people who say that "they disagree with what you say but will fight to the death for your right to say it" are disingenious haha
Usa havent signed multiple right agreements, i.e unicef child rights so maybe it doesn't affect them
That's why they aren't getting any prisoners from us in Germany when we catch somebody that's important. Well not any, there's exceptions, but any that could be subjected to torture or the death penalty. They aren't happy about it from what I know xP All they got to do is to sign and enforce human rights though, then they can have all their prisoners for intel on things in the middle East or whatever.
Even if they would have, it's not like the US cares about international pressure that much (ekhem Paris agreement) so what would the UN do
I’m pretty sure there is nothing binding in the UN convention on human rights so it’s kinda just a piece of paper. Also to my knowledge we don’t recognize the authority of international courts on our citizens so, even more just a piece of paper.
In really no very much if you aren't an big english consumer. In the case you are, yes it will affect a lot.
yes and no. if you aren't in the US it won't affect what you can say or do. but nobody in the US will be creating content, or able to look at content you create.
Well, yes and no. People outside the US can't stop it even if they tried. People everywhere can still say and do whatever they want, but if they use services by US companies the US gov't can also see anything they say. If you use non US companies this doesn't affect you regardless of where you are.
The blog that made the post in the first link has info on what to do if you're not in the Us
Wonder why free speech advocates like Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro aren’t enraged by this?
"free speech advocates"
they only like free speech when it applies to them! which means they only like free speech when its against minorities
Holy f*cking shit. I have no words.
well, with all due respect, get some. The only way we can stop this from happening is by talking about it. The main issue atm is that nobody is. If nobody speaks up, there will be no opposition. There are less than 100 tweets about it on twitter, and a good amount of those are by people promoting it rather than against it. Nobody knows what's happening. If that doesn't change soon, it will be too late.
Yeah I know I'm gonna try and spread awareness.
I can't go back to being alone again.
neither can I. We have to fight. Apathy isn't worth what this is risking.
Country of the free. Free speech, Freedom of the press? That is only for hate speech. Welcome to the USA.
Freedom to get sick and die, or worse, live with a permanent disability and unpayable medical debt. Freedom from housing and food. Freedom from an inhabitable planet. Every time you get paid, you must set your entire hard-earned paycheck free to pay your rent, student loans, and medical debt.
Exactly. This country is far from free.
Nice haiku
"greatly limit if not eliminate sexual and LGBTQ+ content on the internet" WORLD WIDE? NOT JUST IN A SINGULAR COUNTRY?
yes
how is it legal to change the laws of other countries?
They don't need to. All the big companies (twitter, reddit, tumblr, whatsapp) are american, and so the US can go after them by changing its own laws. If you make it that reddit can't have lgbtq content because it's american, that will affect the entire world
They tech companies are in the US and we are enforcing it throughout
Because America, that's why.
OH GOD
YEP.
Jesus christ, I complain about our politicians all the time, but the American ones are just pure cartoonish evil, aren't they?
Seriously, no joke. It's ridiculous. I have no idea how our country is still functioning.
I might be wrong but isn’t prostasia that thing that supports “map rights” or something
wait, holy shit, do they? Fuck, gimme a sec.
I looked into the law and can't find anything particularly anti lgbt. Are you sure this isn't just propaganda from a group that includes MAPs under LGBTQIA?
Pedophiles* let's try to not give them what they want lmao
From what I understand, the far right is known for categorizing things porn just to get it banned.
Think I’d be able to cross post this to r/wholesomememes? Or other lgbt+ subreddits? I want to help here, but I’m not sure how.
YES. PLEASE DO THIS. I'd also recommend tweeting #StopTheEARNITAct2022 along with the original tumblr post/this post linked. You can also contact your representative (unless your a minor) and tell them not to support this.
Why do you say minors shouldn't contact their representatives?
I just don't know if it's possible or not.
There's an even higher chance they'll ignore you, but you can still try calling or emailing or anything else. I doubt most if any have screening for minors
I know there are 5 people on this page rn, so if any of you have an idea to take this further, i'm willing to listen. This has gotten a crazy amount of engagement for what it is, but it's not nearly enough to cause anything significant on a broad scale. I need to make people know. Currently, there are only 3 tweets under the twitter hashtag, and since twitter is probably the only way anyone is going to listen to us, that a massive fucking issue. I need people to know. That is the biggest goal right now. The general public must know about this before it's too late.
Am I allowed to assemble a well-armed militia and take down and replace the government yet? Y'know like the constitution said we could
the effing US really be out there like: *"oh yes, our country works perfectly and there is truly nothing we should fix, let's meddle with the internet of the rest of the word."* I am genuinely so upset I'm gonna scream
It would allow the committee to ban encryption. That wouldn't just hurt sex workers, the LGBTQ+ community, and sex education — this bill would take out the entire internet, including the US government's dirty laundry. The biggest problem I see is that congress doesn't understand basic internet security and will try to pass it anyway despite the glaring threat it is to their own jobs, safety, and secrets
I don’t live in the US. What can I do to help?
There are a few things. 1. (the Prostasia Foundation has an iffy background, just use the Mozilla one) 2. Spread the word. ESPECIALLY make it clear that this **WILL** effect people outside the US 3. Tell any American friends or family to do the things that you can't.
UPDATE: The Prostasia foundation is down right now. Use https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/campaigns/oppose-earn-it-act/#cta-anchor
I don't live in the US, but have posted this a few minutes ago in the Forum of TrevorSpace after reading through the post yesterday evening.
Doesn’t this violate the first amendment
YEAH. But there enough people in power who like it that nobody seems to care.
this is so fucked up. i'll try to inform people about it. stay safe the best you can, everyone <3
They are doing the same in Europe. The commission will be proposing a legislation similar to the EARN IT act and I doubt it will not pass, that's because in EU is very difficult to successfully protest against a legislation.
I'm European and this worries me a lot, what's this act called?
It doesn't have an official name yet but the internet and opposition named it "chatcontrol", the precedent version that became law is called "eprivacy derogation" which is a law that allow but does not oblige the practice of scanning images and video content in private chats to detect and report illegal material. The next legislation will be proposed in march 2022 and it will require every provider to scan every single message you send (including text message) regardless of encryption.
Fight the power!!!
I'm gonna crosspost this where I can.
Shared on a few communities. Unfortunately that's all I can do right now.
I also may have searched "earn it act" on reddit and liked the posts that crossposted this post... 😁
Lol parents can’t keep an eye on their kid’s internet use so all “naughty stuff” is banned _INTERNET_ wide. Thats like saying that bars are now banned because “what about the children”
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And also, dont they have bouncers? Like lmfao thats why they’re there
Dear fucking god. Any person with a reasonable mind would get rid of this, holy fuck
This is gross stupidity. It shows how low the government has sunk over in the US. Encryption is needed in many cases, and this shows up tbe tech-phobe government for who they are. People will just host the LGBTQ material in Canada, the EU, the UK as a workaround. We don't want or need another Great Firewall, and the US doesn't either. Here in the UK, people are actively trying to stop this. Hopefully this'll get shot down. It's an attempt to try and distract from the disastrous governments of the past few years.
What??? Surely the whole world with access to the internet hasn’t collectively agreed on this??
Nope; this is again US-Americans thinking they are the world.
Not even Americans, just the sick people who run the government
How does one copy a link? Never mind I got it
I can do something if i am outside the united states
Crosspost it on reddit!
Yes. You can spread the word and also sign the Mozilla petition i linked in the post.
Worth noting that foreign people signing a domestic petition undermines it in the eyes of law makers - in their eyes signatures from foreign folk don't count, and if foreign folk are able to sign the petition then the entire petition is worthless in their eyes because every signature might belong to a foreign person.
With the Subtext they're using as a guise for their malice and hatred, it's abundantly clear that the GOP is effectively trying to tie us all up with unsavory, illegal groups and say that we're all criminals and evil! That's the truth of the matter. It's not about just censoring us, it's about making us seem like something we're not. About painting us as the villain they so desperately want us to be so they can justify continued persecution of us! They know that they're losing power over the country, and they're trying more desperately than ever to hold on to that power, even if it means going after people just for who they are.
Oh for fuck sakes it's the fearmongery shit about section 230 of the CDA again (among other things.) It looks like this bill was killed in 2020 because of public opposition. Let's make that happen again.
We’re even more fucked now... Now the only outlet for most of the world is gonna go away, the only way we can meet each other, the only way we can have a large community and survive... I swear I want to stop existing
Keep fighting. They can never fully snuff us out, worst comes to worst we can go underground. Make a Neocites site or something that they'll never find.
When they remove anything positive about us online it’ll be much easier for them to get rid of us outright. I have literally 0 hope left now.
Changed my flair for this bullsh*t the government wants to do
* [Bill](https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/3538/text) with text available * [Analysis](https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2022/02/earn-it-act-back-and-it%E2%80%99s-more-dangerous-ever) at Stanford University’s Center for Internet and society * this also has links off to other analyses * [The EFF’s comments](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/its-back-senators-want-earn-it-bill-scan-all-online-messages) I think the idea that this will directly limit LGBT+ material is a overblown. It requires either that such material is directly considered “child sexual abuse material (CSAM)”, or that providers actively refuse any material that goes anywhere near LBGT+ topics for fear that it would be considered such. I wouldn’t put it past some of the Republicans to try to make LGBT+ stuff considered CSAM, but they could do that independently of this bill. Plenty of LGBT+ material is out in the open now and easily findable through various search engines. I do still think the whole bill is ripe for abuse via government scanning and threatens end to end encryption with backdoors that will threaten online commerce. Those with bad intentions from around the world would likely exploit any backdoors that are added. It is government overreach playing at “protecting children” to seize that power. ETA: I worry that casting this bill as a direct threat to LGBT+ people and content is going to lead to “WTF?” responses from many and discredit the opposition to the bill. The bill will have a much broader and real impact than just LGBT+ people.
After reading the bill, I have to totally agree and I wonder if people are reading the bill properly. The closest it gets to "redefining pornography" is it's explicitly redefining "child pornography" as child sexual abuse, which seems like a totally reasonable change. I'm not quite understanding how it will directly lead to LGBT+ content being removed, and any attempt to make it so should be criticized *when it happens* because it would be a bizarre interpretation of the bill. We need to be laser-focused on Section 5's amendment to 230(e) which absolutely decimates the legal viability of encryption.
My most uncharitable interpretation would be that emphasizing threats to LBGT+ is an attempt to seed discourse saying LGBT+ people support child abuse (nonsense of course) because they are afraid of getting caught by the act’s provisions. Then they would use that to turn more people against LGBT people AND give Republicans the media storm to support the EARN-IT act in a two for one deal. On the other hand, very few people in the US want random government people scanning personal documents and information at their whim while also leaving holes for others to do the same.
Wouldn't this be against the first and fourth amendment? Update: If it does get voted in, we could get it to the supreme court and they could check it to see if it follows the constitution.
yeah, they just dont fucking care.
The Supreme Court might. If it does get voted in it is basically our only hope. I really don't know much about law, but if they're reasonable it will get taken down.
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Well great.
They are supposed to rule based on the constitution and previous rulings; however, who knows with the current justices
This is my only safety net, the only place I know I can be me, I’ll do what I can.
Highly suggest texting the resist bot if you can. It was surprisingly well set up. There were a few extra steps for me such as verifying an email address to sign with, but the whole process was quick and easy.
Ok I feel the sentiment, but for anyone thats actually freaking out over this: We've largely crossed into the territory of fear mongering at this point. There is very little (if at all) chance of this passing, and even if it does somehow, the unconstitutional nature of the act coupled with the extreme pushback means it would swiftly be challenged in the court system and repealed. Everyone just take a breath and stay calm. Please stop making this scarier than it has to be. The caps lock and spooky phrasing isnt helping anyones mental health, honestly.
thanks for easing my worry a little bit i appreciate it /gen
thank you for stopping my anxiety attack. genuinely, thank you.
Here is a link to the Bill itself if anyone has not read it yet. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-117s3538is/pdf/BILLS-117s3538is.pdf
it's good to raise awareness with the general public, but by far and away the most impactful way to get the attention of your congresspersons is to write them a letter.
I have a question, can you sign a petition if you are a minor, and outside of U.S. ? And do I have to put my real name, or can I put anything in it ?
I don't think you can. I'd suggest just spreading the link and the word. Right now my main goal is to get something started on twitter, but it's helpful to spread awareness in other places too.
Signed the petition, reblogged the post, and I'm telling whoever I can. This is so fucked up
this seems really, really, really bad, what should/will we do if it does end up passing? I really hope it doesn't, it would separate me from my favorite subreddits, prevent me from watching my favorite youtubers, and if they can control discord, separate me from all of my friends, which would be very bad.
That's what the GOP wants to do my friends. Cheney was the one who wrote it and after all those innocent civilians he bombed in Iraq, he felt he needed to make our lives even worse! Talk about a disgusting man.
1. Have y’all checked if this is 100% true? No trusted sources have info on this. 2. If this is true, I’m sure this will go to shit almost as soon as it’s published. People’s opinion on the govt will lower and cause riots and civil war. If this does get passed, it’ll probably be gone within the year. I’m gonna go ahead and say it’s safe to say America as we know it won’t last the century.
I went ahead and signed it and sent it off though i doubt the senators will listen in this state
im sorry, the prostasia foundation under further examination is not good. Im dearly sorry
like, seriously, holy shit. Im so sorry jesus christ.
I understand that this is a *huge* privacy violation and should never be allowed to pass, but how exactly would it eliminate LGBTQ+ content?
From my understanding, it's main goal is to eliminate NSFW from the internet. The people helming it in the first place will consider LGBTQ+ as NSFW (even if educational or SFW). If you want a more graceful explanation, read the og tumblr post.
I hate the government
Wtf does this mean being gay is now illegal or sonething? You can't just do that that makes no fucking sence!
No. It means that if this bill passes, LGBTQ+ will likely be censored off the internet due to it being conflated with sexual content. All under the guise of preventing CSA and CSAM. This still makes no fucking sense, and yet, here we are.
brb making a dark web site
EARN IT is full of EARN SHIT
How tf are people allowing this?? boosted on twt and linked, this is crazyyy
Land of the free...as long as your cishet, white and rich But i guess thats what happens when you give all that power to some bitter old men. Thanks for giving me such a shit world to grow up in, bigots.
Sharing with some of my Discord communities
How would this affect me and others who live outside of the United States? Region locking could be the option they take but I feel like they would most likely take unilateral action well beyond there jurisdiction and harm the rest of us too.
Why aren't Joe Rogan and Ben upset by this? Oh right! It's the GOP who made the bill in the first place! Why would they be enraged when it's literally their own act?! Oh and guess who created it - Cheney! Of course! Like that's a huge surprise.
Guess im downloading tor again .-.
I must be missing something, because I read the entirety of the bill and I didn't find anything related to lgbt content. The bill basically did two things: it established a governing body for combating child sexual abuse material, and it redefined "child pornography" to "child sexual abuse material" in several existing laws. Unless they're planning on giving the term "child sexual abuse material" some perverse anti-LGBT meaning, I don't see what parts of this bill are anti-LGBT. Can someone clarify?
It doesn't have anything clearly anti-LGBT in it, as far as I can tell thats some hyperbolic panic. The reason everyone should be worried about this bill is the damage it would do to secure communications - mandating backdoors be installed in all encrypted services is going to result in a wave of cybercrime like nobody has ever conceived of. The minute backdoors are created, criminals will be working to figure out how to exploit them.
That is very valid. Good point.
>Unless they're planning on giving the term "child sexual abuse material" some perverse anti-LGBT meaning it's this one
They claim it has no distinguishable difference in meaning from child pornography. >(a) Sense of Congress.—It is the sense of Congress that the term “child sexual abuse material” has the same legal meaning as the term “child pornography”, as that term was used in Federal statutes and case law before the date of enactment of this Act.
Its entirely to do with the people pushing this, and those who will be controlling it. It supported by many "BUT THINK OF THE CHILDREN" type of organizations, making it likely that sexual content and LGBTQ+ content will be conflated.
https://www.torproject.org/
Well fuck.
What are the chances of this act passing?
Weakened encryption would put American tech industry in a massive disadvantage compared to the rest of the world. Especially in the age of teleworking from home. If corporations are smart, they don't want this thing to pass. If the NSA is smart, they realize the risk to American infrastructure and defense, all run by private companies. Corporate greed and overzealous patriotism could keep this human rights violation from happening.
CALL/EMAIL YOUR SENATOR: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm CALL/EMAIL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative Hello, my name is is __________, and I am a registered voter in the state of _________, voting district number _____. I am calling to implore you to oppose the recently reintroduced “Earn IT” act. This bill will make it harder for LGBTQ and other at-risk individuals to seek help online, under the false pretense of protecting children. It will also weaken data encryption, which as a privacy advocate, I strongly oppose. This bill reeks of right-wing religious conservatism, extremism, and censorship, and you must oppose it if you want my vote. I hope I can trust you to do the right thing.
I have a friend with no time and all money. Is there anywhere they could donate to assist in opposing this legislation?
Has anyone posted to r/protest? helpful to post on anything we can
i'd highly encourage you to crosspost it there if they allow that.
Spread the word, people!
Dark web network time?
I so hope this bullshit doesn’t get passed. I’m so angry that I can’t even properly think about what I will do if it becomes a law!!
Crossposting it everywhere I know how. The ace community might just postpone their invasion of Denmark to get this to take off!
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (which seems to have a very high score and rating amongst the public and charity review boards) has comprehensive and recent articles on EARN It, as well as the new SHOP SAFE Act. Their articles have a way to send a personalized email letter to your local representative as well https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/its-back-senators-want-earn-it-bill-scan-all-online-messages
even the 4-channers might fight with us on this one (so they can get their loli porn and hentai)
I dont care. We need all the allies we can get.
I... really don't think any government has such control over the whole internet. It's a bad thing, it would certainly reduce accessibility, and should be stopped as possible. But don't panic over it, it's not good for your health to start
I mean, China is a very good example of a government controlling the internet for their citizens
Having a parent who works at ARIN, trust me when I say, if the US passes this, at the very minimum, the entirety of ARIN's area of service, including the US, Canada, and technically things like Antartica and potentially Outer Space, when that becomes a problem. And again, this is the absolute minimum area of effect. LANIC tends to follow ARIN's example, so that would include Mexico and the entirety of South America.
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It stems from the us, but it will effect everyone due to the us's influence. Please spread awareness.
PLEASE REPOST THIS
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not US exclusive, but it think 18+ if nothing else, just spread the word when you have time. #StopTheEARNITAct2022 on Twitter.
What the actual fuck is this shit. This is horrifying.
So, while of course it’s best to hope (and fight it), how do we get around it if it passes? VPNs? Or would they be able to tell that you’re using one, or even get past it? Any ideas? Data hoarding now might be a good idea (especially e-books for books currently being banned) if you can, but what about seeing the actual internet?
encryption will be useless, so privacy will be a bygone era. I'm gonna be honest, i have no idea what will happen. I hope whatever it is, we can work around it and adapt, maybe even build up enough strength to demolish it.
i feel like this is just like what went around with coppa
So with my rough understanding of international law and how it affect the internet: If the law makes the content itself illegal then creating or hosting a website/content in that area would be illegal. Impportant is thats this is not the same as If the viewing of the content is illegal. This all is obviously not mutually excluse but needs to be specified as to what is exactly illegal. What s important here is that a law only affects the area its designed for and websites might not need to follow these rules if they arent based in the area. What usually happens with these blanket content bans is that the power in charge basically threaten large internet sites that they will be blocked/controlled when viewing them in the area if they dont adhere to the rules. From here there are mutiple ways this can go. 1. Either the sites change overall and for everyone to follow the guidelines so they dont loose a large part of their users. 2. The sites do nothing and get blocked by the power. 3. The main sites get blocked in the area but the company creates a special version of the site that follow the guidelines. These sites are usually only avalable in the affected areas. So even if this is just America it could still affect the internet at large.
WHAT THE FUCK! I sort of get the porn part but trying to get rid of sex ed and lgbtq+ stuff?! Do they fucking know that the main reason behind homophobia, transphobia, STD's, and many more problems relating to knowledge is BECAUSE it is so taboo? Not to mention the backfire effect! By doing these things there will be even more effort to rebel against it and uneducated people making it worse.
This is horrifying oh my god