Olives @olives@qoto.org

Remember that "safety by design" *does not mean anything*. Someone can't objectively point to something and say that that is the "right" or "wrong" thing to do, and it would probably be impossible to, because moderation and the like are inherently subjective.

It is more a form of political rhetoric. In fact, I think that things like this are a *distraction* and lower the quality of the discourse.

It operates a lot like a company (also, Ashton owns AI stock and they push a strong techno-solutionist view, even when it comes off as ridiculous / is irrelevant).

https://reason.com/2017/02/15/ashton-kutcher-plays-sex-worker-savior/ Remember that Thorn is a company which has a history of making things up to promote themselves (their "products" appear to be of questionable quality).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemisms_for_Internet_censorship_in_China "harmonizing" Ironically, one of the euphemisms which someone used when advocating for censorship was the very same euphemism which is used for censorship in China.

It's a slightly more sophisticated (although obtuse) way of telling someone to "do something", and then, they do "something" and that "something" is completely unreasonable.

"safety by design" is really just a euphemism for censorship invented by an (unreasonable) politician from a distant foreign country. It's just some political rhetoric which gets thrown around, it doesn't mean anything.

This same politician was upset that Apple wouldn't spy on people back in 2021.

Now, a Canadian "think of the children" outfit accused of telling sites to take down stamps claiming they're child porn, and a British outfit which is largely about censoring porn, and conflating it with abuse, are crawling out of the woodwork to offer to "help", in response to a situation where people are eager to jump to conclusions (particularly about what might happen).

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/27/germany-mainstream-politicians-far-right-afd I remember that the FDP campaigned against censorship then when they were elected in 2021 (in coalition so it might involve some sort of compromise), whenever one of their ministers, Marco Buschmann would be mentioned internationally, it would involve him clumsily trying to defend some sort of censorship (or defending privacy, which is a good thing). Some of the censorship came off as silly.

As for the 5% threshold, I remember that they raised it not that long ago, and that they were cautioned against doing so...

To win over voters though (a number of voters simply might not vote, rather than shifting to another party), these parties might have to show that the economy will get better.

"rewarding time spent on the platform"
Does a level system in a video game count as "rewarding"? What about achievements? What about a forum system with elements of achievements and likes (i.e. Discourse)? What about levels and achievements on Steam?

How would someone distinguish those cases from other cases?

The fediverse has likes (but no achievements, although it wouldn't be hard for someone to implement such a system, and I could see someone doing it for fun), is that rewarding someone?

That is the problem with vague demands as to what "platforms" should do.

The anti prostitution article comes off as condescending, and largely attacks a strawman rather than what people who call for decriminalization of such actually say.

Take the example of derisively referring to a nebulous "pimp lobby", what they actually mean are sex workers, academics, and others who argue that such prohibitions are harmful.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/article/2024/aug/24/were-not-as-open-about-sex-as-we-imagine-gillian-anderson-on-pleasure-powerful-women-and-collecting-secret-fantasies
A better article than the one where someone with a peculiar form of conservative views is there to tell you about how much she hates prostitution.

https://sexpo.fi/kannanotto/sexpon-tavoitteet-europarlamentaarikkojen-tyohon/
It looks like Sexpo (not the convention) wrote a blog post addressing the European Parliament. It covers:

Abortion rights.

Something about family life.

Something about sexual freedom. They like that.

Access to quality education.

The new government in Finland appears to lifting restrictions on advertising for gambling. It appears that websites had difficulty in complying with them.

Once again, here's a post I'm working on which goes into science showing that porn isn't spooky.

The government has inexplicably gone back to this point, even though *they themselves* found arguments for it being spooky to be dubious in one document.

I strongly recommend pushing back on the PM's office (and anyone else for that matter) for bringing it up again. I am getting tired of these cheap points being revived, and frankly, you should be tired of it too.

And as I go into here, censorship and "age verification" (which is, frankly, also censorship) are not realistic or practical ideas. Censorship is also harmful.

#auspol

One of the folks the PM is tapping for ideas on how to deal with online porn is a *journalist* known for sensationalism and misrepresenting science. #auspol

I suppose this *is* consistent. I've commented on how unusual it is to go after cannabis (I'm not a fan of cannabis prohibition), when there is already alcohol.

I was hoping they'd be more the adults in the room though (in contrast to that AV guy), rather than coming up with these sorts of clearly impractical ideas.

The Australian Government floating the idea of an alcohol prohibition is wild. People would be absolutely livid, if they did that.

https://ncac.org/news/ncac-artspaces-vague-policies-restricting-inappropriate-sensitive-artworks-threaten-artistic-freedom-across-the-u-s
"The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) raised concerns today that #Artspace, the nation’s leading developer of arts facilities, has repeatedly censored artworks presented on their properties."
#FreeSpeech

https://action.aclu.org/petition/stop-project-2025-tyranny A petition against Project 2025. #HumanRights #FreeSpeech #privacy

Since there was a fuss over online porn a while ago in #canada, I'll share this post I'm working on on this tag.

It debunks porn (and themes of porn) being spooky with science, and also questions things like "age verification" (i.e. demanding someone's ID). There are other things in there too, which might be relevant when thinking about one of the bills which was proposed recently.