Olives @olives@qoto.org

"You shouldn't post YouTube links on Mastodon because it's owned by Google!"
Talking like this looks out of touch.

https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-cyber-law-social-media-6de3a878c434abb154b91012bc9ca33c
"Under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, which was introduced in the National Assembly Wednesday, authorities would create an agency with the power to order the immediate blocking of content deemed “unlawful and offensive” from social media, such as content critical of judges, the armed forces, parliament or provincial assemblies. Individuals and organizations posting such content may also be blocked from social media."

"The law also makes spreading disinformation a criminal offense, punishable by three years in prison and a fine of 2 million rupees ($7,150).
Unions representing journalists and news editors rejected the bill Thursday."
#pakistan #FreeSpeech

There was a bit of "does this look old enough" (and looking at little details) to roleplay with with a character from an #anime game on Mastodon.

Looks like expression is being chilled. #FreeSpeech

https://www.refused-classification.com/censorship-timelines/game-iarc/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=im.alive&hl=en
#Savethegirl, a puzzle game by Appmakings Inc about saving a damsel in distress was banned in #Australia. #FreeSpeech #games

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/01/23/asia-pacific/society/thailand-same-sex-marriage/ #Thailand now has same sex marriage. #HumanRights

There is quite a bit of discourse where the fediverse is represented as some kind of silver bullet. And while it represents a good alternative to platforms like Bluesky and Twitter, there are issues like this which remain a turn-off to real adoption. #FreeSpeech

https://fieldnotes.resistant.tech/federation-is-the-worst-of-all-worlds/ The tendency of the fediverse towards inter-instance censorship has been documented as early as 2018 in Sarah Jamie Lewis' scathing piece titled "Federation is the Worst of all Worlds". #FreeSpeech

While the fediverse is put forward by some as a solution to social media, the fediverse itself has a serious problem with inter-instance censorship which is very arbitrary and capricious. #FreeSpeech

These kinds of bills can be pretty broad so I'll tag #anime too.

"The American Civil Liberties Union of #SouthDakota testified in opposition and said that while the intention is to safeguard minors, the legislation could undermine the #FirstAmendment rights of adults who might be deterred by #AgeVerification #privacy concerns from accessing legal content."

https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2025/01/17/age-verification-bill-for-adult-websites-passes-committee-of-sd-lawmakers/
"A committee of #SouthDakota lawmakers endorsed a bill Friday that would require pornographic websites to implement #AgeVerification measures." #FreeSpeech

https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/16/24345310/cfpb-digital-payment-apps-rule-lawsuit-technet-netchoice
"Two major tech trade groups are challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) effort to treat payment apps and digital wallets like banks. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, DC, NetChoice and TechNet claim that the CFPB’s digital payment regulation, announced on November 21st, 2024, is arbitrary and capricious."

I haven't looked deeply into this one, but it sounds very vague / broad. Actual child porn is treated as it is due to the depiction of an actual person (another way of putting it is that it involves actual abuse).

In related matters, Bluesky is accused of censoring images of these.

https://www.lto.de/recht/hintergruende/h/sexpuppen-besitz-strafbarkeit-kinderpornografie-sex-irrationale-kriminalpolitik According to a German lawyer, there's an unconstitutional law in Germany (a court is looking at it) to do with "sex dolls" which it conflates with real child porn.

https://www.axios.com/2025/01/22/trump-ross-ulbricht-silk-road What do you think of Ross Ulbricht?