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.@CenDemTech opposes this fundamentally flawed bill, which violates the #FirstAmendment and puts at risk users’ #constitutional right to communicate, access info, & express themselves on platforms like TikTok.

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reason.com/2024/03/06/dear-gov
"Also notable here: the bill bans enabling "the distribution, maintenance, or updating of a foreign adversary controlled application." Like last year's RESTRICT Act, this could implicate services—like virtual private networks (VPNs)—that help people download or access foreign apps forbidden by U.S. law."

Olives boosted

According to the E.U.'s "Transparency Database" (which tends to be far too vague and is probably misleading in some areas), a couple of apps were censored in in 2024 on Google Play for "pornography".

Olives boosted

netzpolitik.org/2024/chatkontr
The Belgian Council Presidency is asking to look into encrypted messages while simultaneously not breaking the encryption. A farcical notion.

They also speak of "risk categorizations" which they won't define and which could be changed on a whim later, to be mitigated via unspecified measures which themselves could be oppressive.

Still, member states remain divided.

Olives boosted

Deleted my #Pinterest account. I'd been thinking about it anyway because Pinterest has been rotting away and then they sent me a (presumably automated) vague "content warning" and I decided it was time.

According to the E.U. "transparency database", the website known as "", is very puritanical and removes content left and right.

There is a literal tidal wave of entries relating to it.

The flat earthers were only partially right. The world is a disc which sits on a couple of elephants standing on a giant turtle swimming through space. Lol.

nichegamer.com/steam-bans-orde
By the way, that was also NCOSE (a group of puritanical Christian fundamentalists led by Mormon fundamentalists).

Back in 2018, they bragged about lobbying (and misled them), and took responsibility for it. They would probably rather Steam bans all sexual content though.

Olives  
So, there is a consultation where a puritanical anti-porn Tory appointee[1] wants to censor free expression. She made a highly disturbing rant, and...

According to the same database, it appears that Apple also censored an app in 2024 for "pornography", although with a wider scope than just in one country.

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According to the E.U.'s "Transparency Database" (which tends to be far too vague and is probably misleading in some areas), a couple of apps were censored in in 2024 on Google Play for "pornography".

Olives boosted

I think it's silly to single out "nicotine pouches" here and it is probably indicative of moral panic.

Olives  
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-27/nicotine-pouches-banned-from-sale-in-australia/103428520 Australian War on Nicotine expands. It's probably n...
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petapixel.com/2024/02/28/wyze-
"Wyze cameras — a smart camera company whose devices are sold on Amazon and Walmart — allowed 13,000 of its customers to look into other people’s homes."

"“The incident was caused by a third-party caching client library that was recently integrated into our system. This client library received unprecedented load conditions caused by devices coming back online all at once."

"this is the second time that something like this has happened to Wyze customers in five months. In September, some Wyze users reported seeing feeds of cameras that they didn’t own via Wyze’s online viewer."

Olives boosted

What Nintendo seems to miss is that things like emulators have historically been tools someone uses to make it easier to, say, record / upload video footage, so they might actually be harming themselves by depriving themselves of publicity.

Olives boosted

reclaimthenet.org/bc-withholds
"The authorities in Canada’s British Columbia (BC) province have changed a restaurant’s liquor license as a form of punishment after a row over its refusal to automatically surrender all surveillance footage to the police, in the wake of shooting incidents in a nearby parking lot."

"“For a local business to insist that the RCMP get a warrant for information that they might have that could lead to an arrest is outrageous,” Stewart is quoted as telling the Canadian media.

And the mayor shared that the restaurant wanting to go through what turns out to be proper legal procedure (the RCMP had to go and get a warrant) was something he was struggling to comprehend."
Well, if someone asks for a warrant, they've got to provide a warrant, that is how it works. Good grief.

Olives boosted

reclaimthenet.org/russia-rolls
"The Russian government is employing an increasingly strict approach to manage and rein in the digital freedom its citizens have enjoyed in recent years by introducing a ban on VPN services."

Olives boosted

So that’s socialism, communism, anti-fascism and anti-abortion added to the drag net of thought that is Prevent (UK).

Freedom of expression shouldn’t be ring-fenced by the governing party’s preferred system of reality, but a means of debating important issues.

#Prevent #PreventDuty #freedomofexpression #freespeech #censorship #ukpolitics

theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/m

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reason.com/2024/03/06/after-17
"Seventeen years ago, the federal government raided Charlie Lynch's medical marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay, California, and charged him with five drug felonies. Lynch, whose business complied with state and local regulations, has been fighting to stay out of prison ever since, and last month he finally won that battle.

The Department of Justice (DOJ), which had been insisting since the first iPhone was released that Lynch should be incarcerated for at least five years, suddenly agreed to a deal that will spare him that punishment and erase his criminal record."

Olives boosted

What pundits think platform moderation is about: Hate speech, abuse.

What it is actually about: You cursed in this video, how dare you. I don't like this piece of art. You said the word "sex". You said the word "dead". Spam.

Both the government and Big Tech have a part to play in censorship. If someone is expecting either to necessarily save them, then well, they are very misguided.

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