URGENT: 🚨🚨EARN IT ACT IS BACK IN THE SENATE 🚨🚨 tumblr’s nsfw ban hitting the entire internet this spring 2022
February 1, 2022
I’m so so sorry for the long post but please please please pay attention and spread this
WHAT IS THE EARN IT ACT?
The EARN IT Act has been roundly condemned by nearly every major LGBTQ+ advocacy and human rights organization in the country. This is a bill that will make children less safe, undermine online safety and security, and trample free expression, because it carves out another exception to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA 230), which the ACLU describes as “foundational to modern online communications.” This has been the law that has let the internet grow into what it is today, we’ve had this law since the 90s. (For context, Trump wanted to get rid of this law because he knew it would lead to mass govt surveillance and censorship of minorities online.)
The EARN IT Act will lead to online censorship. Platforms will be incentivized to scan their users’ communications and censor all sex-related content, including sex education, literally anything lgbt, transgender or non-binary education and support systems, and sex worker communication according to the ACLU. All this in the name of “protecting kids” and “fighting CSEM”, both of which the bill does nothing of the sort. In fact it makes fighting CSEM even harder.
If this bill passes, we’re going to see most, if not all, adult content and accounts removed from mainstream platforms, for fear of the liability that could come with ever accidentally hosting CSAM, as well as the erasure of end-to-end encryption on messaging platforms.
This is really not a drill. Anyone who makes or consume anything “adult” online has to be prepared to fight Sen. Blumenthal’s EARN IT Act, brought back from the grave by a bipartisan consensus to destroy Section 230.
EARN IT will open the way for politicians to define the category of “pornography" as they — or the lobbies that fund them — please, (Right now, right wing organizers are catgorizing books about racism as ‘porn’ to ban them from schools) which is a cherished goal of organizations that seek to reintroduce obscenity prosecutions for content now protected by Free Speech jurisprudence. This will 1000000% be used to eradicate anything LGBT online.
What this bill says it does on the surface is make platforms liable for their users’ activity if that activity involves sex and minors. However, because of 230, platforms are not liable at all about their users’ activity. This has allowed platforms to grow and thrive and many niches online to as well. The bill also creates an unelected commission to create “best practices” to combat online child sexual exploitation. While these recommendations are nominally voluntary (so Americans have no decision on who gets to be on it), platforms that refuse to comply will be liable for criminal prosecutions and lawsuits should the government decide any of their users is engaging in online child sexual exploitation.
This is already a nightmare enough. But the bill also DESTROYS ENCRYPTION, you know, the thing protecting literally anyone or any govt entity from going into your private messages and emails and anything on your devices and spying on you.
This bill is going to finish what FOSTA/SESTA started. And that should terrify you.
Senator Blumenthal (Same guy who said ‘Facebook should ban finsta’) pushed this bill all of 2020, literally every activist (There were more than half a million signatures on this site opposing this act!) pushed hard to stop this bill. Now he brings it back, doesn’t show the text of the bill until hours later, and it’s WORSE. Instead of fixing literally anything in the bill that might actually protect kids online, Bluemnthal is hoping to fast track this and shove it through, hoping to get little media attention other than propaganda of “protecting kids” to support this shitty legislation that will harm kids.
The entire EARN IT act is based on *multiple* misunderstandings of the law and reality. It’s a really really really bad policy that will do serious harm. But because Senator Blumenthal wants headlines, he’ll pretend that it “helps protect the children.” It won’t. It’ll do real damage. It will make CSEM much much worse.
One of the many reasons this bill is so dangerous: It totally misunderstands how Section 230 works, and in doing so (as with FOSTA) it is likely to make the very real problem of CSAM worse, not better. Section 230 gives companies the flexibility to try different approaches to dealing with various content moderation challenges. It allows for greater and greater experimentation and adjustments as they learn what works – without fear of liability for any “failure.” Removing Section 230 protections does the opposite. It says if you do anything, you may face crippling legal liability. This actually makes companies less willing to do anything that involves trying to seek out, take down, and report CSAM because of the greatly increased liability that comes with admitting that there is CSAM on your platform to search for and deal with. This liability would allow anyone for any reason to sue any platform they want, suing smaller ones out of existence. Look at what is happening right now with book bans across the nation with far right groups. This is going to happen to the internet if this bill passes.
(Remember, the state department released a report in December 2021 recommending that the government crack down on “obscenity” as hard the Reagan Administration did. If this bill passes, it could easily go way beyond shit red states are currently trying. It is a goldmine for the fascist right that is currently in the middle of banning every book that talks about race and sexuality across the US.)
NCOSE, the far right anti-LGBT hate group behind the global anti-sex legislations, is pushing the idea that any form of sexual expression, including talking about HEALTH, leads to sex trafficking. Their goal is to eliminate all sex, anything gay, and everything that goes against their idea of ‘God’ from the internet and hyper disney-fy and sanitize it. This is a highly coordinated attack on multiple fronts.
The reason these bills keep showing up is because there is this false lie spread by organizations like NCOSE that platforms do nothing about CSEM online. However, platforms are already liable for child sexual exploitation under federal law. Tech companies sent more than 45 million+ instances of CSAM to the DOJ in 2019 alone, most of which they declined to investigate. This shows that platforms are actually doing everything in their power already to stop CSEM by following already existing laws. The Earn It Act includes zero resources for proven investigation or prevention programs. If Senator Bluementhal actually cared about protecting youth, why wouldn’t he include anything to actually protect them in his shitty horrible bill?
The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) along with a coalition of 26 civil society organizations urged the United States Senate to reject the EARN IT Act. Groups on the left and right, including the ACLU, Fight for the Future, EFF, and Hacking // Hustling oppose it. Because it threatens free expression online and will threaten marginalized people’s safety while being totally unnecessary and failing to fix the problem it claims to address. The EARN IT Act empowers states to give law enforcement access to users’ private conversations and force companies to create encryption backdoors for law enforcement. This is totally unnecessary. Platforms are already handing over CSAM to the federal government. It’s actually likely to make prosecuting child molesters more difficult since evidence collected this way likely violates the Fourth Amendment and would be inadmissible in court.
I don’t know why so many Senators are eager to cosponsor the “make child pornography worse” bill, but here we are.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
EARN IT Act was introduced yesterday! And it’s already scheduled to get marked up, which is the first step post-introduction. Most bills never go to markup, so this means they are putting pressure to move this through. IF YOU LIVE IN THESE STATES (IL, VT, CA, RI, MN, DE, CT, HI, NJ, and GA), CONTACT YOUR SENATOR AND HOUSE MEMBERS NOW. THIS IS URGENT. This is who gets first crack, and folks in all have Senators who are on the Judiciary committee.
I’m guessing this month or March is when the bill would be passed if there is no opposition 😭 The bill was re-introduced yesterday, already set for markup this Thursday. This feels like an attempt to fast track it this month. Additionally the current makeup of Congress favors those who want it passed. Back in 2020 it was mostly Senate republicans and democrats who are basically republicans (just like now, check the sponsors) pushing it with Ron Wyden using the filibuster to stop their efforts. The house dems didn’t want to give Trump a win and needed to appear as pro-privacy/free speech for the 2020 election. Now the dems have the presidency, both chambers of Congress and if you’ve noticed have spent a few years repeatedly demanding social media censorship and desperately want to give Biden victories. biden isn’t like obama who opposed sopa/pipa to appeal to younger voters. This is similar to how FOSTA passed with the group who made it happen last time back again. Far as I’m aware Wyden hasn’t spoken about new earn it yet but even if he does oppose it, it’s very possible there will be enough Senate democrats to join the republicans in passing it beating a filibuster. Then pelosi’s band of house idiots pass it and we have to choose between breaking the law because they can’t stop us from using encryption or being obedient sheep to a group who consider themselves above laws.
It already has a fifth of the Senate cosponsoring it. There is a very very very real chance this bill becomes law. This is an uphill battle that’s going to happen fast and quick. PLEASE, FIGHT NOW.
202-224-3121 connects you to the congressional hotline.
This website takes you to your Senator / House members contact info. EMAIL, MESSAGE, SEND LETTERS, CALL CALL CALL CALL CALL. Calling is the BEST way to get a message through. Get your family and friends to send calls too. This is literally the end of free speech online.
TLDR: The EARN IT Act will lead to online censorship of any and all adult & lgbt content across the entire internet, open the floodgates to mass surveillance the likes which we haven’t seen before, lead to much more CSEM being distributed online, and destroy encryption. Call 202-224-3121 to connect to your house and senate representative and tell them to VOTE NO on this bill that does not protect anyone and harms everyone.
i called both my senators and i hope you do as well
I fucking know it’s a word wall, but it’s fucking VITAL to keep this from being passed. I can’t do much across the pond in scotland, but if any american can help, PLEASE DO. This will affect american-based companies AND companies working on american internet. This is one of the utterly cataclysmic steps to a fash-ified, overly sanitized internet that not even the REPUBLICANS would want. Shut the bill while you can, please.
Rebloggin to both add the EFF’s take on it, which makes me even more terrified of this awful bill, and add one additional wrinkle.
There was this post circulating around Tumblr a while back talking about how “useless” it is to try and call your senators. But, while it’s less effective than most of us would like and you should do other methods if you can, the main wrinkle to people pushing back against that is that it does matter if a bunch of constituents are complaining about the same issue in aggregate, notifying that it’s a widely held sentiment.
So, in other words, we need as many people doing this as possible to make this a wave. If we get this bill dead via our input, every single voice will have counted in the end…
if you wanna know what mental illness is like, i woke up at around 8 am today and have, for most of the day, had the desire to go buy a few snacks from the grocery store right around the corner. i have a gift card to said grocery store, a car with more than enough gas to get there, and nothing on my schedule today to delay going there. all i need to do is take a shower, put on some clothes, and go on out.
i have, for no explicable reason, not taken a shower or put on any clothes all day, and it’s 5:30 now. I know it’ll take like ten minutes and it’ll make me feel better, but i haven’t done it. i’m aware of how absurd it is, how stupid it is that i haven’t just gone ahead and done these two simple tasks so i can head out and grab a couple of snacks, and yet here i am sitting in front of my computer not doing it because I can’t muster up the motivation to do it.
the post I’m typing right now? it’s part of it. i’m writing this post instead of taking a shower and getting dressed. because that’s what my brain is telling me to do and I don’t have the energy to disagree with it.
I know this feels shhooo well! Ish muh daileh life! X3
so you know the rule in fairylands where you cant eat or drink anything or you’ll have to stay there forever? does like.. .eating out/sucking dick count
holy f uck jane
its a serious question
well like, the whole thing is that you cannot have consumed anything belonging to the fey realm. so, yes, probably, you would be stuck there. the same would apply if you just straight up ate a fairy.
new question: would deepthroating count in this case even w/o swallowing
no. temporary doesn’t count, otherwise fairies would all be running about sticking their hands in your mouth to get human servants.
you gotta digest it.
so like??? if you puke afterwards?? maybe it doesn’t count?
huh! i wonder how long is enough time for it to be legit. like whatever goes through your stomach immediately condemns you no matter if you throw it up later?
Well Persephone only ate 6 seeds so she only stayed 6 months, so maybe if you spat out most of it you’d just be condemned to the occasional day “BRB got go pay the two day toll for fellating a fairy.”
“you wanna come over for the weekend?”
“oh man im so sorry i sucked some fairy dick once and now i have to keep coming back to do it again– its a long story”
“you what now”
i can hardly believe this isn’t already the plot of an Oglaf comic
now that u said it im really surprised as well
what the fuck did i just read
Why ISN’T this an Oglaf comic yet?
I’m so happy that i’m not the only person who thinks of questions like these. I love you all so much.
I’m not convinced by this, actually!
Like, this analysis treats it as a substance problem, i.e. “edible matter from fairyland has properties that, if ingested, physically prevent you from being able to return to the real world.”
But OTOH, a recurring theme throughout fairy stories is that they’re all about…rules and exchanges and agreements with really steep interest rates:
“I’ll do you this favor, but if you don’t guess my name you’ll have to give me your first-born child.”
“You’re gonna be real good at everything but when you’re 16 you’re gonna prick your finger and die.”
“You loaned me $2 for the bus when I looked like a beggar, so now here’s a literal pile of gold and shit.”
Not to mention that in Childe Rowland, one of the central “if you eat food from fairyland you’re stuck there” stories, Rowland manages to retrieve his siblings despite them all presumably having chowed down on fairy food – all it took was beating the Fairy King in a swordfight and threatening to chop his head off.
The takeaway, I think, is that the food thing a matter of implicit exchange: if you get your grub on in fairyland, you’re accepting their hospitality and eating food that they own. This means you owe them, which the fairies can magically leverage to prevent you from leaving.
(You can probably get around this by explicitly agreeing to pay for your meal before you sit down to eat. From what I remember, fairies don’t seem capable of pulling a “Haha, we had an agreement but you’re fucked anyways!” maneuver, so if they agree to let you leave they might even be forced to helpyou leave.)
Which brings us to the matter at hand: if you blow a fairy you’re doing them a favor! They owe you.
And…they’re a fairy, so if you didn’t agree to terms beforehand they might not repay you in a way that’s ultimately helpful or safe, but it certainly doesn’t seem like they’d be able to, like, pat you on the head and be like “Thanks, you’re really good at this buuuuuuut also you’re stuck here forever now.”
Instead, what seems more likely is…I dunno, showing up to your wedding years later and giving you a beautiful white horse that always comes when called, while loudly praising you as truly deserving it for giving them them simply the best oral they’ve had in years.
Or they feel obligated to show up at your house a couple days a year. So, like
“you wanna come over for the weekend?”
“oh man I’m so sorry i sucked some fairy dick once and now he always comes by over memorial day weekend and helps me out with minor home repairs.”
“you what now”
This is my favorite act of intellectual bugfuckery on this entire website, when I die I want someone to print this out and place it in my grave with me so I can cherish it forever.
I’ve heard the “Binding Pact” version before in lots of stories, and yeah fairies are required to repay their debts as well. Trust me you never want to break a magical contract, the consequences are almost always severe and/or ironic as fuck! So if a fairy tries to stiff you after you treated his stiff? Weeell…he might end up with Tinkerbell giving him the ol “Hey now, size isn’t everything.” line. Failed attempts at comforting smiles and pats included.
They. They put a boob jiggle. On a solid piece of metal armor.
…actually, looks like it’s really just her whole torso piece is being shifted around by her breasts jiggling. Would pretty much do this regardless, even if she were in the itty bitty titty committee like-…ffffffuuuuuuuuu-
Hooo boy, the things that happen when you sleep. Word of wisdom folks- if you ever dare to debate or challenge Penders, be prepared for him to stuff words in your mouth and do everything in his power to deflect the discussion away from him and his actions.
First of all, Ken… how dare you. How fucking dare you invoke Flynn. You accused him of stealing ideas from you, as outlined here, amid a *myriad* of other statements and unjust aspersions made to his writing style, all the while admitting you never actually read his work while simultaneously making it clear that if it was up to you you’d just chuck out every last thing he did just so you could return to the fucing status quo you never wanted to escape from. And that’s without getting into the myriad other times you’ve downplayed, put down and potshotted the man like a passive aggressive schoolchild. You do not get to pretend that you actually give a shit about the man, not when you’ve said and done what you’ve said and done, and especially not when you’ve never publically apologized for *any* of it.
And hey, since you are SO eager to invoke morality, I gotta ask… how moral was it of you to take something from a fan of yours, pretend it was your own idea, and then never speak to them again about it? Because that is precisely what you did, Penders. You stole from a fan. You stole from someone who trusted and admired you, and the instant you saw the opportunity to get away with it, you took it in a heart beat. You’ve stolen images you did not make, that you did not own, from the internet and used them without permission or credit. You took a panel containing a character you do not own, drawn by you but inked and colored by others, and in doing so you not only saw fit to steal from SEGA but from one of your own co-workers in the process. Oh, and then of course, there is the eternal Poem Incident we can look back upon fondly, along with your myriad self-justifications and excuses, along with every other detail and idea you stole from other Science Fiction franchises to use in your works.
The comic book industry does have a history of treating its workers badly, Archie in particular. But invoking that doesn’t put you in the right, Ken, not when you’ve said and done the things that you have said and done. Not when you are all too willing to engage in the exact same behavior when it suits you to do so. You don’t get to invoke any of that when it comes to justifying yourself or to silence people who rightly criticize you and poke holes into your narrative. You didn’t ‘move on’ because of other opportunities, you *quit* in a huff because you couldn’t stand to actually have more required from you at your job. You still haven’t moved on. You are still clinging to the memory of a time when you actually had a bit of fame and acclaim, and everything you have done since that time has been in the name of trying to get it back.
You are a thief, Ken, pure and simple, and nothing you say or do is going to cover up the trail of slime your belly left behind when slithering along and declaring yourself a champion for creator’s rights. You just can’t hide what you really are.
Okay then, Ken. What’s a valid source? Your fans? People who can type out their arguments in a rational, mature manner? People who offer helpful advice and try to encourage you to be better? You’ve encountered all of these and you have brushed aside anything and everything they’ve said. No, everyone doesn’t have equal weight when it comes to opinions- the troll who obnoxiously goes off on you in l33t speak is objectively NOT a very valid source of criticism. The problem Penders, is that under this criteria you have created a perfectly wonderful excuse for yourself to filter out what others say and dismiss any concerns or criticisms they might have. You have been told the same things over and over in many forms and from many different people, and you’re still refusing to accept that there might in fact be a problem with your work.
This kind of attitude is the mark of a very, very poor kind of writer- first and foremost, a writer has to learn to accept that he will be criticized, and if he has the skill and the will, he might be able to take that criticism and apply it to his work and improve because of it. Or at the very least have the class to keep their opinions of their critics to themselves- in general people are not very impressed when grown ass individuals react like slighted children when confronted with flaws in their work, something you’ve done over and over and over again. You make a spectacle of yourself, and you invite even more criticism because of it.
Alright then, who exactly IS this targeted for then? Who else is this meant to appeal to? You’ve done as little as possible to divest your work from it’s origins as a Sonic comic, from the terminology you use down to the design aesthetic of your supposedly original creations. You don’t *have* anything beyond Sonic, and your work was originally meant to be a continuance of something that started in the pages of Sonic. So really, who the fuck are you trying to reel in? Who the fuck is going to be impressed with your shoddy art and photoshopped backgrounds?
Don’t flatter yourself, Kenny boy, taking you down would imply you built something up to begin with, and that’s the problem right there- you haven’t built anything. At all. You stole the materials, and all you’ve got to show for your labors is the skeletal foundations for an *outhouse*.
This is another one of those statements that tends to betray the mindset of someone who never really progressed past childhood- people don’t hate you because of what you say or do, it’s because they just like to trash stuff in general because they’re big meanies. The reason people take issue with what you do is because of what you did to get there, and the fact that you do it so, so very poorly. Among that, your actions and statements since that lawsuit haven’t done you any favors, not even remotely. You have a litany of bad deeds to your name- you stole from a fan of yours, you steel images for your backgrounds, and you even use the uncredited work of your coworkers for your work, and that’s without getting into your various acts of blatant hypocrisy and self-serving narcissism. People hate you because you are a dick, PEnders, and one who refuses to better himself and move on.
MAN this turned out longer than I thought it would.
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