The Senate Commerce Committee just announced a hearing on Section 230 in tandem with its 30th anniversary. The hearing will involve discussing how Section 230 affects the regulation of online expression and conduct and the limits on congressional policy making imposed by the First Amendment.
Senator Cruz, the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, does seem aware of the risk to free speech that an outright repeal of Section 230 would have. However, he seems open to discussion on alterations/reformations of Section 230.
Whether it's an alteration or repeal, both carry massive consequences to speech/expression on the internet.
As for the called upon witnesses' stance on Section 230 (based on quick research):
Daphne Keller (Stanford Law School): Pro-Section 230. Rightfully argues that laws like FOSTA-SESTA are unconstitutional censorship.
Ms. Nadine Farid Johnson (Knight First Amendment Institute): Unclear. Her firm is against an outright repeal of Section 230 but for specific limited reforms.
Mr. Matthew Bergman (Social Media Victims Law Center): The most critical of Section 230 of the three currently listed witnesses. Argues that courts and social media companies have stretched Section 230 far beyond its original intent. Argues that Social Media platforms should be regulated like consumer products.
#FreeSpeech #Censorship #Privacy #DigitalRights #Internet #SocialMedia #Section230 #US #UnitedStates
Everyone rightfully mocks pearl clutching freaks that argue that video games make you violent because 99% of us are sane enough to make that separation between fantasy and reality.
However, the instant sexuality gets involved, a lot of seemingly rational people act identical to those pearl clutching freaks. They start making baseless claims that people are barely contained sex fiends just chomping at the bit to live out the most fucked up sexual fantasies.
This is despite the fact that almost everyone has some kind of fucked up secret fantasy that they'd need to be waterboarded to admit and would never act on in a million years.
#FreeSpeech #FreeExpression #Censorship #Internet #SocialMedia
This anti #Palestine #genocide protestor in #Queensland #australia has just been arrested by cops for wearing a "prohibited phrase".
She may go to prison for up to two years!
TWO YEARS
"From the river to the sea" is now #hatespeech under new, pro Israel laws.
The "social cohesion" middle eastern extremists,
#israel has effectively captured Australian governments.
#freespeech #fromtherivertosea
The state of the internet is a bunch of people who are on record for being child molesters (or are at least actively covering for said child molesters) telling you that artistic expression is immoral.
"We need mass censorship and surveillance to protect the children, the same children that there are millions of pages of criminal report documents saying we brutally abused." -Lawmakers, Corporate Executives, Celebrities, Conservative Think Tanks, etc. unironically
#Privacy #FreeSpeech #Censorship #DigitalRights #Internet #SocialMedia #AgeVerification #ClientSideScanning #DigitalID
The state of the internet is a bunch of people who are on record for being child molesters (or are at least actively covering for said child molesters) telling you that artistic expression is immoral.
"We need mass censorship and surveillance to protect the children, the same children that there are millions of pages of criminal report documents saying we brutally abused." -Lawmakers, Corporate Executives, Celebrities, Conservative Think Tanks, etc. unironically
#FreeSpeech #Privacy #Censorship #DigitalRights #SocialMedia #Internet #AgeVerification #ClientSideScanning
You Are Being Lied to About #Algorithms
#TaylorLorenz #BigTech #SocialMdia #Censorship #ShadowBanning #FreeSpeech
You Are Being Lied to About #Algorithms
#TaylorLorenz #BigTech #SocialMdia #Censorship #ShadowBanning #FreeSpeech
New video on my second channel (Keith's Universe). Weighing in on Kid Rock's misogynistic comments from last weekend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqouDlv0f9c
#KidRock #GenderEquality #FreeSpeech #BlueHair #Conservatives
Afroman heads to court this month after deputies sued him for turning their unfounded raid on his home into viral music videos that exposed their faces and actions when he used his security camera footage of the raid.
The trial begins March 16 in Adams County, #Ohio, where the legal battle between the rapper and law enforcement has become a test case for free speech rights in the digital age.
Afroman’s argument is straightforward: he documented what happened to him and turned his story into art. #Law #FreeSpeech #Music
The music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oponIfu5L3Y
The article: https://allhiphop.com/news/afroman-battles-deputies-in-court-over-viral-music-video-from-home-raid/
Well, the markup is officially on the House E&C Committee schedule. Looks like they chose the following bills:
-Children and Teen's Online Privacy Protection Act (aka COPPA 2.0)
-App Store Accountability Act
-Sammy's Law
-KIDS Act (an amalgam of various bills [specific bills detailed below])
The KIDS Act is an amalgam of the following bills:
-SCREEN Act
-Kids Online Safety Act
-Safe Messaging for Kids Act
-SPY Kids Act
-Safer GAMING Act
-SAFE BOTs Act
-Safe Social Media Act
-No Fentanyl on Social Media Act
-Assessing Safety Tools for Parents and Minors Act
-Promoting a Safe Internet for Minors Act
-AI Warnings And Resources for Education Act (AWARE Act)
-Kids Internet Safety Partnership Act
Other notes about the KIDS Act:
-Bill number is "H.R.7757"
-The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is the court that would handle challenges
-Challenges to the KIDS Act as a whole must be made within 90 days of enactment (60 days for specific acts/findings/determinations/etc. made under the bill)
-The House seems to be going through with their version of KOSA (which will no doubt cause conflict with the Senate, who want their version)
-Explicitly forbids doing the following in the bill's name:
A: Censorship of 1st amendment protected speech
B: Weakening/Restricting of COPPA
C: Prevention of the moderation of spam, criminal activity, and security risks.
D: Weakening/Altering of Section 230
E: Breaking/Circumvention of encryption
F: Precluding the use of any form of encryption (including end-to-end encryption)
G: Requiring indefinite retention of user data
H: Requiring the affirmative collection of any
personal information with respect to age that is not
collected already in the normal course of business.
Please call your Senators and Representatives ASAP!
#Privacy #FreeSpeech #Censorship #DigitalRights #Internet #SocialMedia #AgeVerification #KOSA #KidsOnlineSafetyAct #US #UnitedStates
RE: https://sharkey.world/notes/ajdd0d377qm503lz
According to @fight@mastodon.fightforthefuture.org :
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is expected to a full committee markup on the package of "child safety" bills they discussed back in December this week (KOSA, App Store Accountability Act, SCREEN Act, etc.).
This will bring us that much closer to an extremely censored internet that will not keep kids safe. It's mass surveillance and censorship.
Please call your Senators and Representatives ASAP!
#Privacy #Censorship #FreeSpeech #DigitalRights #Internet #SocialMedia #AgeVerification #KOSA #KidsOnlineSafetyAct #US #UnitedStates
"Over the past year, more than two dozen countries around the world have proposed bans on #SocialMedia use for vast swathes of their public. These laws, often proposed under the guise of “child safety”, are ushering in an era of mass #surveillance and widespread #censorship, contributing to what scholars have called a “global #FreeSpeech recession”."
About the Age Verification bills in California and Colorado:
It seems few people are actually bothering to read the bills and instead just want to scream while running around in circles. Neither of the bills are mandating you give your ID/Face-Scan/Transactional Documents/etc. to be able to setup your computer.
The only thing you give is your birth-date/age, you are assigned an age-category, and apps and websites respond accordingly.
Don't get me wrong, there are still valid concerns about these bills, but few are actually discussing those concerns. Most are just assuming the worst and panicking.
Also, I don't know how these bills would be enforceable on Linux (or any decentralized, FOSS ecosystem).
#Privacy #FreeSpeech #Censorship #DigitalRights #Internet #AgeVerification #US #UnitedStates #California #Colorado
#Palestine is being globalized. If we continue to allow our corporate state to
participate & openly profit from genocide, we can forget about anything else that we deeply care about that we want to protect and preserve on this planet. Genuine accountability, not the appearance of it, one way or another, must be exacted.
#media #propaganda
#israel #hasbara #genocide
#boardofpeace #epsteinclass #epstein
#freepalestine #resistance @environment #mastodon #freespeech @socialmedia @blackvoices
I STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE BLACK COMMUNITY'S OVERWHELMING SUPPORT OF THE PALESTINIAN STRUGGLE AGAINST
THE GENOCIDAL APARTHEID ETHNOCRATIC REGIME OF ISRAEL
#blackhistorymonth #blackhistory #solidarity #resistance #freepalestine #blackhistorymonth2026 #blackmastodon #racism #whitesupremacy #genocide @blackvoices @socialmedia @socialsciences @humanities #humanrights #socialmedia #mastodon #freespeech #censorship
Free speech allows me to say what I say.
Free speech also allows others to disagree, ignore, unfollow and block me for the things I say.
#freespeech #socialmedia #freedomofspeech #trump #constitution #media #news #mastodon
John Oliver discusses how an already flawed Twitter got worse under Elon #Musk, how it continues to impact us all, and what it has to do with the 30-40 trillion cells humans are composed of.
Or, wait, sorry, Twitter doesn’t have anything to do with the cells. It’s about our understanding of the universe. Maybe. You’ll just have to take that last part up with Elon directly.
Only wish he mentioned Mastodon as an option.
Andy Warhol: In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.
Me: In the future, everyone will get to comment for 3 minutes and be arrested if they go over that time by even a few seconds.
https://www.404media.co/man-opposing-data-center-arrested-for-speaking-slightly-too-long/
Deutsche Welle correspondent in Turkey arrested after posting on the far right tool X:
A journalist working for Deutsche Welle has been arrested in Turkey for posting a message critical of the government on X. The German international broadcaster has reacted with shock, calling the accusations baseless.
https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/europa/deutsche-welle-korrespondet-tuerkei-festgenommen-100.html
Via @tagesschau
#DeutscheWelle #X #Journalism #Turkey #Erdogan #Germany #LeaveX #FreeSpeech
Arizona Republicans are moving to criminalize community activists sharing real-time ICE alerts, with Senate Bill 1635 making “unlawful alerting” a class 1 misdemeanor—punishable by six months in jail and $2,500. While activists use social media to warn residents about federal immigration agents—especially amid aggressive deportation efforts—Republicans see it as obstruction, pushing back with threats of prosecution and even calls for investigations. Despite legal protections under the First Amendment, some officials aim to silence these warnings, but legal experts confirm free speech rights remain protected. The lengths the GOP will go through to help Trump is truly astonishing: https://azmirror.com/2026/02/19/arizona-republicans-back-bill-to-jail-people-for-blowing-whistles-to-warn-of-ice-presence/ #FreeSpeech #Immigration #Activism #CivilRights #ArizonaPolitics #firstamendment
“ #JesseJackson recognized the humanity of Palestinians, & for that he was endlessly smeared as a terrorist-loving monster by the same Zionist media and political class who are now celebrating him to turn him into a harmless icon and symbol for their own depravity. RIP “
#blackhistorymonth2026 #blackhistorymonth #blackhistory #bipoc #socialmedia #racism #Palestine #whitesupremacy @democracy
@blackvoices #antifascism #resistance #solidarity #protest #activism #justice #freespeech #humanrights
- "What are you in here for? Murder? Robbery?"
- "Worse, possession of zines"
https://theintercept.com/2026/02/16/daniel-sanchez-estrada-prairieland-trial-zines
"Sanchez Estrada is facing up to 20 years behind bars for allegedly moving a box of anarchist zines from his parents’ house to another residence"
Another activist was indicted for telling people how to delete messages and remove people from Signal group chats, which government lawyers argue is a first-degree felony
#freespeech #zines #anarchism #censorship #uspol #dystopia #prison #orwell
"In the latest escalation of their efforts to push back against opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security is issuing hundreds of subpoenas to the largest social media companies, including Google, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Discord and Reddit, seeking to learn the personal information behind accounts that have either criticized ICE or alerted the general public to the locations of ICE agents, according to reporting conducted by the New York Times. "
#SocialMedia #FreeSpeech #CivilLiberties #Censorship #AntiICE #ICE
https://mashable.com/article/homeland-security-issues-subpeonas-to-dox-social-media-users
#freespeech
"Stop silencing us!"
Now they silence critics.
Their speech. Their power.
Whose voice matters?
Never forget who controls the mainstream social media platforms that so many of us rely on!
#BoycottYouTubePremium #youtube #censorship #techbros #meta #tiktok #google #socialmedia #freespeech #upscrolled #peoplepower
https://www.yourfavoriteguy.com/p/they-tried-to-delete-me-but-we-fought