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Supreme Court's ruling practically wipes out free speech for sex writing online

ellsberg.substack.com

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Re: Supreme Court's ruling practically wipes out free speech for sex writing online

#71

Post by tomrod »

ttul wrote: post #33
smallmancontrov wrote: post #8

"Party of free speech," my ass.

The GOP under Trump has considerably changed from the GOP under Bush. There is no longer a political home for Reagan/Bush-style conservatives. Perhaps a shift might be coming with the next economic downturn, which seems inevitable given the risk-off investment climate across most industries stemming from Trump’s erratic, unpredictable trade and economic policy. Things don’t look bad just yet, but it takes a while for…

Libertarian and Democratic parties ought to feel right at home for any refugees from the GOP who have conservative principles. Democratic party is right of center.

Re: Supreme Court's ruling practically wipes out free speech for sex writing online

#72

Post by _Algernon_ »

xp84 wrote: post #27

So, while I agree that this feels foreign and wrong to me as someone who has experienced "The Internet" for so long, I can't help but wonder if we can separate that from how the offline world works. I'm asking this in good faith. Given that: 1. The Internet is not an optional subscription service today the way it was in 1995. Every kid and adult has 1,000 opportunities to get online including on the multiple devices…

The fundamental problem—and it's a big one—is that in the physical world, age verification does not result in a centralized log of when and where I was, and what I did. If I buy cigarettes I show my paper id to some dude and then buy smokes. It's transient with no record (except the fallible memory of the bloke doing the ID check).

This is not true for the proposed age verification schemes for the internet and that is a big problem. Unless this is solved, these schemes deserve every level of resistance we can muster.

Re: Supreme Court's ruling practically wipes out free speech for sex writing online

#73

Post by zeroonetwothree »

perihelions wrote: post #25

There was a NYT article a couple weeks ago about Chinese morality police doing mass arrests of erotica authors, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/world/asia/china-boys-lov... ( "Chinese Police Detain Dozens of Writers Over Gay Erotic Online Novels" ) [note article contains large images of erotica novel covers] But you'd *expect* that of the PRC; the US, wow, has it ever fallen fast and fallen hard.

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Re: Supreme Court's ruling practically wipes out free speech for sex writing online

#74

Post by tomrod »

ndriscoll wrote: post #64
gs17 wrote: post #14

> The public library in rural Donnelly, Idaho, at only 1,024 square feet, had no practical way to create an enforceable “adults only” section and no budget to defend against lawsuits. Therefore, to comply with the law, they decided to make the entire library for adults only. The library has banned minors from entering the library (even to use the bathroom) unless they are accompanied by an adult, or holding a waiver…

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You design libraries? Fascinating!

Re: Supreme Court's ruling practically wipes out free speech for sex writing online

#76

Post by useless_eater »

_Algernon_ wrote: post #58
useless_eater wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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Why is it everyone else's responsibility to keep it out of the hands of 10 year olds by being 24/7 surveilled by the government, instead of the parents' responsibility to regulate internet access for their 10-year old? Not that gay erotica seems that harmful, even for a 10 year old. They probably don't seek it out as much as you thing they do. If they do, it is probably a beneficial step in their development given wh…

[flagged]

Re: Supreme Court's ruling practically wipes out free speech for sex writing online

#77

Post by zeroonetwothree »

everdrive wrote: post #46

Others have said this, I'm sure, but this will move past porn _quickly_. Once there is agreed-up age verification for pornography, much of the professional internet will require identity verification to do _anything_. This is one of the bigger nails in the coffin for the free internet, and this true whether or not you're happy with all the pornography out there.

I don’t agree, at least as far as legal obligation goes. The average voter is far more worried about porn and other explicit content and not so much about anything else.

Re: Supreme Court's ruling practically wipes out free speech for sex writing online

#78

Post by zeroonetwothree »

root_axis wrote: post #17

> In fact, under the laws that the Supreme Court just upheld, prosecutors in Tennessee and South Dakota can even reach across state lines and prosecute writers on FELONY charges for a single paragraph of sexually-explicit writing on my site that they think "harmed" kids in their states, facing up to FIFTEEN years in prison, for failing to implement ID-checks on my dinky little free WordPress site. > It's unlikely the…

Judges are not the people that prosecute crimes

Re: Supreme Court's ruling practically wipes out free speech for sex writing online

#79

Post by CPLX »

soulofmischief wrote: post #30
al_borland wrote: post #10

All these ID check laws are out of hand. Parents are expecting the government, and random websites, to raise their kids. Why would anyone trust some random blog with their ID? If these laws move forward (and I don’t think they should), there needs to be a way to authenticate as over 18 without sending picture of your ID off to random 3rd parties, or giving actual personal details. I don’t want to give this data, and…

This goes against the very ethos of the early web. We should not be normalizing any form of this extreme moral overreach.

How did widespread adoption of the libertarian techno-utopianism of the early web work out for society as a whole?
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