This is unconstitutional. Code is freedom of speech and cannot be censored in any fashion. Period.
Illinois just passed a law that puts Linux on the hook for age verification
401–410 of 537 posts
Re: Illinois just passed a law that puts Linux on the hook for age verification
#402Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who is "most of y'all"? Sounds like a generalization to me and a poor attempt at an appeal to character in order to undermine the perspective I've shared. Have you been to prison? I've been incarcerated before already after having my rights violated. Let's not go there. Make less assumptions.
Incarcerated temporarily (e.g. awaiting trial or a prosecution decision), or actually convicted and sentenced to imprisonment? These two things are not the same.
No one is being convicted and doing hard time for refusing to add age verification to a Linux distro. This is just more fear mongering.
It would be a fine or a few days of jail until bail is posted, at worst. And then a media shit show where the public is certain to side with the developer who is having their rights violated to discourage this from ever happening again.
The public even got the back of weev for his bullshit arrest. Weev, one of the shittiest people to ever live. But rights are rights.
Re: Illinois just passed a law that puts Linux on the hook for age verification
#403Earlier quoted context omitted.
it depends on whether or not there's someone who sees it as a crusade (rare), sees it as a way to get political clout (very common) and/or is getting a lot of lobbying money (extremely common [1]). see, for eg, the anti-trans bills that are being passed this is the same rhetorical and political strategy, that there are 'dangerous' people who will exploit your children so please vote for me, the person who cares the m…
What is the connection to “anti-trans bills”?
they're both grounded in fearmongering that's led to cultural panics and utilize the rhetoric of 'protecting children' as the sell
https://www.law.georgetown.edu/gender-journal/wp-content/upl...
"Overwhelmingly, state legislators behind recent anti-trans legislation have argued that they were introducing these bills with the intent to protect children – whether that be “protecting children” from “profoundly unethical and morally wrong” medical practices"
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/eff-gov-pritzker-veto-...
"Much of H.B. 5511 is modeled after controversial legislation passed in California (A.B. 1043) and New York’s Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act"
there's also the rampant astroturfing
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/30/christian-hate...
"The surge in funding to the ADF, which has been termed an “anti-LGBTQ hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, saw it record revenue of $104.5m in 2021, according to filings with the Internal Revenue Service."
ADF's main funders being the Servant Foundation or a single billionaire family's pet foundation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_Foundation) and the National Christian Foundation which receives large donations from multiple extremely wealthy individuals like David Green, co-founder of Hobby Lobby (https://readsludge.com/2019/03/19/americas-biggest-christian...)
this is very much like the funding of these 'privacy' acts by Meta, Alphabet, etc - lots of money directly into the hands of local legislators across multiple state legislatures with the ultimate goal of providing institutional power over individuals, one just has a slightly more Machiavellian economic logic foregrounding it but the strategy, tactics, and overall erosion of civil liberties make for very similar outcomes
Re: Illinois just passed a law that puts Linux on the hook for age verification
#404Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not at all! I think these laws are dumb and I don't want my state to pass one. But when I play, I play to win. Openly thumbing one's nose at the courts and the state is rarely a winning strategy. The way to win is through the democratic process: persuading elected officials to take your side. That, in turn, requires persuading the public to take your side.
Ok, fine, but what you fail to recognize that taking a loud public stance against tyranny provides cover for people who are too scared to stand up for their beliefs. Successful civil rights activism took place in an environment where people were being arrested, beaten, and even killed for standing up for what is right. You could even argue that this created fertile ground for the success of the movement. Failures of…
Comparing the "oppression" of a programmer who is forbidden from distributing an OS that fails to ask the user's age to the actual suffering of Black people in the U.S., who were regularly discriminated against and even lynched, is ridiculous. You'll never persuade ordinary people of this, that way.
Re: Illinois just passed a law that puts Linux on the hook for age verification
#405Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who is "most of y'all"? Sounds like a generalization to me and a poor attempt at an appeal to character in order to undermine the perspective I've shared. Have you been to prison? I've been incarcerated before already after having my rights violated. Let's not go there. Make less assumptions.
Incarcerated temporarily (e.g. awaiting trial or a prosecution decision), or actually convicted and sentenced to imprisonment? These two things are not the same.
You're right, they're not.
Re: Illinois just passed a law that puts Linux on the hook for age verification
#406Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ok, fine, but what you fail to recognize that taking a loud public stance against tyranny provides cover for people who are too scared to stand up for their beliefs. Successful civil rights activism took place in an environment where people were being arrested, beaten, and even killed for standing up for what is right. You could even argue that this created fertile ground for the success of the movement. Failures of…
Comparing the "oppression" of a programmer who is forbidden from distributing an OS that fails to ask the user's age to the actual suffering of Black people in the U.S., who were regularly discriminated against and even lynched, is ridiculous. You'll never persuade ordinary people of this, that way.
Average people will come around when they start passing laws requiring deanonymization and arresting journalists and critics. (The latter is already happening, but I expect this to accelerate in the future.) Need to lay the groundwork for opposition now, and that means rallying dedicated people to the cause.
Re: Illinois just passed a law that puts Linux on the hook for age verification
#407Earlier quoted context omitted.
Incarcerated temporarily (e.g. awaiting trial or a prosecution decision), or actually convicted and sentenced to imprisonment? These two things are not the same.
No one is being convicted and doing hard time for refusing to add age verification to a Linux distro. This is just more fear mongering. It would be a fine or a few days of jail until bail is posted, at worst. And then a media shit show where the public is certain to side with the developer who is having their rights violated to discourage this from ever happening again. The public even got the back of weev for his bu…
The public may have weev's back, but privately the majority of us disavowed him after he went full nazi in prison and doubled down on an alt-right agenda. I personally know people who signed the court petition to get him acquitted and they have rescinded support for him. That said, he shouldn't have gone to prison for that.
Anyway, the nature of a slippery slope like this one is that the punishments will get worse over time as the government further vilifies those who push against things like this and encryption backdoors.
Re: Illinois just passed a law that puts Linux on the hook for age verification
#408Earlier quoted context omitted.
Incarcerated temporarily (e.g. awaiting trial or a prosecution decision), or actually convicted and sentenced to imprisonment? These two things are not the same.
No one is being convicted and doing hard time for refusing to add age verification to a Linux distro. This is just more fear mongering. It would be a fine or a few days of jail until bail is posted, at worst. And then a media shit show where the public is certain to side with the developer who is having their rights violated to discourage this from ever happening again. The public even got the back of weev for his bu…
> No one is being convicted and doing hard time for refusing to add age verification to a Linux distro.
That's not the point. The point is that people who don't face a real possibility of being convicted and imprisoned are the ones who make the most noise about how they're willing to accept imprisonment (or, worse, are cheering on others to be imprisoned as some sort of Cyberpunk Martyr).
As I said elsewhere - it's easy to be an Internet Tough Guy when you (think you) have little to lose.
Re: Illinois just passed a law that puts Linux on the hook for age verification
#409So in red states porn is being used, and in blue states TikTok and Instagram are being used. Is anyone tracking who is behind the concerted efforts here? For example, which organizations, executives, lobbyists and politicians are valid and responsible parties?
I used to run a parental controls startup and after talking to lots of parents, I can tell you this sentiment is shared among most parents. Parents on both sides of the isle think they're going to keep their teenagers off the internet forever, I had parents look me straight in the face and say their child wouldn't be allowed online until she was 16. Parents aren't interested in the nuance of good and bad guys, they s…
> they see the internet, it's too much trouble to keep around, and want it blocked
I can sympathize with this sentiment
in my work and life and personal life the internet is very useful, but as a parent of children and young teens, the internet is really just a PITA that I wish would go away along with all of the games, social media sites, and everything that I have to expend so much energy educating / arguing / instructing / fighting / blocking with my kids about.
It's exhausting because it's everywhere pushing at them from every direction. It's like trying to teach your kids the hazards of cigarettes or vaping to your kids while cool cig pushers are standing in their bedroom talking to them and waiting for them every time they walk out the door.
So yeah, expect exhausted parents who never asked for the deluge of slop, to be supportive of bills -- as ill-conceived or intentioned as they may be -- that provide relief.
And lest you say, "oh but it's always been that way, before this it was the early internet, and video games, and cigarettes". I grew up through all of that, and I can tell you it is not at all the same today. The ubiquitousness of it is what makes all the difference.
Re: Illinois just passed a law that puts Linux on the hook for age verification
#410Earlier quoted context omitted.
Code is speech. Forcing someone to implement something is legally-compelled speech, assuming no complicating factor like commerce.
Is is also clear that there are major deficits in our Constitution but that the amendment process has failed to survive a modern world. Any of our original forefathers would recognize today's American federal government as an overreach from their indended form of government. The only reason we aren't seeing a Boston Tea Party 2.0 over the recent string of coordinated assaults against our inalienable human rights is b…
Are you seriously comparing the "oppression" of a programmer who is forbidden from distributing an OS that fails to ask the user's age to the actual oppression of Black people in the United States before the Civil Rights Era? The oppression that involved lynching?
Jesus H. Christ.