thenexusofprivacy

joined 1 year ago
MODERATOR OF
bad_internet_bills
sorted by: new top controversial old
489
KOSA is dead! (US) (www.fightforthefuture.org)
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/20332183

Fight for the Future writes:

"The controversial and unconstitutional Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is officially dead in the House of Representatives. Reporting indicates that there was significant opposition to the bill within the Republican caucus, and it faced vocal opposition from prominent progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rep Maxwell Frost (D-FL)."

Evan Greer:

"KOSA was a poorly written bill that would have made kids less safe. I am so proud of the LGBTQ youth and frontlines advocates who have led the opposition to this dangerous and misguided legislation. It’s good that this unconstitutional censorship bill is dead for now, but I am not breathing a sigh of relief. It’s infuriating that Congress wasted so much time and energy on a deeply flawed and controversial bill while failing to advance real measures to address the harms of Big Tech like privacy, antitrust and algorithmic justice legislation. "

Thanks to everybody who took action ove the last year to stop this bill!

0
KOSA is dead! (US) (www.fightforthefuture.org)
 

Fight for the Future writes:

"The controversial and unconstitutional Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is officially dead in the House of Representatives. Reporting indicates that there was significant opposition to the bill within the Republican caucus, and it faced vocal opposition from prominent progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rep Maxwell Frost (D-FL)."

Evan Greer:

"KOSA was a poorly written bill that would have made kids less safe. I am so proud of the LGBTQ youth and frontlines advocates who have led the opposition to this dangerous and misguided legislation. It’s good that this unconstitutional censorship bill is dead for now, but I am not breathing a sigh of relief. It’s infuriating that Congress wasted so much time and energy on a deeply flawed and controversial bill while failing to advance real measures to address the harms of Big Tech like privacy, antitrust and algorithmic justice legislation. "

Thanks to everybody who took action ove the last year to stop this bill!

44
Congress’s push to protect kids online is at a crossroads (KOSA, US-focused) (www.washingtonpost.com)
 

Legislators are considering attaching KOSA (the anti-LGBTQ+ censorship bill, aka the Kids Online Safety Act) to must-pass legislation authorizing the FAA. As EFF points out, the latest version of KOSA is still a censorship bill.

So if you're in the US, it's once again a good time to contact your Congresspeople. EFF's got an action here that makes it makes it easy, and so does https://www.stopkosa.com/

9
Congress’s push to protect kids online is at a crossroads (KOSA, US-focused) (www.washingtonpost.com)
 

Legislators are considering attaching KOSA (the anti-LGBTQ+ censorship bill, aka the Kids Online Safety Act) to must-pass legislation authorizing the FAA. As EFF points out, the latest version of KOSA is still a censorship bill.

So if you're in the US, it's once again a good time to contact your Congresspeople. EFF's got an action here that makes it makes it easy, and so does https://www.stopkosa.com/

34
Down to the “deadline”: FISA Section 702 Expansion / Reauthorization (getfisaright.net)
U.S. House Vote Narrowly Allows Rampant Abuses of Warrantless Spying Authority to Continue (US focused) in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (21 children)

From the article:

FISA 702 warrantless surveillance purports to target only foreign subjects, but in practice sweeps in a huge amount of Americans’ communications. This allows intelligence agencies to exploit a backdoor search loophole: the FBI, CIA, and NSA conduct “U.S. person queries” of FISA 702 records to deliberately pull up Americans’ private messages, all without a warrant or any court approval. This loophole has led to systemic abuse, involving thousands of improper queries each year, including those directed at protesters, campaign donors, journalists, lawmakers, and — in one case — the online dating matches of an analyst.

U.S. House Vote Narrowly Allows Rampant Abuses of Warrantless Spying Authority to Continue (US focused) in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago (23 children)

The FBI routinely uses its authority under FISA Section 702 to get information on Americans without a warrant, ignoring the processes that are supposed to be put in place to protect people. This has nothing to do with the FISA Title III authority that was used to get information about Carter Page, no matter what you and Trump think. If you warrantless surveillance of Americans is good, then by all means you should indeed be cheering this vote -- because they extended the scope of what information they can get at without a warrant.

If on the other hand you think civil liberties are worth protecting, then you might take a moment to stop to think that there was bipartisan support, including progressive Democrats, for introducing reforms like a warrant requirement while still keeping the ability to surveil foreign agents in place. But opinions differ, there are plenty of people in both parties who don't think civil liberties are worth protecting, so if you're one of them you've got a lot of company.

148
U.S. House Vote Narrowly Allows Rampant Abuses of Warrantless Spying Authority to Continue (US focused) (cdt.org)
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/15271710

Not a good result. The good amendment to add a warrant requirement failed on a tie vote; bad amendments to expand the scope of warrantless wiretapping passed. Next step: a Senate vote.

1
U.S. House Vote Narrowly Allows Rampant Abuses of Warrantless Spying Authority to Continue (cdt.org)
 

Not a good result. The good amendment to add a warrant requirement failed on a tie vote; bad amendments to expand the scope of warrantless wiretapping passed. Next step: a Senate vote.

25
Bad Amendments to Section 702 Have Failed (For Now)—What Happens Next? (US-focused, FISA) (www.eff.org)
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
1 comments fedilink
 

EFF's update also has a handy form to contact Congress. Their summary:

"Section 702 is Big Brother’s favorite mass surveillance law that EFF has been fighting since it was first passed in 2008. The law is currently set to expire on April 19.

Yesterday’s decision not to decide is good news, at least temporarily. Once again, a bipartisan coalition of law makers—led by Rep. Jim Jordan and Rep. Jerrold Nadler—has staved off the worst outcome of expanding 702 mass surveillance in the guise of “reforming” it. But the fight continues and we need all Americans to make their voices heard. "

1
Bad Amendments to Section 702 Have Failed (For Now)—What Happens Next? (US-focused, FISA) (www.eff.org)
 

EFF's update also has a handy form to contact Congress. Their summary:

"Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted against considering a largely bad bill that would have unacceptably expanded the tentacles of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, along with reauthorizing it and introducing some minor fixes. Section 702 is Big Brother’s favorite mass surveillance law that EFF has been fighting since it was first passed in 2008. The law is currently set to expire on April 19.

Yesterday’s decision not to decide is good news, at least temporarily. Once again, a bipartisan coalition of law makers—led by Rep. Jim Jordan and Rep. Jerrold Nadler—has staved off the worst outcome of expanding 702 mass surveillance in the guise of “reforming” it. But the fight continues and we need all Americans to make their voices heard. "

Trump Loyalists Kill Vote on US Wiretap Program in c/[email protected]
Trump Loyalists Kill Vote on US Wiretap Program in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah, all the scare tactics about how "oh noes national security is at risk if FISA isn't extended!!!!" are garbage; if Section 702 lapses, existing certifications are already approved for the next year, and the government has other authorities it can do the same kind of surveillance with. And the surveillance he's complaining about wasn't even under this section of FISA -- it's the Title III stuff which doesn't need to be reauthorized!

As Howie Klein says on Down With Tyranny FISA Was Always Bad Legislation... It's Still Bad Even If Trump And MAGA Suddenly Oppose It Too

Trump Loyalists Kill Vote on US Wiretap Program in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

They did -- FISA shouldn't be extended without reforms. All the scare tactics about how "oh noes national security is at risk if FISA isn't extended!!!!" are garbage; if Section 702 lapses, existing certifications are already approved for the next year, and the government has other authorities it can do the same kind of surveillance with.

As Howie Klein says on Down With Tyranny FISA Was Always Bad Legislation... It's Still Bad Even If Trump And MAGA Suddenly Oppose It Too

141
Trump Loyalists Kill Vote on US Wiretap Program (www.wired.com)
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/15183880

Well it wasn't just Trump loyalists; it was 19 Republicans in the Freedom Caucus (who are indeed Trump loyalists) and almost all the Democrats voting agains bringing the current bill to the floor. Now what?

"Congressional sources tell WIRED they have no idea what the next steps will be."

Oh.

1
Trump Loyalists Kill Vote on US Wiretap Program (www.wired.com)
 

Well it wasn't just Trump loyalists; it was 19 Republicans in the Freedom Caucus (who are indeed Trump loyalists) and almost all the Democrats voting agains bringing the current bill to the floor. Now what?

"Congressional sources tell WIRED they have no idea what the next steps will be."

Oh.

50
Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing: A Planned Amendment to This Week’s Vote Would Be the Largest Expansion of FISA in Over 15 Years (US-focused) (cdt.org)
 

That's not good.

This week the House is set to vote on legislation to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA 702”), along with a set of amendments. One of these amendments — put forward by House Intelligence Committee leads Mike Turner and Jim Himes — would expand warrantless FISA surveillance dramatically: While falsely billing itself as a minor definitional tweak, in reality the amendment would be the largest expansion of FISA since Section 702 was created in 2008. It could be used to enlist an array of sensitive facilities — such as offices for nonprofits, political campaigns, and news organizations — to serve as hubs for warrantless surveillance.

if you’re in the US, now’s a great time to contact Congress. You can either call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use the House directory to look up your legislators’ contact info.

“Stop the FBI from expanding warrantless surveillance of innocent Americans. OPPOSE the FISA amendment from Reps. Turner and Himes, which would be the largest expansion of FISA since Section 702 was created in 2008. And please oppose any attempt to reauthorize FISA Section 702 that doesn’t include warrant requirements, both for Section 702 data and for our sensitive, personal information sold to the government by data brokers.”

Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing: A Planned Amendment to This Week’s Vote Would Be the Largest Expansion of FISA in Over 15 Years (US-focused) in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 25 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Back in December, they tried to get an even WORSE FISA extension bill through as part of the NDAA -- without even a vote on it -- and the pushback was strong enough that they abandoned the plan. In 2020 grassroots activism kept them from rauthorizing Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act . In 2015 grassroots activism kept them from doing a straight reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act. So there really is a track record of it being effective on this issue.

The key dynamic here is that both parties are split on the issue -- progressive Dems along with Libertarian and MAGA Republicans all favor reform. So even representatives in a district that one party always wins have to consider the politics: Republicans wanting to keep their MAGA cred against MAGA challengers, Democrats facing progressive challengers (or progressive Dems who need strong support from their base against centrist challengers). Plus there are a handful of centrist Dems in purple districts who might vote the right way if it can pick up some Republican votes.

Microsoft endorses anti-LGBTQ online "child safety" bill KOSA night before Big Tech hearing (US Politics) in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Technically yes but judges get annoyed if there's absolutely no case, so they rarely do -- and if they threaten when there's no case, larger companies will look at it and say the threat's not real.

Microsoft endorses anti-LGBTQ online "child safety" bill KOSA night before Big Tech hearing (US Politics) in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (3 children)

The law's defintion of harm is extremely broad. Charlie Jane Anders has a good discussion of this in The Internet Is About to Get a Lot Worse:

"This clause is so vaguely defined that attorneys general can absolutely claim that queer content violates it — and they don't even need to win these lawsuits in order to prevail. They might not even need to file a lawsuit, in fact. The mere threat of an expensive, grueling legal battle will be enough to make almost every Internet platform begin to scrub anything related to queer people."

Microsoft endorses anti-LGBTQ online "child safety" bill KOSA night before Big Tech hearing (US Politics) in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (5 children)

In practice, when the AG threatens to sue and the law makes it clear that they'll win (which KOSA currently does), companies will typically stop what they're doing (or settle if the AG actually launches a suit)

Microsoft endorses anti-LGBTQ online "child safety" bill KOSA night before Big Tech hearing (US Politics) in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

That'd be great. And there's precedent, too: back in 2005 Microsoft dropped support for a Washington state gay rights bill but employee pressure led them to reverse their stance. But all the tech layoffs tend to have a chilling effect on employee advocacy, so we shall see.

Microsoft endorses anti-LGBTQ online "child safety" bill KOSA night before Big Tech hearing (US Politics) in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Yep. There's money to be made here!

Microsoft endorses anti-LGBTQ online "child safety" bill KOSA night before Big Tech hearing (US Politics) in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

Great point. Mike Masnick has said that he wouldn't be surprised if Meta also comes out in support, for similar reasons.

view more: next ›