2d ago

Porn censorship is going to destroy the entire internet

The UK's Online Safety Act doesn't just age-gate porn; it blocks material deemed "harmful" to minors. Days after the law went into effect, reports of non-explicit content on social media getting blocked in the region started to crop up. Subreddits from r/IsraelCrimes to r/stopsmoking are now walled in the UK. Video games, Spotify, and dating apps have instituted or will institute age checks.

Given the SCOTUS age verification decision [June '25], Stabile fears that people [in the US] will go "mask off" in the fall and spring, when state legislatures start getting back together. "People are going to attempt to restrict the internet even more aggressively," Stabile said. "I think people are going to work to restrict all sorts of content, particularly LGBTQ content, but also content that is broadly defined as any sort of threat or propaganda to minors." Other experts Mashable spoke to agree with him.

"I'm going to jump to the end step," [Eric Goldman, law professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law] said. "The end step is that most online users are going to be required to age authenticate most of the time they visit websites. That's going to become the norm." In a paper he wrote, Goldman called these statutes "segregate-and-suppress" laws.

The stated reason behind these laws is to "protect children." But as journalist Taylor Lorenz pointed out, in the UK, age verification is already preventing children from accessing vital information, such as about menstruation and sexual assault.

"When we see crackdowns on spaces on the internet, we're essentially stripping away that potential for self-actualization," Goldman said. We've reached the dystopian stage of the internet, he added.

Hacker News @lemmy.bestiver.se

RSS Bot @lemmy.bestiver.se

BOT

2d ago

Porn censorship is going to destroy the internet

mashable.com /article/age-verification-is-going-to-destroy-the-entire-internet

privacy @lemmy.ca

streetfestival @lemmy.ca

3d ago

Porn censorship is going to destroy the entire internet

mashable.com /article/age-verification-is-going-to-destroy-the-entire-internet

42 comments

So, can we finally please start up a side internet that just bypasses all of the normal internet?
The basics of the internet were designed in the 70s, it was Designed to be a network that couldn't be destroyed, even if entire sections were blown up. Now all it takes is breaking a single backbone and half a country is without internet for a day.
Most new "rules"regarding the internet are either great for a few politicians or business owners and fuck everyone else
I'm kinda done with this internet. I can't do the commercials anymore. I just read a story on rawstory.com and I don't make this up, without ad blocker there were 2-3 lines of text, then a phone page sized ad, then 2-3 more lines of text, with ads left and right and another page sized ad. This went on for the entire unreadable article. Then of course there were the various pop-ups.
I was viewing this within the native connect browser that doesn't have ad blocker, mind you. Opening the same site up in Firefox already made the article barely readable instead of... Whatever the fuck it was designed to be.
Fuck the current internet. It was supposed to be humanities crown jewel, everybody from every country could finally speak to eachother, we could finally listen to eachother, solve conflicts before they started, have unlimited access to all information in the world
And instead we got this shit. Every site spies on me, tracks me, tries to screw me over, lies to me, gives me less every day while taking more. The internet has become a cesspool thanks to politicians who are more interested in short term wins for themselves than long term wins for humanity.
I'm done with it, I want less and less to do with it. Governments literally are controlling who we can talk to and what we can talk about, and all I want is just to... Have internet. We no longer have internet.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darknet
- Check out i2p.
It's not even age verification - it's identity verification.
They're not just asking you to recall the lyrics of tv theme tunes from the pre-2000s, or showing you a few photos and asking "which one of these people is the footballer 'Ronaldo?". They're asking you to upload your passport, or let their "totally trustworthy" software record photos and videos of your face.
- Used to be a paywall was considered enough to verify age, went to login to a paywalled site the other day and got hit with an age/identity verification prompt. I know there are kids who steal their parent's credit card, but the fact that a paywall isn't sufficient for age verification is proof to me that it's got more to do with controlling and tracking adults than protecting kids.
Maybe tor will be fast in the future as a result
I’ll be completely honest. If this ends up being the case, I will likely take steps to completely remove myself from as much of the internet as possible. I will simply sacrifice the vast majority of those services and consider it a loss. Probably drop my subscription with my ISP to a slower speed, too.
If the internet won’t let me participate without drinking the verification can, I simply won’t participate.
- That's the main reason (me refusing to give up what remains of my/our privacy) why a few years ago I started removing myself from 'the Internet'.
  No social anymore (beside here), no subscription to any services (byebye Netflix, Apple Music, Prime, and so on) and also a move back to... analog tools that have zero spying/tracking/monitoring/think of the children bullshit. Also, they come without any ads, but hating on ads is more of a personal obsession of mine.
  I mean, I use physical media, things like CD/DVD, pen and paper, snail mail, and stuff like that. That even includes the ultimate analog 'tool': meeting people IRL instead of online (with a great secondary benefit: trolls are much rarer than online ;)
- I've been digital prepping lately with my homelab, been grabbing archives of a bunch of stuff I use regularly. Tubearchivest is a great tool.
  
  you probably have loads of storage space
- Lay be it is time for another internet. Their is alternative IG I am not mistaken
I agree about everything said about it being a gateway to authoritarian measures, digital feudalism and all that. But there's a silver lining
Porn censorship is going to destroy the entire internet
Yes. And this is our chance of building a better "parallel" internet. The tech exists (BitTorrent, Tor, Bitcoin, Nostr, Reticulum, Radicle, and myriad others), people need to start using it.
- P> people need to start using it.
  More likely you'll end up on a watch list because you use them, to then later be fined or arrested. Parasocial freak, don't you know you live in a society? Now let us watch you watch these ads!
"ID verifications of users age" is nothing more but an excuse for tracking users personal data and training their AIs.
“Think of the children!”
-Fascists
When you hear any politician say they want to "protect the children" you might as well bend over and prepare to have your rights buggered, while kids end up no safer.
"We destroyed the internet, but at least for a moment, people lived a less sinful life, and thus had a better chance in the afterlife."
- As a bonus access to religious works should be age gated as well.
  From "lovers with donkey like genetalia" in the bible, to calls for beheading disbelievers in the quran. All of them should be illegal media for those underage. Those promoting it should be prosecuted.
  
  Fascists love to be hypocrites. It's how they prove they have more power than you.
Jokes on them, I'll make my own porn.
- Getting back into family business, eh?
Porn censorship is a cover for authoritarianism.
Ban people underage from the internet. Or create a system that limits under 18 usage. Or shit just ban social media as we know it today. Ban algorithms. Ban targeted ads.
If people actually gave a shit about community things would probably be different.
- Or change nothing. Do what we've been doing, for thirty years, where kids can click "I am 18" to see something they're not supposed to... and it's fine. Nobody dies. Little baby Jaydin seeing Tracer's tits is not an event that requires legislative action.
- Their goal is not about kids, but getting full authority and governance control over the systems that regulate the availability of information on the internet.
  Kids is a red herring they use year after year, but they have yet to release the Epstein list. They are busy trying to hide the powerful political & corporate owner child rapist who were involved.
  
  I couldn't find how old this is.
  Though unexpectedly when searching for the comic, lemmy.world popped up on 1st page of Google results, albeit below X formerly known as Twitter and Facebook.
  
  We all know what their goal about kids always is, too. 🤷🏼‍♂️🤢🤦🏼‍♂️
- Yeah, that'll learn 'em.
  "When freedom is outlawed, only outlaws will be free."
  Oh, that. Damn.
This internet sure. Build an i2p router and the dark web has always been there.
Honestly, I think i preferred the internet when it was small. It was less useful sure, but stumbling on people's passion projects and collections of curios they were hosting was just... nice... Ya know? Probably rose tinted glasses though.
- The dark web.... That's why more and more people are getting busted, regardless of whether they use tor or I2p... Also, think of the Chinese firewall... What if only the addresses for youtube etc. are released and all others are blocked? State trojans etc are you familiar with the terms? This naivety is ridiculous
  Oh yea ach america and europa.. both go same way...i guess america WAS the biggest place for hosting... Byebye archive.org etc but yea be happy about I2p ad tor etc
  
  Who says I am happy with the enshitifaction of the interwebs.
  I am happy these tools exist. I am not happy that they're necessary. I trying to say that the problem of "how do we host and access services without government impedence" is a solved one.
Ironic then, that this is what killed BetaMax (vs the shittier VHS format)
Oh, how doth the history rhyme.
I mean, of course. Porn is þe primary reason most media even exists; remove it, and þe entire façade of non-porn collapses.
All is porn. Except for þorn.
- The breadcrumb is just 🤌🏼💋
  Although, I must ask: what about the non-þorn, though? 😱
  
  Do you mean ðe ð?
They saw from the cancelling movement that started a few years ago that people are generally OK with censorship. Just making explicit what was done implicitly.
s/porn//g

42 comments