Mastodawn

The Nexus of Privacy

Can the Fediverse Help Stop Bad Internet Bills? (US focused)

https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/1122522

Can the Fediverse Help Stop Bad Internet Bills? (US focused) - SDF Chatter

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/1106187 [https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/1106187] > Here’s how EFF desribes the situation in You Can Help Stop These Bad Internet Bills [https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/07/you-can-help-stop-these-bad-internet-bills] > > >“Red alert! For the last six months, EFF, our supporters, and dozens of other groups have been sounding the alarm about several #BadInternetBills that have been put forward in Congress.We’ve made it clear that these bills are terrible ideas, but Congress is now considering packaging them together—possibly into must-pass legislation. I’m asking you to join us, ACLU, Fight for the Future, and other digital rights defenders in a week of action to protect the internet.” > > Can the fediverse help? The fediverse has some potential advantages for activism on topics like privacy, digital rights, and LGBTQIA2S+ issues. So it’s worth experimenting, and the July 20-28 week of action on Bad Internet Bills is a great opportunity – to learn, and hopefully to have an impact as well. > > Here’s four easy ways to help: > > 1. Upvote and boost posts in [email protected] [/c/[email protected]] – and cross-post them to other communities and magazines where they’re on-topic > 2. On Mastodon, boost posts on the #BadInternetBills [https://mastodon.social/tag/BadInternetBills] and #KOSA [https://kbin.social/tag/KOSA] hashtags > 3. Get the word out on other social networks too > 4. If you live in the US, contact your legislators using Fight for the Future’s https://www.badinternetbills.com/ [https://www.badinternetbills.com/] > >

Fredselfish Jul 21, 2023

This is fascism coming into America the alt right and GOP know that with a free and clear access to the internet that we are able to stop thier fascist agenda and can call out their bullshit.

We must stop these bills from moving forward.

The Nexus of Privacy Jul 21, 2023

Agreed that the threat to free and clear access to the internet increases the chances of fascism coming to America. But there are plenty of Democrats who support these bills – they all have bipartisan sponsorship. And more positively, he Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act – a good privacy bill – also has bipartisan sponsorship. So this is one of the rare issues that still cuts across party lines.

Fredselfish Jul 21, 2023

This is why I don’t trust Democrats.

SokathHisEyesOpen Jul 22, 2023

They make a good show of being angry as they let Republicans take the blame for the bills that they all benefit from.

Chefdano3 Jul 21, 2023

Can the fediverse help? That depends, how much money does the fediverse have? How much is the fediverse willing to spend to stop it?

That’s the real question. Spreading information is great, but as we’ve seen the only thing is does is make more people angry when they bad bills go through.

People with money don’t care about how many people are angry, we’ve been shown that time and time again. They’ve even stopped pretending they listen to us anymore.

Revan343 Jul 21, 2023

People with money don’t care about how many people are angry, we’ve been shown that time and time again. They’ve even stopped pretending they listen to us anymore.

They’ll care and listen when the molotovs come out-- or they’ll burn, and cease to be a problem.

Until that happens, yes, they don’t give a shit about the common people.

argv_minus_one Jul 21, 2023

That will never happen. Americans are far too obedient.

Revan343 Jul 22, 2023

It’s happened before. Too much pressure, and eventually something has to give

Chefdano3 Jul 22, 2023

Yeah unfortunately that is the only way they’ll listen. So getting people mad is the only option we have. It’s just a shame that we’ve cycled back to this state.

The Nexus of Privacy Jul 21, 2023

Grassroots opposition has helped digital rights and privacy organizations stop bad internet bills from passing many times before, including some of these same bills just last year. Of course it is true that money talks and so deep pocketed companies and politicians have a lot more influence than we do, so cynicism is definitely warranted; and grassroots opposition doesn’t always win… But on bills like these, getting involved can make a difference.

argv_minus_one Jul 21, 2023

Don’t kid yourself. Congressional gridlock stopped those bills.

Jon Jul 22, 2023

Not exactly. These bills cut across party lines and there’s a lot of desire to be able to pass something – “think of the children!” So if anything the overall gridlock makes it more likely that these bills will pass. So the dynamics that led to stopping the bills last year was a combination of activists making enough noise, and privacy and digital rights groups pressing the case in meetings with legislators (as well as some grassroots groups with good relationships with their legislators). As a result, that Dem leadership decided not to move the bills to the floor, so the vote never happened.

Chefdano3 Jul 22, 2023

Yeah I’m definitely cynical by this point. The state of the world has me made sick. While I believe that our influence is very limited, I also believe so too are our options. I’m just upset that we’ve gotten back to the point in our history where getting people mad is all we’ve got. The only real end we’re heading towards is violence, and I don’t like it.

Arotrios Jul 21, 2023

Direct action link to send statements and call your representatives (US) www.badinternetbills.com

Bad Internet Bills

All of the bad internet bills. One website.

Fight for the Future

The Nexus of Privacy Jul 21, 2023

Thanks! I tried editing the post to include this important information up top, but for some reason it’s not letting me … I’ll try again later.

argv_minus_one Jul 21, 2023

Congress has been trying to destroy the Internet for almost as long as the Internet has been publicly available. No matter how many times it fails and the Internet survives, it always comes back and tries again, over and over, forever. I fear it’s only a matter of time before it succeeds.

And make no mistake, a law against end-to-end encryption will make cybersecurity in general illegal, leaving every online operation wide open to attack by cybercriminals. Such a law won’t merely take away your privacy; it’ll take away the Internet altogether.

SokathHisEyesOpen Jul 22, 2023

They finally successfully killed net neutrality under Ajit Pai (motherfucker). They’ve been incrementally changing things up since then so that people don’t notice and complain.

Jon (now at neuromatch.social)Jul 22, 2023

@argv_minus_one It's a great point. @mattblaze, I remember when they finally gave up on the the Clipper Chip (thanks in no small part to your work!), somebody from one of the intelligence agencies saying at a Computers Freedom and Privacy conference "We'll be back" in basically so many words. Which had indeed proved to be the case -- #EARNIT and #STOPCSAM are just the latest attempts, and there will be more.

@thenexusofprivacy

TerryTPlatypus Jul 22, 2023

Lol, bet. Let’s try it then, and see how far we can go.

The Nexus of Privacy Jul 22, 2023

That’s pretty much how I look at it to. It might work, it might not … but you can’t win if you don’t play!