Please Sign These Petitions - Blog Posts

jowasfounddead

1 year ago

⚠️Hey, so this may be very (VERY) urgent:⚠️

So, I don’t normally do this, but something urgent came up, and I really need y’all to read this. There’s a TL;DR at the bottom of this post, but I strongly advise reading this post all the way through to gain more context on the situation at hand.

I don’t know all the details, but there’s this act floating around in the US called the “Kid’s Online Safety Act” - or KOSA , if you will. Here’s a description of it:

KOSA claims to make kids safer, but it’s really a dangerous censorship bill that would give the government unprecedented control over the internet. This would put youth in danger by preventing them from accessing potentially life-saving resources. Lawmakers concerned about online safety should reject KOSA and instead work to protect all internet users from abusive tech companies by passing a Federal data privacy law.

KOSA uses two methods to “protect” kids, and both of them are awful. First, KOSA would pressure platforms to install filters that would wipe the net of anything deemed “inappropriate” for minors. This = instructing platforms to censor, plain and simple. Places that already use content filters have restricted important information about suicide prevention and LGBTQ+ support groups, and KOSA would spread this kind of censorship to every corner of the internet. It’s no surprise that anti-rights zealots are excited about KOSA: it would let them shut down websites that cover topics like race, gender, and sexuality.

In summary, this law, if put in place, would aim to wipe out sites that could provide youth with life-saving resources, or even mention topics related to the LGBTQIA+ community and suicide prevention.

Now, obviously this is only a thing in America, so you’d think it wouldn’t affect the rest of the world, right?

Well, not exactly.

So you know how fandom sites such as Tumblr, AO3 and Wattpad provide an escape for many people across the world who are going through hard times (to put it simply)? I don’t mean to scare anyone, but if this law passes, these sites may be negatively affected globally.

Here’s a TikTok I found by a creator known as omarsbigsister that explains it better. It’s mainly about AO3 but Tumblr and Wattpad are mentioned too:

We all know why fandom is so important. Many people, as I’ve mentioned, use sites such as the ones previously listed to escape the troubles of their everyday life. In addition, fanfiction sites in particular provide creative outlets for writers across the globe. This law could possibly destroy this form of escapism and a creative outlet.

I’ve linked a link tree found in the above TikTok creator’s link tree at the bottom of this post. Please sign them regardless of where you’re from.

Also, y’all know I usually don’t ask for clicks, but interacting with this post in some way or even making a post of your own like this to spread the word would also be of great help!

We have to stop KOSA from being passed. The lives of America’s youth and future of fandom depend on it.

Thanks in advance!

- hpnewgen

TL;DR: KOSA is putting the lives of American youth and the future of fandom as a whole at risk and we need to act now.

Linktree

Stop KOSA! | Linktree

Linktree. Make your link do more.