It’s still not clear just what will get voted on. So, if you're in the US, now's a great time to contact Congress. EFF’s action Tell Congress: Absent Major Changes, 702 Should Not be Renewed has as a form that will connect you nd provides talking points. Or if you’d rather contact them directly, here’s a short script:

“Stop the FBI from spying on innocent Americans. Please fight for a vote to reform FISA’s Section 702 with warrant requirements, both for Section 702 data and for our sensitive, personal information sold to the government by data brokers. And please oppose any attempt to reauthorize FISA Section 702 that doesn’t include both of these critical reforms.”

You can either call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use the House directory to look up your legislators’ contact info.

It’s still not clear just what will get voted on. So, if you're in the US, now's a great time to contact Congress. EFF’s action Tell Congress: Absent Major Changes, 702 Should Not be Renewed has as a form that will connect you nd provides talking points. Or if you’d rather contact them directly, here’s a short script:

“Stop the FBI from spying on innocent Americans. Please fight for a vote to reform FISA’s Section 702 with warrant requirements, both for Section 702 data and for our sensitive, personal information sold to the government by data brokers. And please oppose any attempt to reauthorize FISA Section 702 that doesn’t include both of these critical reforms.”

You can either call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use the House directory to look up your legislators’ contact info.

It’s still not clear just what will get voted on. So, if you're in the US, now's a great time to contact Congress. EFF’s action Tell Congress: Absent Major Changes, 702 Should Not be Renewed has as a form that will connect you nd provides talking points. Or if you’d rather contact them directly, here’s a short script:

“Stop the FBI from spying on innocent Americans. Please fight for a vote to reform FISA’s Section 702 with warrant requirements, both for Section 702 data and for our sensitive, personal information sold to the government by data brokers. And please oppose any attempt to reauthorize FISA Section 702 that doesn’t include both of these critical reforms.”

You can either call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use the House directory to look up your legislators’ contact info.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/6414337

The Judiciary bill has significant reforms, including a warrant requirement. The Intelligence bill is a wolf in sheep's clothing -- it would significantly expand warrantless surveillance. If you're in the US, now's a key time to contact Congress! EFF's got a form that makes it easy, or see Get FISA Right's post for phone numbers and a short script.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/9011376

Congress is expected to vote this week on various bills to reauthorise FISA Section 702 warrantless wiretapping. The House Intelligence committee's bill is a wolf in sheep's clothing -- it would significantly expand warrantless surveillance. If you're in the US, now's a key time to contact Congress! EFF's got a form that makes it easy, or see the article for phone numbers and a short script.

On Mastodon, Followers-only posts are only visible to your followers -- and to admins of any instances your followers on. But if you haven't turned on "approve followes", anybody who's logged in to an instance you haven't blocked can follow you and get access to your followers-only posts.

In your view, are followers-only posts public?

The linked post is a Mastodon poll, and I'll also put in replies here so that you can just upvote the ones you agree with!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/4403827

Senator Admits "Kids Online Safety Act" Will Target Trans Content Online.::The lead sponsor of the "Kids Online Safety Act," otherwise known as KOSA, has stated over the weekend that it will be used to "protect minor children from the transgender in our culture."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/1835889

Evan Greer of Fight for the Future:

"If KOSA were actually a privacy bill as its supporters claim, we would be all about it," Greer told Ars. "We support cracking down on tech companies harvesting of data, we support an end to manipulative business practices like autoplay, infinite scroll, intrusive notifications, and algorithmic recommendations powered by commercial surveillance. What we don't support is a bill that gives state attorneys general the power to dictate what content younger people can see on social media. That's where KOSA goes off the rails and becomes a censorship bill, rather than a privacy bill."

If you're in the US, you can contact Congress using https://www.stopkosa.com/

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/1560280

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is a bipartisan bill that lawmakers say is intended to stop online platforms from targeting and recommending harmful content to minors. It sounds good but it's supported by a slew of far-right, anti-LGBTQ organizations, and opponents are warning it will enable states to censor LGBTQ content by claiming it leads kids to depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.

If you're in the US, EFF has a page that makes it easy to Tell Congress: KOSA Will Censor the Internet But Won't Help Kids

And once you've done that, please consider calling your Senators and tell them to oppose the Kids Online Safety Act because it won't help keep kids safe and it'll harm LGBTQ teens. Here's a list of Senators' phone numbers.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/1170157

KOSA, the "Kids Online Safety Act", sounds good. Who doesn't want to keep kids safe? But as over 90 LGBTQ and human rights organizations said last year, KOSA would harm LGBTQ+ youth especially, and could be weaponized by Attorneys General to censor online resources and information for queer and trans youth, people seeking reproductive healthcare, and more.

And it's not just a hypothetical concern! This article from a couple months ago includes a screenshot of a Heritage Foundation tweet talking about how they'll KOSA to attack trans-related content -- because after all, they think that censoring trans-related content is "protecting kids".

So if you're in the US, please contact your Senators and ask them to oppose KOSA.

• EFF has a handy web form

• if you prefer the phone, you can call the US Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. The bill number is S. 1409. Your message doesn't have to be fancy: "KOSA won't keep kids safe" is enough if they're Republicans; if they're Democrats you can add "and it will harm LGBTQ+ teens".

• or, https://resist.bot/ lets you contact your legislators by texting or using Messenger, Apple Messages, WhatsApp .

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/1170157

KOSA, the "Kids Online Safety Act", sounds good. Who doesn't want to keep kids safe? But as over 90 LGBTQ and human rights organizations said last year, KOSA would harm LGBTQ+ youth especially, and could be weaponized by Attorneys General to censor online resources and information for queer and trans youth, people seeking reproductive healthcare, and more.

And it's not just a hypothetical concern! This article from a couple months ago includes a screenshot of a Heritage Foundation tweet talking about how they'll KOSA to attack trans-related content -- because after all, they think that censoring trans-related content is "protecting kids".

So if you're in the US, please contact your Senators and ask them to oppose KOSA.

• EFF has a handy web form

• if you prefer the phone, you can call the US Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. The bill number is S. 1409. Your message doesn't have to be fancy: "KOSA won't keep kids safe" is enough if they're Republicans; if they're Democrats you can add "and it will harm LGBTQ+ teens".

• or, https://resist.bot/ lets you contact your legislators by texting or using Messenger, Apple Messages, WhatsApp .

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/1163015

EFF writes:

KOSA has laudable goals, but it also presents significant unintended consequences that threaten the privacy, safety, and access to information rights of young people and adults alike. Teenagers already understand that this sweeping legislation is more about censorship than safety. Now we just need to make sure Congress does, as well.

Take action! If you're in the US, Use EFF's page to Tell Congress: KOSA Will Censor the Internet But Won't Help Kids

And please help get the word out! Four ways to hep:

1. Cross-post this link to communities and magazines where it's on-topic
2. Upvote and share the other links in ![email protected]
3. If you're on Mastodon, check out the #KOSA hashtag and boost the posts you see there
4. Tell your friends on other social networks as well.

Coverage of the week of action in Common Dreams, with quotes from @[email protected] of Fight for the Future.

If you want to help, here are four easy ways:

1. If you live in the US, contact your legislators using Fight for the Future’s https://www.badinternetbills.com/
2. Upvote and boost posts in ![email protected] -- and cross-post them to other communities and magazines where they're on-topic
3. On Mastodon, boost posts on the #BadInternetBills and #KOSA hashtags
4. Get the word out on other social networks too

The "Kids Online Safety Act" (KOSA) is one of the Bad Internet Bills EFF is asking for help trying to stop. KOSA sounds like a good bill. Who doesn't want kids to be safe online? But KOSA wouldn't actually make kids safer -- and the way it's written would be especially harmful to LGBTQIA2S+ people.

As over 90 Human Rights and LGBTQ groups said in this letter the sent to Congress last year opposing KOSA:

"KOSA establishes a burdensome, vague “duty of care” to prevent harms to minors for a broad range of online services that are reasonably likely to be used by a person under the age of 17. While KOSA’s aims of preventing harassment, exploitation, and mental health trauma for minors are laudable, the legislation is unfortunately likely to have damaging unintended consequences for young people.

KOSA would require online services to “prevent” a set of harms to minors, which is effectively an instruction to employ broad content filtering to limit minors’ access to certain online content. Content filtering is notoriously imprecise; filtering used by schools and libraries in response to the Children’s Internet Protection Act has curtailed access to critical information such as sex education or resources for LGBTQ+ youth. Online services would face substantial pressure to over-moderate, including from state Attorneys General seeking to make political points about what kind of information is appropriate for young people.

At a time when books with LGBTQ+ themes are being banned from school libraries and people providing healthcare to trans children are being falsely accused of “grooming,” KOSA would cut off another vital avenue of access to information for vulnerable youth."

KOSA has.a markup session in the Senate next week, so now's a critical time to be telling Congress that we don't want this bad internet bill. So please help get the word out -- and if you're in the US, EFF's KOSA action page makes it easy to contact Congress

#BadInternetBills #KOSA #privacy

The House Judiciary Committee advanced the bill 30-0.

“This bill is the latest sign of bipartisan support in Congress to tackle the government’s warrantless purchase of American’s personal data, such as location information and internet records, in circumvention of the Fourth Amendment and statutory protections,” Caitriona Fitzgerald, deputy director of EPIC wrote in a statement.

“We’re seeing some incredible leadership on the hill and off the hill,” said Sean Vitka, policy counsel for Demand Progress. “The House has made it clear they want to close the data broker loophole, full stop,” he said.

UPDATE : The House Judiciary Committee advanced the bill unanimously, 30-0!. It still has to pass the full House, and then the Senate, so please still contact your legislators!

The Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act closes the legal loophole that allows data brokers to sell Americans’ personal information to law enforcement and intelligence agencies without any court oversight.

The House Judiciary Committee has a markup session on the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act tomorrow (July 19), and if all goes well, the committee will advance a (potentially-amended) version of the bill ... a huge step forward! The bill has bipartisan support, but intelligence agencies and law enforcement don't like it, and they have a lot of leverage in Congress.

So if you're in the US, please contact your Congresspeople and ask them to support the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act. Here's three easy ways -- pick whichever one works for you:

• On the web : Free Press has a page with a web form that makes it easy.

• Using SMS, Telegram, WhatsApp, Messenger, or Instagram : use https://resist.bot/ to send a message like Please co-sponsor and pass the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act to close the privacy loophole that lets government agencies purchase location-tracking data without a warrant .

• By phone Call the House switchboard at 202-225-3121. Tell them your name and address, and that you want to send a message to your Representatives to support HR 4639, the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, and close the privacy loophole that lets government agencies purchase location-tracking data without a warrant.

I'm working on an activism campaign kicking off next week opposing some bad internet bills in the US -- here's the kbin magazine I just set up, and I might set up a Lemmy community as well if that makes sense. Once things get going, we'll be sharing links including information and actions people can take.

Have there been other activism campaigns on Lemmy or kbin, and if so what to learn from them?

Or, any thoughts on what could make an activism campaign successful here?

Tens of thousands of people have signed up for KBin and Lemmy accounts since I first published "Don’t tell people “it’s easy”," hundreds of new instances have been created, and "the threadiverse" is suddenly a hot topic of conversation.... Of course, it hasn't all gone smoothly, but the opportunity isn't going away.