About Kid’s Online Safety Act and age verification
The Senate just passed two landmark bills aimed at protecting minors online
https://www.engadget.com/the-senate-just-passed-two-landmark-bills-aimed-at-protecting-minors-online-170935128.html
Senate racing to pass horrific Kids Online Safety Act
U.S. Senate racing to vote for the horrific Kid’s Online Safety Act today. It will likely pass by an overwhelmingly large bipartisan margin, thanks to politicians who don’t have a damned clue about how dangerous it will be to both children and adults (or just don’t care).
It will subject the most vulnerable children to more abuse, block access to crucial information, and require everyone including adults to use government IDs to verify their ages and link them to their social media accounts — perfect for privacy breaches and government tracking.
Its future in the House is less certain, but there’s no telling in an election year. Its ability to withstand inevitable court challenges is even more questionable.
But it’s a horrible law that would set the U.S. on the path to an abusive Chinese-style censored and tracked Internet here. Both parties want to turn the U.S. Internet into a tracking and privacy nightmare.
Keep in mind that any legislation requiring verifying children’s ages means EVERYONE using sites must be age verified, and that will typically mean via government IDs. There is no safe way to do this even through third party verifiers. The specter of data leaks and the use of the data by government entities to track users around the Internet is enormous.
Any attempt to determine what “is harmful or inappropriate” for children will be subject to whatever the political preferences of parties in power at any given time demand.
The desire to protect children is real. But these laws will not work, and will turn our Internet into a dystopian nightmare.
For anyone who points out that the Kids Online Safety Act doesn’t actually REQUIRE government IDs for age verification, let me assure you that this is, to use the vernacular, a subterfuge.
The liabilities created by the legislation for violations by the targeted sites are so large that nothing short of age verification via government IDs will satisfy their own legal departments in the long run — and with good reason.
This doesn’t mean uploading IDs to each site — the anticipated model is third party verifiers — but that doesn’t actually reduce (and may actually increase) the privacy and tracking abuse risks associated with these age verification models, for a variety of technical reasons. -Lauren Weinstein
Project 2025: The Fossil Fuel and Banking Money Behind the Madness
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/07/project-2025-the-fossil-fuel-and-banking-money-behind-the-madness/
The Supreme Court Crowns a King, Immunizing Future Criminal Acts Under Project
2025 – a Right Wing Manifesto.
U.S. Senate Candidate Backed by Hedge Fund Billionaires Was Sitting in Front Row at Trump Rally as the Sniper Fired into the Bleachers
Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from
Pennsylvania, was sitting in the front row at Donald Trump’s rally in
Butler, Pennsylvania
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/07/u-s-senate-candidate-backed-by-hedge-fund-billionaires-was-sitting-in-front-row-at-trump-rally-as-the-sniper-fired-into-the-bleachers/
Protecting Trump and His Jet-Setting Adult Children During His Presidency Cost Taxpayers Over $1 Billion
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/07/protecting-trump-and-his-jet-setting-adult-children-during-his-presidency-cost-taxpayers-over-1-billion/
Trump’s Sit-Down with Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago Will Cost U.S. Taxpayers
Millions While Profiting Trump’s Business
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/07/trumps-sit-down-with-netanyahu-at-mar-a-lago-will-cost-u-s-taxpayers-millions-while-profiting-trumps-business/
The New York Fed Has Contracted Out Key Functions to JPMorgan Chase; We Filed a FOIA and Got These Strange Invoices
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/07/the-new-york-fed-has-contracted-out-key-functions-to-jpmorgan-chase-we-filed-a-foia-and-got-these-strange-invoices/
Jean-Baptiste Kemf
VLC’s creator refused several tens of millions of dollars to keep the software ads free.
Jean-Baptiste Kempf, creator of VLC media player. He refused tens of millions of dollars in order to keep VLC ads-free. Thanks Jean!
I’ve used this tool for the past 1000 years – it’s my favorite and Jean is a hero!!!
VLC is hands-down the best media player. You can toss any file at it, and it’ll handle it without a hitch. I even managed to use VLC to play the Recycle Bin once.
‘Britain’s Schindler’: The man who saved 669 children from the Nazis
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240328-in-history-nicholas-winton-rescues-children-during-holocaust-ww2
AOC Shuts Down Republican Whining About Kamala’s “Weird” Trump Attack
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez perfectly summed up Kamala Harris’s new attack on Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.
New Report Details Terrifying Threat of Trump’s Election Deniers
Election deniers hold crucial roles in elections in multiple swing states.
‘White Dudes for Harris’ X Suspension Sparks Fury: ‘Election Interference’ – Newsweek
Elon the Trump lover is illegally using Xitter to shut down Free Speech which was always why he spent 40 billion dollars to buy the Xbird.
A social-media account for white male supporters of Kamala Harris was briefly suspended from X, formerly Twitter, sparking anger online.
Newsweek observed that the White Dudes for Harris X account had been temporarily suspended after the group held a star-studded virtual call on Monday night that raised more than $4 million. It is not clear why the account was suspended, but it appeared to have been restored as of the early hours of Tuesday. The automated message when the account was suspended read: “X suspends accounts which violate the X rules.”
Mike Nellis, who is involved in the organization, shared an update on Tuesday explaining that while the X account is live again, it still remains suspended. He said the account is “permanently in read-only mode,” meaning it cannot post or interact with content and cannot create new accounts. Nellis called on supporters to continue donating to Harris’ campaign, writing: “Don’t let them silence us.”
US Government Moves $2 Billion in Silk Road Bitcoin
Just days after Trump vowed that the U.S. would “keep 100%” of seized Bitcoin if elected, the government just moved $2 billion in BTC tied to Silk Road.
U.S. Marshals Service chooses Coinbase to safeguard, trade its large cap digital assets portfolio
https://www.coinbase.com/blog/u-s-marshals-service-chooses-coinbase-to-safeguard-trade-its-large-cap
Louis Armstrong: The US jazz icon with a controversial legacy
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240722-louis-armstrong-the-us-jazz-icon-with-a-controversial-legacy
In History: Nina Simone on how racial injustice fueled her songs
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240215-in-history-nina-simone-how-racial-injustice-fuelled-her-songs