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The Official Congressional Blacklist

Vendor-Lazarus

Vendor-Lazarus

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Arnox said:
I love how these congresspeople flail about trying to find any other solution to regulate big tech that they can besides, you know, actually breaking up the monopolies.

"But if we did that, how will my Googly Maps work??"
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I mean, how would they get money if they broke up monopolies like the 6 corps owning all news & entertainment media, or the 3 corps owning all social media? You have to take these things into account! ,)
 
Arnox

Arnox

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After around six months of general lawmaking silence, sadly, we're back, bois. We got another fucking dumbass bill. The EARN IT Act of 2022. Designation S.3538 And we got 19 cosponsors for this piece of shit. Many of which are (surprise, surprise) already on the blacklist. I still gotta update the list though.
 
Arnox

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Updated the list as I missed a senator. Also missed bill H.R.6544 which is the same as the EARN IT Act of 2022 in the senate. Updated the list with those names as well.
 
Arnox

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We're back again!

This time with S. 3663. The Kids Online Safety Act.

www.eff.org

KOSA Would Let the Government Control What Young People See Online

The latest version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is focused on removing online information that people need to see—people of all ages. Letting governments—state or federal—decide what information anyone needs to see is a dangerous endeavor. On top of that, this bill, supposedly designed to...
www.eff.org www.eff.org

List has been updated.
 
Arnox

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Now this bill I'm kind of torn on, so I've added the sponsors of the bill to the list tentatively until I decide for sure if they should stay on the list or not.


You may wanna read this bill for yourself in order to decide. It's not that long actually. Basically though, the government wants to crack down hard on software services, games, and general web apps controlled by US adversaries including China, Venezuela, North Korea, and co. It sketches me out though because the bill is kinda broad. If I'm reading this correctly, it gives special power as well to shut down anything even tangentially related to US adversaries. So... Paying for hosting a site in Russia? Well, they can take that site down in the US and probably even prosecute you. Now, the bill does specifically state it's targeting software services, games, and general web apps with a user count of 1,000,000 or more, so there is at least SOME kind of leash on this bill, but still... Is it enough?
 
Phiwise_

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If I'm reading this correctly, it gives special power as well to shut down anything even tangentially related to US adversaries. So... Paying for hosting a site in Russia? Well, they can take that site down in the US and probably even prosecute you.
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Why are these clowns incapable of doing something good for once?

Notably, isn't archive.today based in Russia? Can't wait for my gov to give the monopoly on archiving to those scum at internet archive.
 
Arnox

Arnox

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Phiwise_ said:
Notably, isn't archive.today based in Russia? Can't wait for my gov to give the monopoly on archiving to those scum at internet archive.
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Oh, you don't like Internet Archive?

EDIT: Fuck it. After looking at Rossmann's video, the names are staying on the list.
 
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Arnox

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UPDATE: We got five new co-sponsors to add to the list for the RESTRICT Act since the last list update. Wheeee! The good news though is I think the bill may die in committee at this point. Maybe...
 
Phiwise_

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Of course Mittens is behind this garbage. No wonder the glowies tried to unseat Lee last cycle. They wanted another instrument of panic. Lee asked a few too many questions at ie the chokepoint hearings.
 
Arnox

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Phiwise_ said:
Of course Mittens is behind this garbage. No wonder the glowies tried to unseat Lee last cycle. They wanted another instrument of panic. Lee asked a few too many questions at ie the chokepoint hearings.
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Who's Mittens? Mitt Romney?
 
Arnox

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Vendor-Lazarus said:
Would this be something to keep track of possibly?

www.govtrack.us

Text of S. 884: Improving Digital Identity Act of 2023 (Introduced version) - GovTrack.us

Text of S. 884: Improving Digital Identity Act of 2023 as of Mar 21, 2023 (Introduced version). S. 884: Improving Digital Identity Act of 2023
www.govtrack.us www.govtrack.us
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That bill seems fine all the way up until I read that non-governmental organizations can use these digital identity verification services. For something like credit reporting services, fine. It makes sense. (Although companies REALLY shouldn't be controlling credit-reporting in the first place, but I digress.) For anything else though, this looks kinda fucked.

I don't know. Maybe I misread this? Could someone else please read it and give a second opinion?
 
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Phiwise_

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Vendor-Lazarus said:
Would this be something to keep track of possibly?

www.govtrack.us

Text of S. 884: Improving Digital Identity Act of 2023 (Introduced version) - GovTrack.us

Text of S. 884: Improving Digital Identity Act of 2023 as of Mar 21, 2023 (Introduced version). S. 884: Improving Digital Identity Act of 2023
www.govtrack.us www.govtrack.us
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>Government-run identity security for the whole country

What could possibly go wrong?

Literally the only good part of the SSN-as-ID system is thst your SSN is explicitly not a government ID and therefore the bureaucrats aren't allowed to feature-creep a universal security apparatus around it. If they wanted to stop benefits fraud they could do it entirely in the executive through updating their own known bad procedures and some very basic infosec. Many banks would probably even volunteer to help run it, since know your customer regularly catches them in the fraud blame game. All this could be is an attempt to jawbone the tech and business sectors into responsibity for their government and customer's poor security decisions.
 
Arnox

Arnox

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Phiwise_ said:
>Government-run identity security for the whole country

What could possibly go wrong?

Literally the only good part of the SSN-as-ID system is thst your SSN is explicitly not a government ID and therefore the bureaucrats aren't allowed to feature-creep a universal security apparatus around it. If they wanted to stop benefits fraud they could do it entirely in the executive through updating their own known bad procedures and some very basic infosec. Many banks would probably even volunteer to help run it, since know your customer regularly catches them in the fraud blame game. All this could be is an attempt to jawbone the tech and business sectors into responsibity for their government and customer's poor security decisions.
Click to expand...
Oh it could get far worse than that. Suddenly, almost every big website will be able to force you to give your social security number and other private information just to sign up.
 
Phiwise_

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Arnox said:
Oh it could get far worse than that. Suddenly, almost every big website will be able to force you to give your social security number and other private information just to sign up.
Click to expand...
Ah yes, whatever will I do if a website asks me for something I don't want to give them?

/me closes website
 
Phiwise_

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Arnox said:
And what will you when most of them force you to give that information? Quit the internet?
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No, I'll vote with my feet and use the ones that don't. Thus why it's a problem that the gov looks to be gearing up to not let any of them choose to compete for my business by not requiring info I don't want to give.
 
Arnox

Arnox

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Phiwise_ said:
No, I'll vote with my feet and use the ones that don't. Thus why it's a problem that the gov looks to be gearing up to not let any of them choose to compete for my business by not requiring info I don't want to give.
Click to expand...
Either way, you have to admit that it would at least be extremely annoying.
 
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