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They're right to point out that laws like this are primarily motivated by government control of speech. On a recent Times article about the UK's Online Safety A

They're right to point out that laws like this are primarily motivated by government control of speech. On a recent Times article about the UK's Online Safety Act: > Luckily, we don’t have to imagine the scene because the High Court judgment details the last government’s reaction when it discovered this potentially rather large flaw. First, we are told, the relevant secretary of state (Michelle Donelan) expressed “concern” that the legislation might whack sites such as Amazon instead of Pornhub. In response, officials explained that the regulation in question was “not primarily aimed at … the protection of children”, but was about regulating “services that have a significant influence over public discourse”, a phrase that rather gives away the political thinking behind the act. They suggested asking Ofcom to think again and the minister agreed. https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/online-safety-act-botched-2xk8xwlps https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/online-s...

platevoltage 1y ago
And surprise surprise, it's in the name of "protecting children", the same thing red blooded Americans have been falling for for decades.
- fuzzfactor 1y ago
  Some people would say "this is exactly why we can't have good things".
- terminalshort 1y ago
  Who is failing to protect them from what?
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    > Who is failing to protect them from what? Social media from itself. The frank answer is apps like Bluesky and Twitter should be age gated like cigarettes.
    - platevoltage 1y ago
      How do you age gate a website like a you would a physical item thats sold at a store?
  - beefnugs 1y ago
    This is what they want, no more free journalism/reporting means bringing back child labor
immibis 1y ago
https://archive.is/3pave https://archive.is/3pave
perihelions 1y ago
> "They're right to point out that laws like this are primarily motivated by government control of speech. On a recent Times article about the UK's Online Safety Act:" Err, BlueSky is enthusiastically complying with that one (as you read by clicking through to their corporate statement), > "We work with regulators around the world on child safety—for example, Bluesky follows the UK's Online Safety Act, where age checks are required only for specific content and features... Mississippi’s new law and the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) are very different. Bluesky follows the OSA in the UK. There, Bluesky is still accessible for everyone, age checks are required only for accessing certain content and features, and Bluesky does not know and does not track which UK users are under 18. Mississippi’s law, by contrast, would block everyone from accessing the site—teens and adults—unless they hand over sensitive information, and once they do, the law in Mississippi requires Bluesky to keep track of which users are children." https://bsky.social/about/blog/08-22-2025-mississippi-hb1126 https://bsky.social/about/blog/08-22-2025-mississippi-hb1126 It's bold of them to attempt to shift the Overton Window in this way ("OSA is actually moderate and we should hold it up as an example of reasonableness to criticize other censorship laws against"). That happened fast.
- matthewdgreen 1y ago
  I think this is weirdly cynical. BlueSky isn't in favor of OSA, they're saying that the Mississippi law is radically worse.
  - perihelions 1y ago
    Bluesky has never opposed or criticized OSA. Am I over-indexing on that? Their July 10 blogpost even frames OSA as a collaboration—it's written plain in the title, "Working with [sic] the UK Government to Protect Children Online", https://bsky.social/about/blog/07-10-2025-age-assurance https://bsky.social/about/blog/07-10-2025-age-assurance
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- mhh__ 1y ago
  Bluesky is the nesting place for basically every neurotic middle aged leftist who left twitter. It's sort of their team doing the OSA The porn and gaming fans are on Reddit Young versions of the above on Instagram.
CheeseFromLidl 1y ago
“services that have a significant influence over public discourse” This may show paranoia but all these things that are happening recently kinda add up to preparation for war.
- cma 1y ago
  In the tiktok ban case we know its reintroduction and passong was because it allowed criticism of Israel, at least according to the people that reintroduced it and got it passed https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/tiktok-ban-fueled-by-israel-not-china https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/tiktok-ban-fueled-by-israe...
  - jordanb 1y ago
    Israel and Luigi have them spooked. Two incidents where they've completely lost control of the narrative.
    - krapp 1y ago
      Israel, maybe, but Luigi, definitely not. They absolutely took control of Luigi. Rather than becoming a revolutionary icon who inspired people to water the tree of liberty with the blood of capitalists, he got turned to a meme, co-opted, defanged and reduced to nothing, like a Che Guevara t-shirt.
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    > because it allowed criticism of Israel, at least according to the people that reintroduced it and got it passed This is nonsense. I worked on that bill. The Israel lobby was, like, there. But to my knowledge is delivered zero votes. At the end of the day, if you want a bill passed, you are very careful about saying no to support. From a broader social-media advertising perspective, the war in Gaza has been a financial bonanza.

platevoltage 1y ago

And surprise surprise, it's in the name of "protecting children", the same thing red blooded Americans have been falling for for decades.

fuzzfactor 1y ago
Some people would say "this is exactly why we can't have good things".
terminalshort 1y ago
Who is failing to protect them from what?
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > Who is failing to protect them from what? Social media from itself. The frank answer is apps like Bluesky and Twitter should be age gated like cigarettes.
  - platevoltage 1y ago
    How do you age gate a website like a you would a physical item thats sold at a store?
- beefnugs 1y ago
  This is what they want, no more free journalism/reporting means bringing back child labor

immibis 1y ago

https://archive.is/3pave https://archive.is/3pave

perihelions 1y ago

> "They're right to point out that laws like this are primarily motivated by government control of speech. On a recent Times article about the UK's Online Safety Act:" Err, BlueSky is enthusiastically complying with that one (as you read by clicking through to their corporate statement), > "We work with regulators around the world on child safety—for example, Bluesky follows the UK's Online Safety Act, where age checks are required only for specific content and features... Mississippi’s new law and the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) are very different. Bluesky follows the OSA in the UK. There, Bluesky is still accessible for everyone, age checks are required only for accessing certain content and features, and Bluesky does not know and does not track which UK users are under 18. Mississippi’s law, by contrast, would block everyone from accessing the site—teens and adults—unless they hand over sensitive information, and once they do, the law in Mississippi requires Bluesky to keep track of which users are children." https://bsky.social/about/blog/08-22-2025-mississippi-hb1126 https://bsky.social/about/blog/08-22-2025-mississippi-hb1126 It's bold of them to attempt to shift the Overton Window in this way ("OSA is actually moderate and we should hold it up as an example of reasonableness to criticize other censorship laws against"). That happened fast.

matthewdgreen 1y ago
I think this is weirdly cynical. BlueSky isn't in favor of OSA, they're saying that the Mississippi law is radically worse.
- perihelions 1y ago
  Bluesky has never opposed or criticized OSA. Am I over-indexing on that? Their July 10 blogpost even frames OSA as a collaboration—it's written plain in the title, "Working with [sic] the UK Government to Protect Children Online", https://bsky.social/about/blog/07-10-2025-age-assurance https://bsky.social/about/blog/07-10-2025-age-assurance
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
mhh__ 1y ago
Bluesky is the nesting place for basically every neurotic middle aged leftist who left twitter. It's sort of their team doing the OSA The porn and gaming fans are on Reddit Young versions of the above on Instagram.

CheeseFromLidl 1y ago

“services that have a significant influence over public discourse” This may show paranoia but all these things that are happening recently kinda add up to preparation for war.

cma 1y ago
In the tiktok ban case we know its reintroduction and passong was because it allowed criticism of Israel, at least according to the people that reintroduced it and got it passed https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/tiktok-ban-fueled-by-israel-not-china https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/tiktok-ban-fueled-by-israe...
- jordanb 1y ago
  Israel and Luigi have them spooked. Two incidents where they've completely lost control of the narrative.
  - krapp 1y ago
    Israel, maybe, but Luigi, definitely not. They absolutely took control of Luigi. Rather than becoming a revolutionary icon who inspired people to water the tree of liberty with the blood of capitalists, he got turned to a meme, co-opted, defanged and reduced to nothing, like a Che Guevara t-shirt.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > because it allowed criticism of Israel, at least according to the people that reintroduced it and got it passed This is nonsense. I worked on that bill. The Israel lobby was, like, there. But to my knowledge is delivered zero votes. At the end of the day, if you want a bill passed, you are very careful about saying no to support. From a broader social-media advertising perspective, the war in Gaza has been a financial bonanza.