InkySol

Congress's Crusade to Age Gate the Internet: 2025 in Review In the name of 'protecting kids online,' Congress pushed forward legislation this year that could have severely undermined our privacy and stifled free speech. These bills would have mandated invasive age-verification checks for everyone online—adults and kids alike—handing unprecedented control to...

Reminder to everyone there are multiple bills in Congress right now trying to put age verification on the entire Internet.

Definitely don't give Discord your money; but please contact your representatives so we can kill this cancerous shit while we still can.

www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month - all accounts set to "teen-appropriate experience" by default www.theverge.com/tech/875309/...

discord.com/press-releas...

just took a look through the app and:

- the kids are required to attend regular 90 min virtual meetings where the teens are alone with their new superiors

- the teens and their parent must sign a *confidentiality agreement* regarding the program

just so no one talks about what went on, y’kno?

It's actually laughably easy to fudge this, so start submitting people!
Besides, they're asking for minors' PID and mailing address, which is raising a forest of red flags.

An image of a huge jackboot crushing a comic artist and a bunch of comic pages. The boot is marked by the logos for MasterCard, Visa, Paypal, and Stripe. Below the image there is text which reads: Don't let Payment Processors tell YOU what you can buy! It is not a payment processor's role to decide what kind of content you can or cannot spend money on, so long as it is a legal transaction. Fight back against the unjust policies hurting artists and creators online! https://yellat.money/ https://stop-paypros.neocities.org/

Let's Keep Calling!

Apparently P*ypal now asks for customer opinions on accounts sending invoices.
If you are paying an invoice to a nsfw artist, do NOT mention NSFW in any way, keep it blank even. you risk both your account and the artists.

Live with the Policy Team Join the Policy Team on Thursday, December 11th (12-1pm EST) for a livestreamed conversation about proposed updates to Patreon's Community Guidelines. The discussion will cover new policy proposals around Teen Safety and Harassment, and will further clarify existing Adult/18+ guidelines based on recent creator feedback. Your feedback is a huge part of how policy at Patreon is formed, and no changes will be finalized until we've had a chance to talk with you about them. The last policy livestream had a record number of attendees, and we'd love to keep you just as involved as we close out 2025.

Patreon Policy Team emailed creators saying they'll host a livestream clarifying existing 18+ guidelines on DEC 11.

If you're a creator please show up!
You can submit issues you'd like them to cover in the rsvp form.

Batman slapping Robin meme with the caption, an "18+" sign being over Batman's face while Bluesky's logo is over Robin's. Robin as Bluesky: "No discussing self-harm, suicide, abuse (sexual, drugs, substance, etc.) unless it's educational—!!!" Batman as 18+ creators (or non-professionals in general): "Artists are not teachers or therapists. We are not obligated to teach you anything."

Apparently a lot of ppl needs to hear this

#bskycensorship

actions that will contribute more to pushing against bluesky's censorship than a blackout:

-submitting a feedback request
-@ing moderation about it
-commenting on mods posts about it
-making and sharing memes (ex: "i consent!" sticker)
-leaving an app store review
-just generally posting about it

Restricting the expression of sexuality through fiction and art made by adults, for adults – including those you find personally disturbing or offputting – is conservative censorship, full stop. When that censorship disproportionately affects subgroups, that's also discrimination. For shame.

Keep calling. This issue can't die.

It starts with delisting games, but the likely goal is to enact a new morality police that can silence marginal groups and anyone who speaks out against the status quo.

The payment processors are feeling the squeeze! Let your voice be heard!

Oh, hey.

Visa and Mastercard now say you can't pay for WoW. Magic the Gathering. FFXIV. DnD. Lord of the Rings. Because they're all "adult" content against their ToS just for being "fantasy".

Let that sink in.

Spread this like wildfire and have people in those circles call them. No quarter.

Qatar. Syria. Tunisia. Lebanon. Yemen. Gaza. The Israeli military is bombing country after country – six in the span of three days – with total impunity.

If we can get big dog publishing companies to go knocking at paypros' doors then that would be a huge boon for us. Flood the publishers as concerned customers, get them to see what's happening!

ATTN FELLOW CANADIANS:

An actual MP has created a petition to stop financial discrimination against adult creators by payment processors. You have to confirm your email but thats because its something that can actually be shown to parliament.

Guys this is direly important. Do not let them privatize your tax filings. The companies that own the other programs are just stealing money from you to do what you can already do for free. Survey takes less than 2 minutes to do and can possibly help keep the tax filing program free. Fuck TurboTax.

This obviously connects to the Mastercard and Visa situation as well, which cuts access to adult content.
So genuinely, keep calling, keep signing the petition, and keep road blocking these laws that force people to dox themselves to use the Internet.

With the state of the world, the bill has already been abused by censoring political criticism and frankly, that leads down some very dark paths.
Not to mention that censorship is a nuke, not a scalpel, and things such as LGBTQ+ content is practically always on the chopping block.

So I hope everyone has been keeping an eye on the UK's censorship bill (under the guise of "Protect the children," a classic) and I also hope everyone has been keeping an eye on the two bills the US has introduced that basically do the same thing as the UK one.
news.sky.com/story/hundre...

Visa employees clearly told to deescalate ASAP
MasterCard employees more than familiar with the issue
Stripe feeling the pressure
ACLU put out a statement
CBC covered all this

What you are doing is WORKING
You are getting RESULTS
KEEP CALLING
KEEP WRITING
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!!

Mastercard: Sex Work is Work. End Your Unjust Policy. Mastercard's new policy unfairly targets the adult content industry, making sex workers more vulnerable, especially Black trans women. It must be stopped.

Once again, there is an ACLU petition specifically made to stop Mastercard from unlawfully policing adult content. It’s getting pretty grim for us out there. Please sign and/or spread the word.
action.aclu.org/petition/mas...

Maybe we could find out.

Mastercard (US): 1-800-627-8372
Mastercard (Int.): +1-636-722-7111
Visa (US + Can): 1 800 847 2911
Visa (AUS): 1 800 125 440
PayPal: +44-0203-901-7000

To everyone else; Do what you can. Grow a garden, volunteer/donate to local food banks and shelters, maybe try organizing with your neighbors. Shit's gonna get harder, and hopefully we all last long enough to attempt to fix the wreckage. At the very least, this highlights problems that need solving.

Trying to cut due process, turning ICE in a police force, rolling back protections for medical insurance, social security, and minorities, ignoring the Constitution entirely; these should scare you. These should be motivators for action. And if you're cheering, how's the boot taste?

I don't post usually post about politics and frankly, that should change; because holy shit is the US on fire with literal movie villains at the wheel. So to anyone who asks; Help your neighbors, human rights aren't a discussion, and throw bricks at fascists.

REMEMBER: All the "Don't use em-dashes" "don't use rule of three" advice because it makes your writing "look like AI" is because they stole actual writers work, and their "predict the next thing" stuff just simulates what WE FUCKING DO. Keep writing well. Use every style and trick you have. Fuck AI.

With the awful news from the last couple hours, this post from the political optimism subreddit helped to break through a bit of the despair fog. Repubs know this is political suicide, ICE's support is crumbling despite the budget increase, and there's a myriad of ways to fight back. Keep strong.