A new law in the UK has caused VPN usage soaring, and has raised major questions about free speech. Wired. The Online Safety Act requires websites that host adult content to verify ages via selfie checks and ID Documents and many websites have already complied. This lead to a spike of use of VPNs, which mask the country where internet content comes from.
Relatedly, Visa and Mastercard are coming under fire for forcing video game outlets like Steam and Itch.io to remove games from sale. The Guardian. The credit card companies came under fire from an Australian feminist group Collective Shout, and forced both video game outlets to remove thousands of game that featured adult content. Some users of Itch.Io said they were no longer able to play games that they had paid for due to the new restrictions. The backlash has been extreme with figures are prominent as Elon Musk vowing to create their own payment processors.
My Comment:
It's been an awful week or so for internet freedom to say the least. At least the age verification nonsense is limited to the UK and a few US red states, but it's still insane that the government has any say in internet censorship at all. Having to show your ID to visit any website is a huge burden and will have a chilling effect on speech. Already the Online Safety Act in the UK has expanded to censor criticism of immigration and has banned access to discussion forums like 4chan. It's clear that this isn't about protecting kids, it's about keeping people from doing what they want.
And it's insane that they want folks to show their faces and ID's after the disaster that was the Tea App scandal. That app, which was rightly criticized for being a way for women to bash men without the men being able to defend themselves, made enemies right away. Since then they have been hacked twice, with thousands of user photos, id's and comments released to the wide internet, with predictable results.
I had little sympathy for the folks on Tea App that got exposed, and not just because I thought the website was disgusting. It's insane to post your ID and selfies online in an uncontrolled environment as this is the inevitable result. And I am 100% certain that this will be the result of these ID laws. Folks are just as mad as people watching adult content or posting on 4chan as they are about women bashing men and there would be a lot of motivated people wanting to dox whoever they can.
This would lead to a chilling effect, though not just due to fear of being doxed. Folks will be too embarrassed to visit websites if they know that the government knows about it. Are folks really going to be willing to post what they want on 4chan or X if they have to have their own name attached to everything they post? Of course not, and that's a huge threat to their own freedom of speech.
I would also mention that the UK law has a version right here in the United States that is currently being debated in congress. It's stalled out for now, but KOSA, the Kids Online Safety Act, would be America's version of the Online Safety Act and it would be the end of the internet for anyone not smart enough to get a VPN (or isn't able to afford one). Right now it's passage is up in the air, it has a lot of support in the Senate, but not as much in the House, but I'd recommend writing your elected officials to vote against this nonsense.
Even if KOSA is defeated and the UK law is repealed (which it might be, Reform is against it and they are extremely likely to win the next election) we have to worry about the payment processors. They have been out of control for a long time, but this is the issue that has gotten attention. Card processors like Visa and Mastercard (which have a monopoly) have been the enemy of gun owners/sellers, right wing pundits, and adult content for awhile, but now they are targeting video games. Like Gamergate showed, making gamers angry is a great way to create a lot of backlash.
I'm not really defending the games that got banned, most of them are disgusting and not worth keeping in terms of gameplay. I don't think they should be removed but I have zero interest in buying any of them. But we all know that it's not just going to be the weird adult games on Steam that the payment processors are going to essentially ban. Some of the best games I have played have had sexual content, like The Witcher 3 for example, and they could be next on the chopping block. Not to mention games with violence. And what about games like The Sims where the game itself is pretty boring but some of the mods are wild? Why wouldn't they be banned too?
Either way, it's insane that a small group of angry women in Australia, in all places, can dictate what I can choose to buy on Steam. Why do these folks have any influence at all? It makes zero sense that they are able to strongarm the payment processers like this.
There are a few possibilities to fix this. The first is the break the payment processor cartel and have a new competitor that allows folks to buy whatever legal thing they want. Elon Musk is supposedly working on this and if he pulls it off, I will be getting a Musk card ASAP just because it's absurd that Visa can control what I buy.
The other is that people that don't support this aren't going to be particularly quiet about this either. Folks are furious, both about the payment processors and the UK law, and folks have been very critical of both. There's not much that can be done about the UK law short of an election or revolution (and I'd support the latter at this point) but folks have been putting immense pressure on Visa and Mastercard to remove these restrictions.
What is hilarious about this is that the internet is surprisingly united. Folks on both sides of the old Gamergate debate are against it. Right wing pundits and LGBT activists are against it. And folks that would otherwise hate Elon Musk (on the left and right) are praising for his idea to break up the cartel. It takes a lot to get the whole internet to hate you, and the payment processors have done so...
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