Who's trying to break the internet today?

[Pocket]

OK but what does the bill actually do? I feel like I'm watching a drug commercial where they just show people having fun, tell you to ask your doctor about this new wonder drug, and then list the million awful side effects.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

It sounds like it doesn't actually do much directly, which means websites will flail around trying to figure out what exactly they're supposed to do to comply with its vague wording.

 

[Dekafox]

The Kids Online Safety Act And The Tyranny Of Laziness

There is some confusion about whether the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) regulates content or design on digital platforms like Instagram or TikTok. It’s easy to see why that is, because the bill’s a…

www.techdirt.com

The EFF link I posted talks about some of the possible effects from it too.

 

[Dekafox]

Looks like Canada beat the US to the TikTok ban:

Canada orders TikTok to shut down over national risk concerns

The Canadian government has ordered the dissolution of TikTok Technology Canada following a multi-step review that provided information and evidence of the social media company posing a national risk.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

 

[wonko the sane?]

But apparently you can still download, sign up for, and use the app? I'm not entirely sure how it's ban actually.

 

[Dekafox]

Hmm, fair, thought it went farther than that, given they're shutting down the Canadian branches of it, and for the same reason as the US was claiming, but it really does look like they're at least not trying to block it entirely.

 

[Dekafox]

Australia passes world-first law banning under-16s from social media despite safety concerns

Bill passes amid warning that process has been rushed and that a ban could push teenagers towards the dark web or into isolation

www.theguardian.com

The Australian that brought it to my attention is concerned that this is basically a "digital id" law in disguise - given the condition that Austalians aren't giving their personal info to the company themselves for the age verificfation, that it'll instead force all Australians to have a unified national digital ID that then gets directly linked to all their accounts online.

Even setting that aside, stuff like the Fediverse would make this impossible to enforce, but they could have a "size" measure... though I don't know how that would interact with the Fediverse as it's technically not one service, just a bunch of individual services that talk to each other.

 

[Rhinox]

I see TOR downloads skyrocketing.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Lets revive Gopher.

 

[NovaSaber]

This is more summary than news, but the Internet Archive's problems are ongoing

 

[NovaSaber]

And the culprit trying to break Google is...Google.

Google explores excluding news from search results in the EU

The experiment gauges users’ interest in seeing news content in search results and could push publishers to evaluate their reliance on traffic and ad revenue from Google Search

www.emarketer.com

The news: Google removed EU news publishers from its Search, News, and Discover results in a limited test to see how omitting news content affects Google’s products.

• The test applies to about 1% of users in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain. It initially included France but that ended after immediate pushback from regulators.
• Google said it’s conducting the experiment because regulators and publishers have asked for more information on how Search affects users’ interactions with news content.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

It initially included France but that ended after immediate pushback

Surprise.

 

[Dekafox]

Online Safety Act: explainer

www.gov.uk