#FREE THE INTERNET

[artarchangel333]

UPDATE ON THE TAKEDOWN ACT 4/7/2025

I have been informed that the House is going to have a committee hearing (energy and commerce committee) on the Take It Down Act. This is a bill that Trump has pushed hard to get passed so that he can abuse it and use it to take down social media posts criticizing him. Its another mass censorship tool disguised as "protecting kids".

Fight for the Future has provided both an explanation for why this bill is extremely dangerous, as well as a call script and direct link to your lawmakers! They couldnt make it easier. Its here:

Here is a link to the committee members. It is a full committee hearing.

This is the number for energy and commerce (202) 225-3641 please call their secretary and tell them to spread the message to say no if your rep isn’t on the committee

If you’re not American tell your American friends to call that number

[meaniezuchinni]

Remember: the internet should be free.

[banana-bonanza]

Firefox Has a New Terms of Use

"When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information to help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate with your use of Firefox."

This is worded so vaguely that "helping you navigate, experience, and interact with online content" could mean just about anything. Firefox worked just fine before so this move from Mozilla raises major red flags, especially after their decision last year to start selling user data by default.

Remember that no corporation is your friend, even if they make a product or service you like. Mozilla is no exception.

Now is a great time to switch to Mullvad.

[thewebcomicsreview]

Hey, I really enjoy reading what you write about webcomics. Trolling the Internet obsessively for new webcomics to read in the late Aughts was a formative experience for me, even thought I've regrettably fallen off for the most part but it's still fun to take a peak at what's going on.

My question for you is how do you feel about the distinction between Webcomics and Webtoons? Is there even one? Do we risk losing the chaotic wonder of Webcomics as platforms like Webtoon centralize them more and more?

A much younger coworker, college aged, asked me if I had ever heard of webtoons and was legitimately surprised when I told her how making your own site for a comic used to be not only common, but more or less required. I must be getting old.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts

Putting your comic on Webtoon is giving Webtoon the ability to kill it for any reason they like or to reject your comic as too NSFW because someone's shoulder was visible.

I won't judge comics creators for trying to get that bread, but if your comic isn't on a website that you control then you don't control your comic.

Having your own comic site as the main place for your comic is a requirement to join SpiderForest, and we're sufficiently serious about it that we'll help people build their own sites if needed.

ComicPress is good, and I use it, and I think Frumph is the biggest unsung hero in webcomics history, but also it's getting old and we need to start making some open-source solutions for a new generation of webcomic creators.

[alpaca-clouds]

Democratizing Media

Alright, one thing first: When politicians speak about "democratizing media" they usually mean something else then what scientist say, when they use those words. Politicians mostly mean something along the lines of "media should say what I want instead being controlled by some coorporation, because like I am elected, right?" Meanwhile scientist mean something else.

You see, before the internet became easily accessible for most people, the only way to access media was through certain outlets. TV stations, the cinema, some publishers and some record lables.

Yes, sure. Technically self-publishing was a thing even back then, but without the ease of the internet... How were you to market your own book or comic? And self-made music usually just circulated on copied and copied again casette tapes.

Usually, if you wanted to create media that actually people would see, you had to go through a big company. And those companies could very much decide who got to make movies and tv, who got to publish music or books or comics. Not only where those decisions controlled by capitalist interest, but also by nepotism and cultural biases, given that a lot of the people making those decisions where (and still are to these days) white, cis, abled men.

But when the internet came around things changed. Because suddenly everyone had a way easier time in getting their stuff out there. Pretty early on there were websites where people could just publish their stories and comics online. Either free and hosted by some other website or paid on their own site. Which was pretty revolutionary, especially as suddenly ideas that had been ignored could reach a new audience.

Voices, that by news media and such had been ignored so far - voices of women and marginalized folks - could suddenly broadcast over all sorts of channels.

And yes, you could also just publish your music and what not online, could also do your own research and offer it to the world and could actually get heard.

Now, we all know that this came with ups and downs. Because while finally marginalized people were heard like this, it also gave a bigger platform to some fringe conspiracy groups and the like. But at least there was a chance to get your stuff out there.

Social media websites and the like played a big role in this. Especially Youtube, of course, but other sites, too........ which of course brings me to the problem. Or rather to the question: "Is media democratized right now?"

Because it isn't, of course.

Right now we have these chokepoints, where you kinda are forced to push whatever you create through a channel. Sure, you can upload your videos on your own server, but probably nobody will see them. They need to be on youtube. Just like your music now needs to be on spotify and itunes. And if you self-publish a book, it kinda needs to be available on amazon or you won't sell shit. And if you have your own little blog and do not promote it on social media (or have it not integrated on a blogging platform such as tumblr) it will not be seen.

And this brings two issues with it (well, actually three). For one, as private companies those sides are able to censor you in any way they want to. They decide you cannot say the word "queer" anymore? Welp, no more talking about queer issues for you. And because they are a private company nobody can do much against it. Like with the tumblr purge. No more "female presenting nipples" for you.

The next issue is closely related: The companies in question want to make money. This they do mostly through advertisement and maybe subscriptions. Hence their goal is to keep you interacting with their website for a long while. And thus they have algorithms that decide what content you see - and hence if the content decides that something you do is not worth it or will get the wrong kind of attention... Well, nobody will get it shown. On a lot of social media we see, for example, that the negative content gets shown to more people. So writing about positive stuff does often not get you seen. (Which is why algorithms are bad. Don't fucking build your social media websites around a fucking algorithm.)

And lastly: A lot of media additionally to all of that also uses a system of partly manual currated. This is true for Netflix, who obviously want to make sure that the front page does show the stuff they either paid a lot of money for or that they produced themselves. Like, there is an infinity of great indie movies on Netflix, but if you do not know it is there, you will not see it. Same goes for a lot of Indie Games on Steam, that just go unnoticed, because they do not appear anywhere near the front page and just happen to go overlooked by folks. And in the end the big studios obviously have the money to get their games on the front page. Same with books on amazon, where just the difference in marketing budget makes sure, that certain books will end up front.

So, why am I telling all of that?

Because we still do have the tool. We can make a free, democratic internet like that. Where we do not have censorship (please note: banning people for saying hateful shit is actually not censorship, so yeah, ban them nazis). Where we do not have fucking algorithms. And where just everything has the same chance of getting seen.

Like, does not mean that there cannot be any currated lists. Like, those currator pages on steam? Those are fucking great. Lists where everyone just can make those and you can subscribe to their lists. That is amazing. But... you know. Not for the baseline experience, but for what everyone wants their experience to be like.

Just... a thing that bothers me. Based on the stuff I spoke about yesterday.

[trooper1023]

Open Letter to the Record Labels Suing the Internet Archive

We, the undersigned, call on the record labels and members of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)—including UMG, Capitol Records, Concord Bicycle Assets, CMGI Recorded Music Assets, Sony Music Entertainment, and Arista Music—to drop your lawsuit against the Internet Archive.

[a-good-blog-name-but-its-taken]

PSA: PIRATING PAYWALLED ARTICLES

Copy the URL of your article

Go to the Wayback Machine

Paste your URL in the "SAVE PAGE NOW" field

push the save page button and it will create a paywall-free version of the article while also preserving it for posterity so others can access it for free!

[metalhead-brainrot]

Still one of my favorite ways of distributing art without monetization. And for anyone on the fence: money is just a vector for people to hoard wealth. There's more money than ever in Hollywood, but how artful are the movies?

Old-school torrenting method I'm fond of: rent DVDs from your local library (I guess those of you who still have them), rip the files to a hard drive, then return the DVDs. I like MakeMKV for this, but there are others. Music is even easier, you just download that shit lickity-split.

o()xxxx[:::::::::::::::::> o()xxxx[:::::::::::::::::> o()xxxx[:::::::::::::::::>

Wealth hoarding coalitions (i.e. corporations) claim to own the intangible: "intellectual property." They buy and sell the rights to display art which can be shared infinitely. Such a claim is like trying to bottle the wind, a myth of scarcity.

We're left clinging to old, wasteful technology because much of the internet has been bought and sold... but this is a tremendous waste of potential, and one reason I remain optimistic about the revolution: we've evolved past the means of 20th century control systems.

We're about a quarter of the way into the 21st century. Trust me, if the wealthy could truly shield you from consuming art/entertainment for free, they would. It simply isn't feasible.

Is it even possible to govern a people with such limitless communication? Will the internet make the economy obsolete?

RB if you think CD drives in computers are not obsolete, but in fact still necessary, despite being artificially phased out

[artarchangel333]

MASSIVE UPDATE TO THE TAKE DOWN ACT

THE FINAL HOUSE VOTE ON THIS BILL WILL HAPPEN EARLY NEXT WEEK

THE BILL ALREADY PASSED THE SENATE AND HOUSE COMMITTEE. THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IS OUR ONLY BLOCKADE AGAINST THIS BILL

Please call the following House co-sponsor numbers

Rep. Cuellar, Henry [D-TX-28]

Rep. Craig, Angie [D-MN-2]

Rep. McBride, Sarah [D-DE-]

Rep. Carbajal, Salud O. [D-CA-24]

Rep. Suozzi, Thomas R. [D-NY-3]

Rep. Lee, Susie [D-NV-3]

Rep. Costa, Jim [D-CA-21]

Del. Plaskett, Stacey E. [D-VI]

Rep. Dingell, Debbie [D-MI-6]

Rep. Dean, Madeleine [D-PA-4]

To remind you of how high the stakes are:

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WANTS TO MAKE IT EASIER TO SILENCE CRITICS AND ANYTHING NOT PART OF THE MAGA AGENDA.

PLEASE CALL YOUR DESIGNATED HOUSE REP AND THESE CO-SPONSORS

REMIND THEM THAT THIS BILL WILL NOT ONLY BREACH FREE SPEECH BUT ALSO RUIN THEIR CHANCES OF RE-ELECTION

[9fruit]

Started using phone time to read library ebooks instead of scrolling and it’s made me back into the crazy voracious reader I was at age 12. i’ve been averaging a book a day this week. everyone delete your social media and get your ass on libby

[metalhead-brainrot]

Quick addendum: you can do more specific date filters. The general format is either before:YYYY-MM-DD or after:YYYY-MM-DD.

An example: let's say I wanted to find a specific Reddit post I read a few months ago. I would probably google some general keywords (e.g. "Neopets"), the site I knew it was on (e.g. "site:reddit.com/r/hobbydrama"), and some date filters (e.g. "after:2024-01-01 before:2024-03-01").

Hey all, you know how internet searches suck now? When the results are awful, full-of-AI, death-of-the-internet levels of bad?

Start appending date constraints to your searches - "before:2023".

My results have gone from 90% AI bullshit to ~60% usable - which frankly at this point is a huge improvement.

[gibbearish]

love when ppl defend the aggressive monetization of the internet with "what, do you just expect it to be free and them not make a profit???" like. yeah that would be really nice actually i would love that:)! thanks for asking

[procrastiel]

Nerd brain activated:

Please also note that Google has long stopped showing users “all” results, most of the terms you’re searching for will bring up roughly 20-40 pages and that’s it. They’re telling you on the first page how many quadrillions of results you got and show you exactly 100 websites, if that, because most of them duplicate in the following result pages.

We are being brainwashed without knowing at this point, please keep it in mind (and/or try it for yourself next time)

I’m sorry friends, but “just google it” is no longer viable advice. What are we even telling people to do anymore, go try to google useful info and the first three pages are just ads for products that might be the exact opposite of what the person is trying to find but The Algorithm thinks the words are related enough? And if it’s not ads it’s just sponsored websites filled with listicles, just pages and pages of “TOP FIFTEEN [thing you googled] IMAGINED AS DISNEY PRINCESSES” like… what are we even doing anymore, google? I can no longer use you as shorthand for people doing real and actual helpful research on their own.

[occudo]

A fish out of water story I just remembered last year I did some siren!jon and selkie!martin, so here is some more of them, for the end of May

[blackpearlblast]

a video call for help from @haya-orouq19 who is in gaza

[Transcript: Please don't scroll if you want to help a family in Gaza. Hey everyone, this is Haya Orouq, I am 18 years old from Gaza City. Today is the 167th day of the war in Gaza City. And through this war we lost our house, my university was bombed. My whole childhood neighborhood area was completely damaged. We have been displaced to three different places in search of a safer place but unfortunately there's no safer place in Gaza. Everywhere there's bombing, everywhere is dangerous, so we are now displaced in Deir al-Balah. And me and my family lost everything, we have nothing left here in Gaza.

And my mom is very sick also, she is suffering from Lupus and because she has Lupus, she is a kidney failure patient in need of an urgent treatment and care outside of Gaza. The hospitals here is so poor and bad and the quality of her treatment is getting worse and worse because the quality of the hospitals is bad, because of the conditions of the war. So please guys, help my family, we deserve to- we deserve a decent life, we deserve to start a new beginning and deserve a new life.

So, here's the link in the bio and you can help me by sharing the video, repost, comment, like, whatever you can do can help. Every one dollar can make a difference. You can make life-changing difference to my family, you can save my family, you can save my mom. I am also trying to reach out to as many celebrities who are interested in helping people like me by making videos about the family that needs help in Gaza, like me. So I will mention them in the comment and please go to them, ask them to share my videos, and to make a video about my campaign and ask them to share my link. This is so urgent, I need your help guys because my account is prevented from receiving and sending messages so I can't reach out with them. I will mention them so please help me, and help my family.

I can't bear seeing my mom struggling with death because she has a dangerous disease which is Lupus and she is a kidney failure patient and I can't bear seeing my older sister suffering from hunger. So please guys, you can do it and please make #HelpHayasFamily. Share this video, whatever you can do can help. You can share the link as widely as possible, you can share the video. End of transcript.]

you can donate to her campaign here!

[elhopper1sm]

If you wanna protect AO3 or character ai. Or Wattpad. Or Tumblr. Or discord. Or even the right for undocumented people and minors to use the fucking Internet reblog this I swear to God. Reblog this and reblog as many KOSA posts as you can go on their website and contact your Representatives. Do it. Do it. Do it.