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European Leaders Find Backdoor Way To Ban Porn on Social Media

Rules for age verification extend beyond porn sites.As a means to prevent children from seeing adult material, U.S. activists have advocated for age verification requirements on porn websites. Another reason to be cautious about this plan is the way it’s being implemented in Europe.

Officials from the United Kingdom and Germany have stated that the age verification rules were not intended to apply only to Pornhub. However, social media platforms that enable racy material are also included. These companies could opt to ban explicit content from creators and not institute age verification across the platform.

This is already taking place in Germany.

“Twitter is now“Blocking the profiles of German adult content creators since late 2020 with at least 60 affected accounts to date”, noted WiredThis week. “The move comes in response to a series of legal orders by German regulators that have ruled that online pornography should not be visible to children and must be hidden behind age-verification systems.…The exact number of accounts blocked in this way is unknown.”

Twitter users can see these accounts from any country. Germans who want to see their accounts receive a message telling them that they have been blocked due to legal demands.

Twitter has “blocked porn profiles of German users” after legal proceedings were initiated. Marc Jan Eumann (chairman of Germany’s Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media), stated that they were the first European authority to do this and will continue doing so. Wired.

Paulita Paappel (founder of the European Branch of the Free Speech Coalition, an adult industry group against censure) was interviewed by the magazine. She stated that German regulators “use the protection of minors to push for very conservative policies to bring down not only porn companies but smaller sex workers as well as content creators.”

Twitter has already established policies to restrict the visibility of inappropriate content from underage users. It is impossible for anyone to see the content in Germany because of these policies.

It is possible that the U.K. will follow Germany’s example. British leaders have been pushing for this since the abandonment of a porn-age verification program a few decades ago. This is part of an overall online safety bill. Officials have also confirmed it will be applicable to all social media sites like Reddit and Twitter that permit adult content.

“Ministers confirmed this Week that social media sites which contain large amounts of pornographic material (e.g. Reddit or Twitter) would have to also work within the same age-verification rules and guidelines as websites with adult content.” The Guardian reported last Sunday. The sites would need to either remove any adult material found in the UK or implement age verification to ensure that the users do not exceed 18 years of age.

Mariano delli Santi, Open Rights Group said that while the government claims this is about porn sites, the Open Rights Group proposes a generalised duty for internet users to check their age when visiting websites or services that contain user-generated content. The Guardian. “This includes not only pornographic web sites, but also search engines. Social medias. Blogs. And almost everything else on the internet, as we know it.”

“Censors DO CONSISTENTLY lie about the intentions of their subjects.” commentedGustavo Turner (news editor) for XBIZ’s adult entertainment publication, can be found on Twitter. They say they want “to prevent children being harmed” but in reality, “sexual and LGBTQ+ expressions get deplatformed.”

Turner stated that “Eradicating the adult content on open platforms is one of their core objectives. This was in response to the War on Porn.” He wrote about the U.K’s age verification plans on XBIZ.


FREE MINDS

Elon Musk claims that the Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to silence his speechThe settlement agreement was reached in connection to the civil securities cases against Tesla CEO. Musk was charged for making misleading and false statements in tweets claiming he was considering taking Tesla private. He and Tesla were fined $20 million each. Musk was also required to temporarily resign as chairman of the company. Tesla must monitor Musk’s statements.

The SEC now wants to know more about Tesla in order to determine if they have adhered with the settlement agreement. Alex Spiro, Musk’s lawyer says it’s excessive.

Spiro claimed in a court filing that the SEC appears to have targeted Mr. Musk, Tesla and for an unrelenting investigation because Mr. Musk is still an outspoken critic. The SEC seems to have made outsized efforts to intimidate Musk’s exercise of First Amendment rights, rather than enforce the generally applicable laws in an evenhanded manner.


FREE MARKETS

The Justice Department investigates corporate profits.“Elizabeth Warren’s absurd theories that corporate greed drives inflation have been accepted by federal law enforcement.” There are reasonsEric Boehm of NBC News reports

The department released a statement saying that its antitrust unit would “deter and detect” those who exploit supply-chain disruptions to make what it calls an “illicit profit.” According to the department’s press release, the goal is to stop companies “overcharging customers under cover of supply chain disruptions.”

The problem, of course, is that the supply chain disruptions are quite real—and inflation across the economy is the result of both those large-scale issues and government actions, including last year’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill and protectionist policies. To the extent that private companies are raising prices, those things are the likely culprits—and higher prices are the market’s way of allocating scarce goods most efficiently, not evidence of price gouging.

Scott Lincicome is the director of economics for Cato Institute. He says that the FBI and DOJ would prefer to launch an investigation into ‘illicit supply chain profiteering rather than admit the inevitable results of decades of protectionism and regulatory sclerosis.

Anyone thinking that an increase in antitrust actions would harm tech companies only is beginning to be rudely awakened.


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