I am setting up this blog to address a number of technical and legal issues that, over the long run, can affect the freedom of media newbies like me to speak freely on the Internet and other low-cost media that have developed in the past ten years.
Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!
Senate passes FOSTA as is; CDA230 erosion begins; unclear how tech platforms will react at first
At mid afternoon today, the Senate passed the FOSTA-SESTA
bill presented here, without alteration, 97-2, despite passionate floor remarks
from Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR). Here’s a typical story on “The Hill” by Harper
Neidig.Congress seems unconcerned about the “frivolous
lawsuit” problem. One of the biggest problems for any provider content moderation (especially without Wyden's amendment) would be "meta-speech" where filters cannot detect whether speech is "about" prostitution or actually trying to sell it. It's also not clear if "websites" are handled differently from social media platforms or hosting providers.
The passage occurred on a snowy day when reporters
were distracted by Facebook’s problems with Cambridge-Analytica, and with Mark
Zuckerberg’s later (linked earlier today) and interview on CNN tonight.Actually, the problems are interrelated. I’d love to hear CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin talk
about the Backpage problems and their contagion, in addition to Zuckerberg,
Trump, Putin, and Stormy Daniels.And, by
the way, despite the “#DeleteFacebook” movement, I haven’t lost any “friends”
today yet. '
The combination of erosion of downstream liability protections
and questions about misuse of user data will create serious sustainability business
model problems for many tech platforms. Update: Here is my own policy statement on what actions I am taking now with comments on my sites.
Update: April 13 Trump has officially signed FOSTA (as of April 11). I thought it had already been signed in late March. So we may not yet know how all providers will react. Elliot Harmon writes on EFFthat Section 230 does not require platforms to be neutral (in response to some of the questions at the Zuckerberg hearings).
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