reclaimthenet
Reclaim The Net

Free expression. Digital rights. Privacy. Media bias. News and solutions.

Public Key

npub1ukq58aunujlcqkjd7mxuq2y7x54neuy20vlx474038w5j7ls7jnq3qs4c6

NIP-05 Address

Profile Code

nprofile1qqswtq2r77f7f0uqtfxldnwq9z0r22eu7z98k0n2l2hcnh2f00c0ffspzfmhxue69uhhwmm59e6hg7r09ehkuegpz4mhxue69uhkummnw3ex2mrfw3jhxtn0wfnswszac3

Publishing to

wot.utxo.one

nostrelites.org

wot.nostr.party

relay.bitcoinpark.com

sendit.nosflare.com

Author Public Key

npub1ukq58aunujlcqkjd7mxuq2y7x54neuy20vlx474038w5j7ls7jnq3qs4c6

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-10-10 00:51:19 UTC

Apple chairman Tim Cook is backing the EU KIDS Act, which would bring app stores and operating systems into scope for age verification.
Age verification means identity verification. Under the KIDS Act, that check would happen at the device level, before anyone downloads an app.
Cook discussed the proposal with Ursula von der Leyen in New York. This week he told Roberta Metsola and MEPs that Apple was “very encouraged” by it. He also reportedly called Australia’s age verification rules “world-leading.”
The EU’s own age verification app was hacked in under two minutes in April, with scanned ID documents stored unencrypted.
https://reclaimthenet.org/tim-cook-backs-eu-kids-act-age-verification

2026-10-09 19:42:06 UTC

Aaron Sorkin directed his own Facebook movie so it would come out just before the midterms. Its hero is Frances Haugen, who campaigned for higher social media age limits and praised the UK's online censorship law.
The film arrives as age verification digital ID checks spread everywhere. Meta has agreed to ID check or face scan every Facebook and Instagram user in 51 states and territories. Florida wants every user in the state age-checked within 30 days. The EU wants a state-certified credential before anyone can open a social media account.
Hollywood is selling the story while governments write the laws. Sorkin has made a two-hour advert for speech control and the ID checks it thinks you should need to access social media...
https://reclaimthenet.org/the-social-reckoning-wants-the-speech-referees-back

2026-10-08 20:18:13 UTC

Florida’s attorney general is asking a court to make Meta verify the age of every Facebook and Instagram user in the state. Accounts of under-14s that fail to verify within 30 days get marked for deletion.
The motion goes further. It wants teen accounts to be subjected to a state-enforced lock-in to quiet mode from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. year-round, and during school hours on weekdays. It wants like counts hidden, autoplay and infinite scroll switched off, and a cap of 60 hours a month.
Last week it also asked a court to order OpenAI to build age verification for ChatGPT.
You cannot check teenagers without checking everyone. Every adult in Florida would have to hand over ID or a face scan to keep using these platforms and have access to speech.
https://reclaimthenet.org/florida-seeks-meta-age-checks-for-all-users

2026-10-08 17:38:00 UTC

A French mayor wants to cut minors off from social media whenever the streets get tense. France’s highest administrative court already ruled that blocking TikTok in New Caledonia was illegal. The Constitutional Council struck down the under-15 ban in August as disproportionate. Every time France has trouble (which is often) someone reaches for the off switch.
https://reclaimthenet.org/france-mayor-calls-to-cut-minors-social-media-access

2026-10-08 15:24:50 UTC

Google is challenging a Las Vegas police warrant that demands the identity of everyone who searched a set of keywords. The case involves the July killing of a homeless woman. The keywords, the number of people affected, and most other details are sealed.
Google calls it an illegal general warrant and says it is facially invalid under federal and state constitutional provisions.
The filing also revealed that Las Vegas and Henderson police have served Google with numerous reverse search warrants before. A gag order barred Google from telling the public for months.
Nevada has no law on reverse search warrants. No federal appellate court has ruled on whether keyword searches count as a search at all.
The first hearing is set for late October.
https://reclaimthenet.org/google-challenges-las-vegas-keyword-search-warrant

2026-10-07 19:45:26 UTC

A federal judge in Oklahoma has ruled that a sheriff's deputy violated the Fourth Amendment by searching license plate reader databases without a warrant.
The deputy was parked by the highway when a Mazda SUV with California plates drove past. Judge Sara Hill said he followed it "for no apparent reason other than the fact that it had a California license plate." Before he pulled the driver over, he ran the plate through Flock and VehicleManager.
That search gave him more than 50 records of her movements across the country over a single month. He then used them to help justify searching her car, which turned up about 91 pounds of methamphetamine.
Hill suppressed all of it. She called the technology "a type of indiscriminate mass surveillance" and a "dragnet type law enforcement practice." She also wrote that people have no reasonable expectation of privacy on a public road, but that plate readers become "constitutionally problematic" when police can "indiscriminately and passively catalog your whereabouts over an extended period of time."
Other courts disagree. The Fifth Circuit ruled in March that periodic sightings of a car were not a search. A California federal court ruled that looking at eight photos of a car was not a search either.
https://reclaimthenet.org/license-plate-readers-mass-surveillance-ruling

2026-10-07 16:38:19 UTC

A French court may fine Quad9 €580,000 for refusing to block pirate sites, and the Swiss privacy DNS resolver is now weighing a full exit from France.
beIN Sports wants €10,000 per day per domain across 58 domains. Quad9 says it has no legally useful way to tell who is a French user, so it can't block just them. Blocking for everyone would hand French courts jurisdiction over the whole internet.
OpenDNS already left France in 2024 over a similar order. Jurisdiction-specific blocking orders could push smaller and non-profit resolvers out of the market.
https://reclaimthenet.org/quad9-considers-leaving-france-over-website-blocking-order

2026-10-06 23:37:10 UTC

A New Mexico jury found Meta liable for 43.9 million violations of the state's Unfair Practices Act. The state wants $35 to $40 billion.
About a quarter of those violations are for not removing "hate speech" and "misinformation" fast enough.
The state did not have to show anyone saw the statements or was harmed. It only had to show harm was likely. Then it multiplied the violations by the number of people in New Mexico.
Meta says it has a First Amendment right to manage its platforms as it sees fit. Fining a company for slow takedowns of lawful speech is pressure to take down more of it.
Remove faster, remove more, or pay by the head...
https://reclaimthenet.org/new-mexico-meta-fined-speech-violations

2026-10-06 20:00:56 UTC

Speech Police UK: Four West Midlands officers turned up at the home of a 15-year-old, arrested him, and took his phone and laptop.
His offense was a set of Facebook posts about Conservative councillor Simon Bennett. One complained about shorts and sneakers at a scrutiny committee. Another had rabbit ears Photoshopped onto the councillor's photo. The boy was questioned, bailed, and banned from attending council meetings in Wolverhampton.
Police have not explained why it took four officers or why any turned up at all.
The Free Speech Union says there was plainly no offense and plans to sue for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment. The councillor says the police thought it merited an arrest. Police then wonder why public trust keeps falling.
https://reclaimthenet.org/uk-police-arrest-teenager-over-councillor-mocking-posts

2026-10-06 14:44:37 UTC

Minnesota passed a law that bans AI from making fake nudes of real people. Many support the law. But look at how the law is written. It exempts any tool that requires "technical skill." So if you paint the image by hand, you are fine. If you ask an AI to make the same image, you owe up to $500,000 per violation.
The law also covers shirtless men and swimmers. It has no exception for art, satire, journalism, or politics. It applies even when the person in the image said yes to it being made.
Now the Eighth Circuit has blocked it for xAI while the appeal plays out.
https://reclaimthenet.org/minnesota-nudification-law-xai-first-amendment

2026-10-05 22:50:05 UTC

The UK government wants a passport, a driving license or a face scan before you can open a new social media account. This is the same country that arrests people over tweets. Britain has jailed people for what they posted online and now the state wants to know exactly who is behind every account before the first post goes up.
The ban covers Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and X, and it is expected to start in spring 2027.
Discord already leaked government IDs after it introduced age checks. There is no reliable, privacy-preserving way to verify the age of every internet user. A pile of faces and passports linked to social media accounts is a gift to a government that prosecutes speech.
https://reclaimthenet.org/uk-social-media-passport-facial-age-checks

2026-10-05 17:01:57 UTC

British Transport Police scanned the faces of 537,697 people at London railway stations over six months. The trial produced one alert, and that alert was false. It cost £320,786 ($424,000)
The police responded by extending the trial by four months and expanding the area. Since then, 926,912 people have been scanned in total. The system has made only three correct identifications, and every one of them ended with no action. The arrest column still reads zero.
The watchlist, meanwhile, has grown from 381 names to 862. Transport for London welcomed the expansion and said it would tackle violence against women and girls.
More than half of the police forces in England and Wales now scan faces in public, and every failed trial is treated as a reason to scan more of them.
https://reclaimthenet.org/british-transport-police-facial-recognition-zero-arrests

2026-10-04 23:35:42 UTC

The music industry has asked the EU to add yt-dlp, an open source video downloader, to its Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List. IFPI's submission even names the volunteer developers who maintain it. It also wants Cloudflare, GoDaddy and Verisign on the list, because apparently the company running .com is now a piracy concern.
LaLiga has gone after NordVPN, ProtonVPN, ExpressVPN and Surfshark over affiliate blogs it never names or links to. A Spanish court already threw out its last attempt to fine NordVPN.
The Commission insists the list makes no findings of legal violations. It just tells the world which lawful tools the entertainment industry would like to see gone...
https://reclaimthenet.org/eu-piracy-watch-list-targets-yt-dlp-vpn

2026-10-04 17:28:09 UTC

Emmanuel Macron says American free speech is "the opposite of free speech." In his view, freedom only exists inside a "common framework" set by the state.
He compared posting an insult online to hitting someone in the street. Those are different things, because one is speech and the other is violence.
He wants people punished for posting "nonsense," with state-backed fact-checkers deciding what qualifies. He wants a verified identity behind every social media account. He has written to Ursula von der Leyen demanding the DSA be enforced "much faster, much more forcefully."
https://reclaimthenet.org/macron-urges-eu-faster-online-censorship

2026-10-04 17:27:52 UTC

2026-10-03 23:53:01 UTC

Google's Android developer ID requirement is now live. Apps from unregistered developers are blocked on certified Android devices in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. The rule goes global in 2027.
To register, developers hand Google a government ID, their legal name, address, email, and phone number. They also pay $25. This applies even if the app never touches Google Play.
Google says sideloading isn't going anywhere. F-Droid called that claim "clear, concise, and false." Users who want an unverified app now face ten steps, developer mode, several warning screens, and a 24 hour wait.
Google is clearly putting the squeeze on Android's openness.
https://reclaimthenet.org/google-android-developer-id-rules-brazil-indonesia-singapore

2026-10-03 19:31:59 UTC

A body linked to the UK Home Office has been keeping files on people who criticize government programs online.
Between March 2024 and February 2025, the Prevent Standards and Compliance Unit logged 77 "observations" of critics. Most came from X, and some came from Reddit. Posts from or about groups like Hope Not Hate and Open Rights Group were also included.
The entries were filed as "open-source complaints" and stored internally. The unit also tried to independently verify the claims made in them.
The Home Office refused to release any of this. Rights & Security International won an appeal to the Information Commissioner's Office, and only then did the documents come out.
Nobody knows whether automated tools found the posts. Nobody knows who the data gets shared with. You should be able to criticize government policy without ending up in a file.
https://reclaimthenet.org/uk-prevent-unit-tracked-online-critics

2026-10-03 13:47:00 UTC

India has now pulled BitChat from its App Store through Apple.
BitChat works over Bluetooth with no internet, no phone number and no account. That is exactly why Delhi wants it gone. In July the government shut down the network around Jantar Mantar, and protesters used BitChat to keep talking.
The government has now gone after the network, then the code on GitHub, and now the app store. Each step has been aimed at the same target, which is leaving people with no way to communicate when the internet is cut off.
Apple's notice says the app "includes content that is illegal in India" and never names any content. Apple simply complied.
https://reclaimthenet.org/apple-removes-bitchat-india-government-request

2026-10-02 22:59:35 UTC

Reddit says it is ending RSS because scrapers abuse it. Reddit also licenses that same data for money.
Reddit is killing RSS on November 13, the public API in March 2027, and old Reddit now needs a login. Its non-ad revenue grew 24 percent to $43 million. Money is not the problem. The open web is just harder to sell than a licensing deal.
Reddit is not protecting the open web from scrapers. It is selling the open web to them, and everyone with a feed reader gets locked out of the sale.
https://reclaimthenet.org/reddit-is-ending-rss-support-citing-scraping-and-abuse

2026-10-02 14:50:04 UTC

Wyoming Committee Advances Bill Against Foreign Censorship Enforcement
https://reclaimthenet.org/wyoming-bill-blocks-foreign-censorship-enforcement

2026-10-01 21:56:39 UTC

AUSTRALIA: NSW police can now demand your phone and your password, and the state just handed them A$15 million to crack whatever they can't talk you out of.
The same bill turns your driver’s license photo into a national biometric record. Toll cameras may now photograph the driver and every passenger, including children.
The government's own scrutiny committee warned the bill gives officials too much discretion over people's privacy. Parliament passed it anyway.
https://reclaimthenet.org/nsw-driver-license-photos-national-biometric-database

2026-10-01 17:21:47 UTC

Rand Paul just blocked the Senate from passing KOSA by unanimous consent. It was the fourth attempt in four years.
The Senate bill never says "age verification." It says platforms must prevent harms to minors and can be held liable if a reasonable person would have known a user was a minor. The only safe way to avoid that liability is to check everyone.
The House version skips the guessing. It requires age verification for every user, and it passed 267 to 117.
The Senate bill also orders a study on verifying age at the device or operating system level. Meta dropped its opposition once the bill was paired with a federal ban on state AI laws and a digital ID push.
Both versions lead to the same place, which is an ID check for the whole internet.
https://reclaimthenet.org/rand-paul-blocks-kosa-fast-track-approval

2026-10-01 14:48:11 UTC

Age verification (digital ID) laws are spreading fast and most people have no idea what's already on the books near them.
We mapped every bill, state by state.
See what's passed, what's pending, and who wants to introduce ID checks for internet access.
We also have a global map so you can see the threats all around the world and map the co-ordinated effort to end privacy online...
https://reclaimthenet.org/age-verification-map https://blossom.primal.net/3748f7e47c41d212ce5a4b54148a8c29de2a9e3291f73722d9b9e86d67acf459.jpg

2026-09-30 22:48:24 UTC

Florida's Attorney General has asked a court to order OpenAI to install "a robust and effective age verification system" on ChatGPT.
The motion also wants a say over how future AI models are built and how the company talks about its own product.
The stated goal is protecting children. The actual outcome is that every adult who wants to use a chatbot has to prove who they are first. OpenAI is unlikely to put up much of a fight. It already responded to pressure and has been building systems that guess your age by tracking how you behave...
https://reclaimthenet.org/florida-seeks-court-order-requiring-age-verification-for-chatgpt

2026-09-30 18:24:08 UTC

Senate GRANITE Act Targets Foreign Censorship Demands
https://reclaimthenet.org/granite-act-targets-foreign-censorship-demands

2026-09-30 15:42:28 UTC

Thirty Leaders Want a Global Referee for AI
https://reclaimthenet.org/thirty-leaders-want-a-global-referee-for-ai

2026-09-29 18:46:42 UTC

Alabama just settled its lawsuit against TikTok, days before the first state jury trial against the platform was due to start.
The deal is sold as protection for teenagers. There is a two-hour daily cap, a curfew from midnight to 6 a.m., pop-up interruptions after 15 minutes, and a ban on beauty filters.
None of that works unless TikTok knows who is a teenager. So the settlement requires "robust age assurance," and it applies to everyone. Every adult in Alabama who opens the app is now in line for an age check.
The Attorney General calls it a great day for parents. It is also a great day for anyone who wanted ID checks on social media without having to pass a law...
https://reclaimthenet.org/tiktok-alabama-age-verification-settlement

2026-09-28 23:44:38 UTC

Bernie Sanders’ AI Bill Turns Software Into a State Permission
https://reclaimthenet.org/bernie-sanders-ai-licensing-bill

2026-09-28 14:56:43 UTC

Senator Chris Murphy Wants Government to Regulate Your Time Online
https://reclaimthenet.org/chris-murphy-government-internet-regulation

2026-09-27 16:22:57 UTC

Washington Challenges Brussels’ Authority Over X
https://reclaimthenet.org/washington-challenges-brussels-authority-over-x

2026-09-26 23:21:55 UTC

Utah Court Blocks Key Provision of State Age Verification and VPN Law
https://reclaimthenet.org/utah-court-blocks-key-provision-of-state-age-verification-and-vpn-law

2026-09-26 01:25:08 UTC

Newsom Wants an AI Kill Switch. Who Gets the Keys?
https://reclaimthenet.org/newsom-wants-an-ai-kill-switch-who-gets-the-keys

2026-09-25 18:58:37 UTC

At the Clinton Global Initiative, “AI Safety” Comes for Open Source
https://reclaimthenet.org/hugging-face-open-source-ai-defends-against-openai-attack

2026-09-25 15:37:18 UTC

Von der Leyen is pushing under-13 social media bans and restricted accounts for under-15s. Macron wants AI brought into the same system. Spain is already tying age verification to the EU digital ID. Australia has gone to under-16.
The rules differ, but the direction is the same: digital ID becomes the plumbing for proving who you are before you can use more of the internet.
https://reclaimthenet.org/world-leaders-global-internet-age-verification-controls

2026-09-24 23:19:03 UTC

New York’s AI law is starting to look less like basic safety regulation and more like an ongoing system of state control.
Hochul has already gone after social media algorithms, backing laws that restrict how platforms can serve algorithmic feeds to those who haven't shown digital ID.
AI developers will have to register with the state, publish safety protocols, report incidents and provide regular disclosures. A new state office will oversee compliance, and Hochul says New York may eventually explore AI “kill switches.”
The state wants registration, recurring disclosures, mandatory incident reports, fees, a new enforcement bureaucracy and Hochul is already talking about possible AI “kill switches.”
Call it safety if you want. It’s also a major expansion of government control over how AI companies operate.
https://reclaimthenet.org/kathy-hochul-wants-more-control-over-ai

2026-09-24 16:12:37 UTC

Court Rules Your Phone Is Fair Game at the US Border
https://reclaimthenet.org/border-phone-searches-need-no-warrant

2026-09-23 17:40:46 UTC

Hopefully, governments forcing people to show ID just to get online might end up being the biggest push towards open source and decentralization we’ve seen.
People will just host their own instances with no third party to hand your ID to, or a company deciding whether you’re allowed to speak.
The more they try to control this stuff, the more reason people have to build things they can’t control.

2026-09-23 15:46:41 UTC

California is laying the groundwork for an AI “kill switch.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom just signed an executive order accelerating plans for AI oversight, including proposals that could require frontier AI labs to install independently verified kill switches and put outside auditors inside their labs.
By 2027, California plans to have an official registry of approved AI auditors.
It echoes a familiar debate around online speech: controls introduced in the name of “safety” can also create powerful new gatekeepers with authority over what people can build, publish, and access.
https://reclaimthenet.org/newsom-wants-an-ai-kill-switch-who-gets-the-keys

2026-09-22 20:25:05 UTC

A federal court says cops can search license plate camera databases without it counting as a Fourth Amendment search.
The reasoning here is basically that 8 photos isn’t enough to build a detailed picture of someone’s movements.
But Culver City’s cameras collect 18 million photos a month, and there’s no way to opt out.
https://reclaimthenet.org/alpr-queries-not-fourth-amendment-searches

2026-09-20 22:16:01 UTC

As if the downward slide of the state of free speech in the UK wasn't moving fast enough, now there’s a proposal that would make government permission a condition of operating a social media platform.
No Ofcom license = No platform.
A new Private Member’s Bill would let speech regulator Ofcom license social media platforms, impose conditions, demand action against “materially harmful” or “false or misleading” content, and revoke the license.
And here’s where the free speech implications get serious: the same regulator issuing the license would wield enormous power over what platforms are expected to restrict or remove.
Lose the license and a court could order ISPs to block the platform across the UK.
Operate without one? Up to 2 years in prison.
This has only had its first reading and is not law. But the idea is now formally on the table: social media platforms needing a government regulator’s permission to operate in Britain.
https://reclaimthenet.org/uk-social-media-ofcom-licensing-bill-heres-lords

2026-09-20 01:53:46 UTC

The UK is pushing surveillance to an extreme, targeting encryption through secret orders while keeping the public in the dark.
The UK government won’t confirm or deny ordering Apple to secretly backdoor iCloud, even though the order has been publicly reported, officials have effectively acknowledged it, and Apple is fighting it in court.
Now a lawyer has called the secrecy stance “farcical.”
https://reclaimthenet.org/uk-governments-apple-icloud-backdoor-secrecy-called-farcical-in-court

2026-09-19 16:48:54 UTC

Spain Orders Blocks On Archive Today And Its Mirrors
https://reclaimthenet.org/spain-blocks-archive-today-and-mirrors

2026-09-17 23:16:24 UTC

EU’s Social Media Ban Could Bring ID Checks for Adults
https://reclaimthenet.org/eus-social-media-ban-could-bring-id-checks-for-adults

2026-09-16 23:15:55 UTC

Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz wants to end online anonymity.
Asked what a real-name mandate would mean for whistleblowers and investigative journalists, he didn’t address the journalism question.
Instead he said: “Please, nobody come to me with 'free speech.'”
https://reclaimthenet.org/merz-end-online-anonymity-real-names

2026-09-15 18:53:46 UTC

German customs made account cloning a permanent surveillance tool in August 2025, a leaked directive shows. It lets investigators read messenger chats without installing spyware. The government refused to tell a lawmaker how often it was used, even confidentially.
https://reclaimthenet.org/german-customs-made-secret-messenger-surveillance-permanent

2026-09-14 17:36:39 UTC

Australia says its new “Digital Duty of Care” bill is about giving users more control over their feeds.
Ultimately though, it builds the infrastructure for much broader online censorship.
The draft would cover social media, messaging, search, games, app stores, ISPs and AI, with fines up to A$109.2M.
And the government could expand what counts as “harmful” content later.
“More control” for users or more control for the state?
https://reclaimthenet.org/australia-wants-to-remake-the-internet-in-the-name-of-safety

2026-09-13 17:14:38 UTC

Macron’s under-15 social media ban was struck down in France as unconstitutional.
His response is to try to get the EU to impose it across the entire bloc instead.
But you can’t reliably ban under-15s without checking everyone’s age.
So a “kids’ safety” law quickly becomes a digital ID check for every user.
https://reclaimthenet.org/macron-eu-under-15-social-media-ban

2026-09-12 23:15:44 UTC

Revolut didn’t get “hacked.”
It handed customers’ IDs, addresses, account numbers, transaction histories, selfies and more to an unauthorized third party after receiving a fake government request.
That’s the real KYC problem: once companies are forced to collect your most sensitive data, you’re trusting them to protect it for years.
More ID checks = more leaks.
Yet, governments are constantly pushing for more ID checks to access basic aspects of daily life, like social media...
https://reclaimthenet.org/revolut-leak-shows-the-cost-of-constant-id-collection

2026-09-11 20:12:11 UTC

Australia’s censorship creep just found a new target: parliamentary scrutiny.
Top bureaucrats now want limits on MPs posting clips of officials testifying at PUBLIC hearings, including restrictions on edits, captions, even comments.
In other words: “You can scrutinize us. Just don’t let the public see it.”
https://reclaimthenet.org/australia-parliament-social-media-evidence-restrictions

2026-09-11 15:41:17 UTC

California just made age verification the price of using basic internet features.
Under new laws signed by Gavin Newsom, adults may have to prove they’re adults to unlock personalized feeds, autoplay, and unrestricted AI chatbots.
“Protect the children” is becoming “verify everyone.”
https://reclaimthenet.org/california-age-verification-laws-internet-gates

2026-09-04 17:09:51 UTC

New Hampshire State Rep. @cantbesilentcal has filed a proposal for a New Hampshire GRANITE Act...a bill that would bar state courts, agencies, and officials from helping enforce foreign censorship orders against speech protected in the US.
If enacted, foreign governments could still act within their own jurisdictions, but they wouldn’t be able to use New Hampshire’s legal machinery to enforce censorship judgments, fines, or demands targeting constitutionally protected speech.
The proposal is part of a bigger push for similar “foreign censorship shield” laws in states including Wyoming and West Virginia, alongside a federal GRANITE Act in Congress.
Beaulier’s wants to make New Hampshire a “granite fortress of free speech.”
https://reclaimthenet.org/new-hampshire-granite-act-shields-protected-speech

2026-09-03 15:30:49 UTC

Tennessee’s social media "age-check" digital ID law just got knocked back.
The Sixth Circuit tossed the lower court’s ruling and sent the case back, saying the threat of enforcement can itself chill speech.
It's not over yet, but it's a real setback for the law.
https://reclaimthenet.org/sixth-circuit-reopens-tennessee-digital-id-challenge

2026-09-02 20:05:40 UTC

Governments keep pushing ID checks everywhere, and now 153M+ driver’s license scans are being sold on the dark web.
Maybe laws forcing ID checks aren't such a great idea...🙄
https://reclaimthenet.org/idscan-net-breach-exposes-millions-id-documents

2026-09-01 19:47:50 UTC

Missouri Online ID Law Requires Adults to Verify Their Age Online
https://reclaimthenet.org/missouri-online-id-law-requires-adults-to-verify-their-age-online

2026-08-30 17:22:59 UTC

Pennsylvania Sues Snapchat Over Lack of Age Verification
https://reclaimthenet.org/pennsylvania-sues-snapchat-over-age-verification

2026-08-30 00:58:51 UTC

Federal GRANITE Act Targets Foreign Censorship Orders in US
https://reclaimthenet.org/granite-act-targets-foreign-censorship-orders

2026-08-29 18:41:15 UTC

Brazil Wants Discord to Pay $97 Million and Expand Age Verification Digital ID
https://reclaimthenet.org/brazil-sues-discord-over-age-verification

2026-08-29 01:49:44 UTC

Senate Probes Flock Safety Over 20 Billion Vehicle Scans
https://reclaimthenet.org/senate-probes-flock-safety-vehicle-surveillance

2026-08-28 17:24:13 UTC

AG Blanche's Warning Points Straight at Age Verification Checks
https://reclaimthenet.org/todd-blanche-age-verification-warning

2026-08-27 15:41:16 UTC

Ken Paxton's new data center plan would make operators criminally liable if the servers they run "empower AI chatbots that undermine children's safety."
Data centers only provide power, space, and cooling. They don't produce the speech. Punishing them for it pushes liability past Section 230 and onto the hardware.
Faced with criminal liability over a term as vague as "undermine children's safety," operators won't defend anyone. They'll drop the customers and platforms hosting lawful speech rather than risk prison over it.
The platforms that survive will hand users digital ID age verification, because checking everyone's papers is the cheapest way to legally prove no child was ever there.
https://reclaimthenet.org/ken-paxton-data-center-criminal-liability-ai-chatbots-child-safety

2026-08-27 01:35:22 UTC

This is what a bad day for free speech and privacy looks like.
Meta's $17 billion settlement with the states is all over the news today, and almost every story is about teen screen limits and beauty filters.
It feels like barely anyone has read the actual judgment, which requires every adult user to give up their privacy just to get online, orders Meta to get better at surveilling you and linking your accounts together, and Meta has even waived the right to argue any of it is unconstitutional.
https://reclaimthenet.org/the-meta-settlement-what-it-means-for-speech-and-privacy

2026-08-26 16:17:26 UTC

Report: AliExpress Caught Fingerprinting Users Through Hidden Audio
https://reclaimthenet.org/aliexpress-hidden-audio-fingerprinting

2026-08-25 23:59:49 UTC

Court Backs DMCA Takedown of Public Meeting Videos
https://reclaimthenet.org/court-backs-dmca-takedown-public-meeting-videos

2026-08-25 01:01:58 UTC

Newsom Signs Content Takedown Law Following Nick Shirley Investigations
https://reclaimthenet.org/newsom-signs-stop-nick-shirley-act

2026-08-24 16:18:23 UTC

This month, Brazil's data regulator ordered Discord to switch off live video. Discord complied under threat of a R$50 ($9.71) million fine.
Federal prosecutors have now opened an inquiry into its age verification and end-to-end encryption.
Watch the sequence:
Tragedy → emergency feature ban → R$50M fine threat → "just tell us how your encryption works"
A tragic case involving a 13-year-old is becoming the justification for weakening privacy for everyone.
https://reclaimthenet.org/brazil-prosecutors-probe-discord-encryption-age-checks

2026-08-21 22:56:41 UTC

Court: First Amendment Protects Recording Police in Public
https://reclaimthenet.org/second-circuit-first-amendment-right-record-police-public-qualified-immunity

2026-08-21 01:06:18 UTC

Meta Trial Opens as States Demand Age Verification
https://reclaimthenet.org/meta-trial-opens-as-states-demand-age-verification

2026-08-20 20:02:25 UTC

Google Wins Spirit Airlines Data Auction for $10 Million
https://reclaimthenet.org/google-wins-spirit-airlines-data-auction

2026-08-20 16:16:16 UTC

Brazil Regulator Bans Discord Live Video Features
https://reclaimthenet.org/brazil-regulator-bans-discord-live-video-features

2026-08-19 22:23:21 UTC

New Jersey wants to set the hours when an app is allowed to send your child a notification. Nothing between 10pm and 6am, nothing between 8am and 4pm on school days.
Whether a phone can buzz on a Saturday night used to be a question for parents. New Jersey thinks it's a question for the state.
https://reclaimthenet.org/new-jersey-kids-code-act-draws-first-amendment-warning

2026-08-19 15:20:11 UTC

X Wins Australian Case Over Private Message Scanning Rule
https://reclaimthenet.org/x-wins-australian-case-over-private-message-scanning-rule

2026-08-18 21:31:36 UTC

Report: British Groups Push Age Verification Bills in 21 US States
https://reclaimthenet.org/report-british-groups-push-age-verification-bills-in-21-us-states

2026-08-18 14:41:47 UTC

Flock told Norman's council the town would attract criminals if it didn't buy license plate readers. The council voted it down anyway. Then the county sheriff signed a $60,000 renewal for 20 cameras and put them in regardless.
https://reclaimthenet.org/norman-oklahoma-flock-license-plate-readers-county-sheriff

2026-08-17 22:58:29 UTC

California published its proposed rules for proving you're not a child. Among the approved methods: facial analysis, hand-gesture or gait patterns, vocal analysis, or a government ID. That could mean a camera at your face, a microphone at your voice, or uploading a government ID just to speak online. The state is facing a legal challenge.
https://reclaimthenet.org/california-digital-id-age-law-faces-platform-appeal

2026-08-17 14:12:54 UTC

Gallego's new bill tells platforms to take "reasonable steps" to work out which users are children. It never says how. The duty kicks in when a platform "knows or should know" a user is under 16, and there's no way to know that without carding everyone...
https://reclaimthenet.org/ruben-gallego-social-media-bill-gives-ftc-authority-over-age-verification-methods

2026-08-15 15:34:58 UTC

An "elite" UK police squad has spent six months watching social media posts. 106 posts referred to local forces but half of them were in June alone, the month public anger at the police ran hottest. They won't say which posts and they never tell the person they flagged.
https://reclaimthenet.org/britains-elite-speech-monitoring-squad-has-flagged-106-posts

2026-08-14 21:09:34 UTC

France's highest court just killed the under-15 social media ban.
The problem was never the kids. It was that to prove a user isn't 15, every adult in France has to prove they aren't. The Constitutional Council called that a disproportionate hit to free expression with no safeguards for private life.
It was blocked three weeks before it took effect. Macron has already ordered a rewrite.
https://reclaimthenet.org/frances-top-court-kills-the-under-15-social-media-ban

2026-08-13 21:21:59 UTC

From late August, adults in Australia must hand over a face scan or a passport to buy an 18+ game on Xbox. Refuse and your account is locked out.
Australia's under-16 social media ban left 85% of 12 to 15 year olds still logged on. It doesn't stop savvy kids. It just collects data on adults.
https://reclaimthenet.org/xbox-age-checks-hit-australian-adults-buying-18-games

2026-08-13 14:22:27 UTC

Brazil just signed a law that treats using a VPN as an aggravating factor in some crimes, and lets police pull your connection data with no warrant, just a judge notified 48 hours later. At the signing ceremony, the First Lady demanded Discord be taken offline. She holds no office.
https://reclaimthenet.org/brazil-law-makes-vpn-use-an-aggravating-factor

2026-08-12 15:38:23 UTC

South Korea's amended Network Act lets courts punish "false or manipulated information." The law doesn't define what that phrase means. Publishers cannot tell in advance which post is legal, so the safe move is to delete on suspicion. US lawmakers have questions about what that means for American platforms...
https://reclaimthenet.org/america-presses-south-korea-false-info-law

2026-08-11 14:50:49 UTC

Texas Locked a Foreign Company's Domain Over Missing Digital ID Checks
https://reclaimthenet.org/texas-locked-a-foreign-companys-domain-over-missing-digital-id-checks

2026-08-09 18:45:28 UTC

Italy's Draft AI Decree Lets Police Take the Biometrics of Everyone at a Protest
https://reclaimthenet.org/italys-draft-ai-decree-lets-police-take-the-biometrics-of-everyone-at-a-protest

2026-08-09 12:57:37 UTC

Wichita Machinist Sues City to Shut Down Flock License Plate Camera Network
https://reclaimthenet.org/wichita-machinist-sues-city-to-shut-down-flock-license-plate-camera-network

2026-08-08 23:05:12 UTC

Edmonton Police Review Hate Reports on Lawful Speech
https://reclaimthenet.org/edmonton-police-review-hate-reports-on-lawful-speech

2026-08-08 15:15:11 UTC

Tower Dumps Are Unconstitutional, Federal Judge Rules
https://reclaimthenet.org/tower-dumps-are-unconstitutional-federal-judge-rules

2026-08-07 22:16:22 UTC

Meta Fined $567M in Ruling That Points to Digital ID
https://reclaimthenet.org/meta-fined-567m-in-ruling-that-points-to-digital-id

2026-08-06 18:15:20 UTC

Pritzker Signs Law Making Devices Report Every User's Age Bracket to Apps
https://reclaimthenet.org/pritzker-signs-law-making-devices-report-every-users-age-bracket-to-apps

2026-08-06 12:36:54 UTC

Four Kids "Safety" Bills, Supporting Online Digital ID Agenda, Hit Senate Floor
https://reclaimthenet.org/four-kids-safety-bills-supporting-online-digital-id-agenda-hit-senate-floor

2026-08-05 15:18:36 UTC

Google To Expand Play Age Signals API to All Users Worldwide
https://reclaimthenet.org/google-to-expand-play-age-signals-api-to-all-users-worldwide

2026-08-04 23:06:29 UTC

X Warns Australia’s Censor Wants Reach Beyond Australia
https://reclaimthenet.org/x-warns-australias-censor-wants-reach-beyond-australia

2026-08-04 19:24:41 UTC

Senate Bill Would Put Age Checks in Every US Operating System
https://reclaimthenet.org/senate-bill-would-put-age-checks-in-every-us-operating-system

2026-08-03 18:39:47 UTC

New York Will Require Digital ID Checks for Social Feeds
https://reclaimthenet.org/new-york-will-require-digital-id-checks-for-social-feeds

2026-08-02 23:57:26 UTC

Schiff and Khanna Revive the AI Ads Act With No Parody Carveout
https://reclaimthenet.org/schiff-and-khanna-revive-the-ai-ads-act-with-no-parody-carveout

2026-08-01 15:08:41 UTC

Texas Orders Discord to Run UK-Style Age Checks for State Users
https://reclaimthenet.org/texas-orders-discord-to-run-uk-style-age-checks-for-state-users

2026-07-30 21:10:52 UTC

How NIH Silenced Its Critics Without Telling Them
https://reclaimthenet.org/how-nih-silenced-its-critics-without-telling-them

2026-07-29 23:44:44 UTC

The EU's top court has ruled that a VPN provider is not liable when a user routes around a geoblock.
The tool being useful for circumvention does not make its creator a party to it. That principle protects every encryption and anonymity product in the bloc.
https://reclaimthenet.org/eu-court-rules-vpn-providers-not-liable-when-users-bypass-geoblocks

2026-07-29 15:52:37 UTC

Canada’s New “Hate” Law Is Already at People’s Doors
https://reclaimthenet.org/canadas-new-hate-law-is-already-at-peoples-doors

2026-07-28 20:16:36 UTC

xAI Challenges Minnesota’s Broad “Nudification” Law as a First Amendment Violation
https://reclaimthenet.org/xai-challenges-minnesotas-broad-nudification-law

2026-07-28 14:11:30 UTC

GrapheneOS Wipe at Airport Leads to Federal Charge in Atlanta
https://reclaimthenet.org/grapheneos-wipe-at-airport-leads-to-federal-charge-in-atlanta

2026-07-28 00:14:26 UTC

Blizzard Begins Asking UK Players for ID Before They Can Chat
https://reclaimthenet.org/blizzard-begins-asking-uk-players-for-id-before-they-can-chat