This Saturday at The Science Circle

 
    Saturday, March 12

    At 9 AM PST   

    A Political Geographer’s Perspective on Ukrainians and Their Territory
    Merrill Johnson/Meryl McBride, Ph.D.
    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/perspective-on-ukraine/

    ~*~
    
    At 10 AM PST   

    What’s In Our Water: The Science of Water Quality and Testing
    Dr. Phil Youngblood
    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/whats-in-our-water/

    ~*~
    
    At 9 PM PST
    
    How has freedom of speech or press, helped or hampered science?
    Discussion led by Jes Stannard
    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/freedom-of-speech/
      
    ~*~
    
    NOTE: Non-members required to register once
    IM Jes Cobalt or Nymf Hathaway

╚══════════════════════════════ The Science Circle (72,129,30) ═╝
 

"EARN IT" Bill In Congress Could Mean Bad News For Internet Freedom

By Bixyl Shuftan

There's another Internet bill in Congress that could have potentially dire consequences for privacy expectations people online take for granted. Introduced "to establish a National Commission on Online Child Exploitation Prevention, and for other purposes," the "Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of  Interactive Technologies" Act, or EARN IT, "opens the door for the government to require new measures to screen users’ speech and even backdoors to read your private communications."

According to an article in Bloomberg, "The bipartisan measure, ... would affect a wide range of social media companies, cloud service providers, email and text platforms and other technology services. It could put Facebook in the government’s crosshairs for its plans to encrypt all of its messaging apps and undercut Apple’s refusal to create back doors into its devices and services." The article would go on to say, "The Justice Department has tentatively scheduled a Feb. 19 meeting on the future of the immunity known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act ... The provision protects platforms from responsibility for content posted by third parties. Although the measure doesn’t directly mention encryption, it would require that companies work with law enforcement to identify, remove, report and preserve evidence related to child exploitation -- which critics said would be impossible to do for services such as WhatsApp that are encrypted from end-to-end."

Companies would have to "certify that they are following the best practices set by the 15-member commission." If they don't to its satisfaction, "they would lose the legal immunity they currently enjoy under Section 230 relating to child exploitation and abuse laws. That would open the door to lawsuits for 'reckless' violations of those laws ..."

Supporters of the bill insist the ability to read encrypted messages is necessary, saying efforts to protect encryption, “will make it harder to detect -- and stop -- child abuse and similar crimes." Elliot Harmon of the Electronic Frontier Foundation retorted that if the bill became law, "the Attorney General could unilaterally dictate how online platforms and services must operate. If those companies don’t follow the Attorney General’s rules, they could be on the hook for millions of dollars in civil damages and even state criminal penalties. ... It opens the door for the government to require new measures to screen users’ speech and even backdoors to read your private communications.

"EARN IT undermines Section 230, the most important law protecting free speech online. Section 230 enforces the common-sense principle that if you say something illegal online, you should be the one held responsible, not the website or platform where you said it. Section 230 has played a crucial role in creating the modern Internet. Without it, social media as we know it today wouldn’t exist, and neither would the Internet Archive, Wikimedia, and many other essential educational and community resources. And it doesn’t just protect tech platforms either: if you’ve ever forwarded an email, thank Section 230 that you could do that without inviting legal risk on yourself." Harmon would call the bill an attack on Internet Security, entrepreneur innovation, and just plain unnecessary.

Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerburg has stated his company will continue to be “standing up for encryption, against those who say that privacy mostly helps bad people.” Senator Ron Wyden has openly spoken in protest about the bill, "a tired, debunked plan to blow a hole in one of the most important security features protecting digital lives of the American people."

The website fightforthefuture.org/ has a petition calling on Congress to reject the bill. As of the writing of this article, it has over 8660 of the 12,800 signatures it set as a goal.

The Justice Department is currently led by Attorney General William Barr, whom lately has been the target of calls to resign for interfering with the trial of an ally of President Trump.

Sources: Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, Reuters, Bloomberg, Ron Wyden

Bixyl Shuftan

News and Commentary: Of "Morphological Freedom" in Real Life and Second Life

Earlier this summer, Valkyrie McGill wrote a commentary about two people making the news at the time. Bruce Jenner had completed a series of sex-change operations and treatments, and was now known as Caitlyn Jenner. Rachel Dolezal, a leader of a chapter of the NAACP, was found to have white parents, but still insisted her identity was black. Valkyrie called both cases examples of "morphological freedom," the freedom to look like and identify yourself as what you feel you are. In Second Life, the ability to change one's appearance is taken for granted, and seldom is being of a different race or gender here than you are in real life a big issue. But is the virtual world a guide for when the ability to change one's looks on the scale of what Jenner and Dolezal have done becomes much easier, faster, and costing less (or no) money?

Read Bixyl Shuftan's commentary in Extra.

Press Release: Libertà Music Festival

Libertà, a music festival presented by the BullRing Family, focuses on the freedoms explored through music.  "Libertà" stems from the Latin word "Libertatem" meaning Freedom.  Through the course of one weekend, music will guide attendees on a journey with no restraints and endless possibilities.

The festival kicks off in grand style on Friday, August 21st at 6 PM SLT with DJ Bully, DJ Spot and DJ Roni taking over the decks and spinning their musical magic.  Attendees can expect the best live-mix DJs in Second Life to charge the stage and move them through a music journey.  Musical genres like Progressive House, Trance, Electro, Dubstep, EDM, Industrial Techno, Old Skool, and Funk provide the listener with familiar and non-familiar beats during the festival.  Libertà BMF runs Saturday from 12pm-10pm SLT.  The festival will conclude Sunday evening at 8 pm SLT. 

Libertà is sponsored by Something Estates and Lick Sim Design.  Check out Libertà BMF website at http://www.bullringfamily.com/  and on FaceBook at https://www.facebook.com/LibertaBMF.   For additional information on the event, contact Libertà BMF staff on the Libertà BMF website. 

Proposal for UN Agency to Control the Internet

It was almost a year ago in which the proposed SOPA bill threatened do away with the Internet as we know it, including places such as Youtube, Facebook, and Second Life. Today, there's something else that's gotten the attention of Internet advocates: a proposal turn control of the Internet to an agency of the UN.

The ITU, or International Telecommunication Union, is an agency of the United Nations dealing with information and communication technologies. At this time, there is an international meeting of delegates in the Persian Gulf Emirate of Dubai to discuss a plan that would hand the ITU control over the Internet. Currently the entity in charge of the Internet is ICANN which does so through an agreement with the US Government with "a mandate requiring that it operate in a bottom up, consensus driven, democratic manner). A leaked document suggested the delegates of some nations were pushing for a global Internet tax. While worrisome in itself, what got Internet freedom activists more worried was that the plan would allow nations full control of how the Internet operates within their country. For repressive nations, this would mean full power of censorship over online communications. Undemocratic countries such as Iran and China, which already censor websites their rulers don't like, would this time have the blessing of international law.

Vint Cerf, the Vice-President of Google, spoke out against the proposed regulations, "only governments have a vote. Some proposals coulees allow governments to justify the censorship of legitimate speech, or even cut off Internet access." Openness, he argued, was a founding principle of the Internet, "Our protocols were designed to make the networks of the Internet non-propietary and interoperable. … allowed for contributions from many sources. This openness is why the Interned creates so much value today."


Google has also launched a petition against the ITU proposals, "A free and open world depends on a free and open Internet." As of December 3rd, about one million had already signed, the results shown on an interactive map.  Mozilla, the company behind Firefox, has also acted against the ITU plan with a commentary calling for it's rejection, "Why is ITU Governance of the Internet a Bad Idea," and providing "a kit of tools and resources to support people in making their voices heard at the ITU."

The European Parliament has already rejected the plan for the UN agency to take control of the Internet.

To sign Google's petition, Click Here. 

For Mozilla's tool kit Click Here.

Bixyl Shuftan

Veterans Day/Rememberance Day

To those who served to defend Democracy, thank you from Second Life Newser.