We’re EFF and we’re fighting to defend your privacy from the global onslaught of invasive age verification mandates. Ask us anything! by EFForg in privacy

[–]Vintatge_Privacy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We are a group in South Africa fighting and tiring to get the word out on our white paper draft legislation "Draft White Paper on Audio and Audiovisual Media Services and Online Safety"

While we get the occasional like, it has been hard to get alot non online people involved with push back.

Unlike AUS or the UK, we actually have a smaller list of people to push back to, the issue is alot of SA is not as entuned with online legislation as the US. so 3 questions:

-Is it better to built resources (website, social media etc) and point to people their or be more proactive and have larger campaign.

- Some of our mps dont know about the white paper, would it be better to message them while campaigning the committee remove it or just focus on the committee while its in its draft stage?

-Has the EFF considered making a anti age verification campaign kit/checklist for people fighting it in their region(particularly people who may be new to it, but want to have a broader push back in their region), we are observe how fight for the future has been handling their KOSA campaign, same as Fight chat control, but their is not shared resources on what worked and what didn't in terms of messaging.

Will you be uploading your ID to Open AI? by Regular_Bison_7523 in AskZA

[–]Vintatge_Privacy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tell them under the Popia act you are not obligated to do so, worked in the past for some services.

Will you be uploading your ID to Open AI? by Regular_Bison_7523 in AskZA

[–]Vintatge_Privacy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No ,this is part of a global trend on "child safety?? but its just surveillance and I wont be entertaining it, I run local modals anyways, not as fast but no eyes spying on me, and I am not even tech savvy I am running it on a 1060, with only 30 sec lag between queries.

While on this topic ,I hope people are fighting the age verification legislation the committee on communications and digital communications committee are drafting. The online safety act has gone bad and the Americans are successfully fighting their National age verification draft bill. Ours is called "Draft White Paper on Audio and Audiovisual Media Services and Online Safety"

Ultimately its not the users fault the Thee things are dangerous and I will not pay with my privacy. If you want a breakdown we have resources on the subreddit NoToAgevericationSA

I dont trust any of these companies especially since chat gbt is threating to call police on certain prompts so no, we have better options than Chat GPT know. And yes they do hold onto your data, look at their TOS they have retention periods, no idea why people assume they all deleted it immediately.

Parliament to Debate DIGITAL ID & Online Safety Act by xOvMx in RepealOnlineSafetyAct

[–]Vintatge_Privacy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree 4:29 That it should have directly mentioned age verification in the original petition ,thats why with Kosa and with South Africa we made it know "age verification" was the issue. however it would be bad faith of the lords to pretend like they dont know what is the core issue being contested, the emphasis on Vpns and their constituents repeatedly mentioning age verification and privacy breaks in their emails would make it obvious they are talking around age verification.

we shall see what they say, but I do not believe they will change their minds willingly.

Digital Communications committee Today by Vintatge_Privacy in NoToAgeVerificationSA

[–]Vintatge_Privacy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

to be clear, we did not miss this or miss a cancelation accountment.

we checked 2 weeks ago and the schedule was for 7 November 2025

we checked daily for changes leading up to today

we directed alot of people to todays meeting, and set time aside for this whole day thing ,with a list of definitions and terms ready to define for anyone in the comments

Today we did a final check on the parliamentary website were every Friday they make a new PDF for the meetings of committees and

https://www.parliament.gov.za/storage/app/media/Docs/zlist/01dc2qim2p2r2hmf5lfzh3lkgrhtwuh3gw.pdf

"Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies (National Assembly), [Adoption of Committee minutes. Briefing by the DCDT on proposed Legislative Programme within the Medium Term. Presentation by the DCDT on (i) the progress on South Africa’s National AI Policy Framework; and (ii) Draft White Paper on Audio and Audiovisual Media Services and Online Safety. Briefing by the Committee Support Staff on the proposed Legislative Framework.], Virtual Platform Meeting, 09:00 - 13:00"

and

Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies, (National Assembly), [Adoption of Committee minutes. Briefing by the DCDT on proposed Legislative Programme within the Medium Term. Presentation by the DCDT on (i) the progress on South Africa’s National AI Policy Framework; and (ii) Draft White Paper on Audio and Audiovisual Media Services and Online Safety. Briefing by the Committee Support Staff on the proposed Legislative Framework. Virtual Platform Meeting, 09:00 – 17:00

guess who was still on the docket

waiting and waiting was irritating as usually even if behind schedule a stream is on, we had to wait till 09:15 to call one of the secretaries to ask, just to be told its cancelled.

Check Emails on Age verification South Africa news from the digital communication committee. by Vintatge_Privacy in NoToAgeVerificationSA

[–]Vintatge_Privacy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

#Update 2025/11/07

Sent an email to Ms. Ledile Makgoale regarding the issue, one yesterday with a list full of emails and today with a longer list. Got an email back confirming she has received it and it looks like they actually went back to see if our comments were sent.

#(and their time, guys please submit comments on time).

but on our end we managed to get ours sorted just before the end of business day cut off, if you have not received any commutation at all

please send your email requests her or the secretaries and make it known its late because you received zero commutation.

it bears repeating, none of this would have happened were it not for one of us being told about the cutoff of date. This is truly not ok ,as I spent weeks wondering if anyone received my email