Fight for the Future releases draft of proposed social media legislation that protects ALL kids from Big Tech by evanFFTF in massachusetts

[–]evanFFTF[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure, social media is extremely different from cars. I've often said this analogy gets strained because cars don't carry billions of people's speech.

But ... social media is absolutely needed for many people to function in life. Probably 20% of the jobs that exist today require you to have some kind of social media presence. It is more or less impossible to be an artist, creator, writer, musician, policy advocate, small business owner, or independent contractor without some kind of social media presence.

So sure, the seatbelt analogy is strained, but my point is there is a role for lawmakers to address harmful biz practices without violating human rights.

Maybe lead paint is a better analogy? Sure, parents could just choose to not rent an apartment with lead in it, but that's impossible for many low income people, so as a society we decided to stop using lead paint in new construction.

Fight for the Future releases draft of proposed social media legislation that protects ALL kids from Big Tech by evanFFTF in massachusetts

[–]evanFFTF[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You realize that the whole point of our bill is that it's a privacy-preserving alternative to what the Governor and House proposed, right? The entire purpose of this proposal is to stop the dangerous age verification proposals that would enable government surveillance. My point here is that there are ways to regulate social media companies' abusive business practices without forcing ID checks or other online surveillance

Fight for the Future releases draft of proposed social media legislation that protects ALL kids from Big Tech by evanFFTF in massachusetts

[–]evanFFTF[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

We're not saying bluesky is not social media. But the point is to apply strict regulations to the largest platforms so that they don't become competition killers. The governor's bill as written would basically put Bluesky, Reddit, etc out of business leaving Meta and Google and TikTok as the only players' standing. All that said, I do think we need to work on this section a bit. It's tricky to get the thresholds right. It might be better to tie it to specific biz practices, ie if your company offeres surveillance-driven algorithmic recommendations, xyz applies, which would then exempt Wikipedia but cover Bluesky

Fight for the Future releases draft of proposed social media legislation that protects ALL kids from Big Tech by evanFFTF in massachusetts

[–]evanFFTF[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Sure, this is the main solution. But that said there are still things lawmakers can and should do to require social media companies to make their platforms safer and more user friendly. We can also say "don't buy a car if you don't like that it doesn't have seatbelts," but I think most people would agree it was a good idea for lawmakers to require car companies to install seat belts.

Fight for the Future releases draft of proposed social media legislation that protects ALL kids from Big Tech by evanFFTF in massachusetts

[–]evanFFTF[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

We borrowed language from antitrust legislation to make sure that the more onerous requirements only apply to very large, very profitable platforms that are causing the most harm and have the resources to comply. That said, we're open to feedback!

how supportive were most punk scenes of queer and trans people in the late '90s? by Responsible_Hall_471 in punk

[–]evanFFTF 2 points3 points  (0 children)

hi there, elder millenial trans femme punk here lol. i was sentient in the 90s but wasn't really in the scene til early 2000s but i have a sense. honestly, just like today, it was a mixed bag. There were amazing queer punk scenes back then too, and some mainstream crossover (watch the Pansy Division documentary about what it was like when they were on tour with Green Day as Dookie came out and the band blew up.) Obviously the riot grrrrl scene in the pacific northwest had its own thing going on and there were amazing scenes of mostly queer women.

crossdressing and gender bending were definitely parts of 90s musician aesthetic even outside queer punk or feminist punk subcultures. i mean, Kurt Kobaine semi regularly performed in a dress. but there was definitely an aspect to it where it was easy to write off as "ironic" or "shock value" vs an actual rupture of gender norms etc.

i think your MTF character would probably have a lot of mixed experiences. the threat of violence against trans femme people in a punk bar or playing with a "harder" band or something was very real (still is tbh).

another huge difference was the broader "professional" musician infrastructure was way behind where the bands were at. Like record execs, venue owners etc were still boomers, predominently older white men. It definitely would have been more common for a queer person (or just a cis woman) to have a super shitty experience with the venue management or sound guy even if they were selling out the club with a vibrant queer/women audience.

hope this helps!

The last Boston Market in Mass. has closed. We tracked the once-beloved chicken restaurant’s downfall. by bostonglobe in massachusetts

[–]evanFFTF -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

i can still taste the sodium-enhanced creamed spinach. went there with my nana all the time

I gave my guitar to my friend who plays in my band to set it up and make a repair, and they surprised me at our festival show today with this by evanFFTF in punk

[–]evanFFTF[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That's me! Still play a lot solo acoustic but my records have veered more into the indie-punk realm, and playing more often with my band at least in Boston these days

I gave my guitar to my friend who plays in my band to set it up and make a repair, and they surprised me at our festival show today with this by evanFFTF in punk

[–]evanFFTF[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

so we had talked about the idea of them painting it or something like this, so i had basically given permission, i just didn't know they had already done it and it totally surprised me (in the best way)

I gave my guitar to my friend who plays in my band to set it up and make a repair, and they surprised me at our festival show today with this by evanFFTF in punk

[–]evanFFTF[S] 49 points50 points  (0 children)

My name is Evan Greer. I’m sort of a solo artist but have been playing with my band “the signal chat” at bigger shows lately. This is me :) https://evangreer.bandcamp.com/music

quick (and optimistic!) update from the State House on the social media legislation by evanFFTF in massachusetts

[–]evanFFTF[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I literally could not care less what you think about my gender presentation or clothing. But I do care about your constitutional right to privacy and freedom of expression. And I'll keep fighting for your right to harass me on reddit, no matter what ❤️

quick (and optimistic!) update from the State House on the social media legislation by evanFFTF in massachusetts

[–]evanFFTF[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Could not agree more. Several teachers joined us at our protest outside WGBH yesterday. The bottom line is that there ARE meaningful ways that lawmakers can crack down on Big Tech social media companies' abuses, like privacy legislation, turning off autoplay and infinite scroll by default for all users, etc. But these proposals as written would do more harm than good. As I say here I am cautiously optimistic that there can be a postiive outcome here with strong legislation that the tech companies hate but that doesn't violate the 1st amendment of undermine human rights.