Despite major outrage from users when they initially rolled out age verification systems, Discord plans to make all accounts teen by default GLOBALLY & you have to scan your face or upload an ID to prove you aren't one.

Gadget Review

Discord Is Bringing Back Age Verification for Millions of Users

Discord age verification now locks stage channels, DMs, and adult content behind four ID methods — each with different privacy trade-offs worth k...

Wired just broke that facial recognition scanners were shut off for the duration of Taylor Swift’s wedding at Madison Square Garden, demonstrating the dynamics of privilege & power when it comes to who gets to opt out of mass surveillance.

WIRED

For Taylor Swift, Madison Square Garden’s Controversial Cameras Briefly Went Dark

MSG’s sprawling surveillance system can monitor guests down to the second. Its owners made an exception for the pop star’s rehearsal dinner.

✨BOSTON ✨ We’re calling on local human rights and tech justice advocates to join us for an evening of drag queens and drinks! Join us TOMORROW for a Pride Month happy hour at Dani’s Queer Bar! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ Connect with Fight for the Future’s leadership, learn how you can get more involved, and have a drink on us! RSVP:

Heartbreaking that Minneapolis legal observer Renee Good died at the hands of ICE. It's clear that there was no threat when they shot her and the claims Trump is making on social media are total bullshit. Renee could have been any of us.

CBS News

ICE agent shoots, kills U.S. citizen Renee Good in south Minneapolis

An ICE officer fatally shot a woman Wednesday morning in south Minneapolis, according to the Department of Homeland Security. A U.S. official ident...

New STICKERS just dropped!

Fight for the Future

Donate

Donate We rely on donations from everyday people just like you to fund our strategic activism. Please make a recurring donation to our organization...

Many folks on our team have creative practices and it’s such a gift that Fight has such a supportive environment that many staff interweave those endeavors in with our day to day work. It makes our output—from campaigns to design to social media content—stronger and more personal. In 2023, our very own Hally Leigh Comics created a “Resist Surveillance Squirrel” design with the team, and since then we’ve added 4 more critter designs to the series. (In addition to creative-types, we also happen to identify with ungovernable animals.) These designs are available together in a sticker pack for the first time, including the newest design “Turn Off Ring Raccoons.” The sticker pack is free with your $25 donation and comes with 5 high-quality stickers to make your laptop, phone case, or water bottle a bit spicier. Plus, you’ll be contributing to the very worthy work Fight does to hold Big Tech and politicians accountable and support the communities who need it most.

The official pretext for ID check laws is the so-called “pornography epidemic,” a moral panic that right-wing reactionaries blame for everything from falling birth rates to youth depression. But age-gating laws are about much more than restricting porn- Republican lawmakers are using the infrastructural power of the Internet to build a surveillance & censorship machine. Read the full paper here:

Tech Policy Press

Papers, Please? The Republican Plan to Wall Off the Internet

We desperately need lawmakers to see ID check bills for what they really are: a right-wing information power grab, writes Anna Bonesteel.

Day 3 of our week of action against online ID checks 🙌🏽 we’ll be hosting a live panel on LinkedIn today with @Electronic Frontier Foundation and other digital rights experts discussing the threat of online age + ID verification to the internet we love and the tools we can use to fight back. Join us! FFTF.link/noidchecks

It’s Day 2 of our week of action against online ID checks + we need you to make some noise and call your reps letting them know censorship bills like KOSA + Online ID Checks are EXTREMELY unpopular! Call Now +1 248-331-8665 or use our call tool: www.badinternetbills.com

NOW: Congress is holding a hearing on 19(!) kids safety bills and several would age-gate/censor the internet, particularly for LGBTQ youth. Our policy counsel + members of our team are live-streaming analysis and reactions. Join us! https://www.youtube.com/live/GwAAPmNa_0U?si=L3HLTc_OW7XgWScx

AMA on Online ID Checks is now live! Where the Redditors at? Our policy counsel team will be answering questions about the dangers of online ID checks alongside policy experts at @Electronic Frontier Foundation https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/1pbdl7q/ama_we_are_digital_and_human_rights_advocates_ask/?rdt=54134

You shouldn’t have to present your ID, credit card info, or face to be scanned just to access your favorite sites, news, or games yet this is the growing reality for Internet users globally. We need a firestorm to take down online ID checks for good-- so we planned one. Join us for a week of action!

Amazing win today! Proud of our colleagues and coalition partners in Oakland for ousting Flock, an invasive surveillance company, and blocking a $2 million dollar contract with the city. Excited to see this is happening across the country!

Oakland rejects $2 million deal with surveillance company over ICE concerns

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has drawn the ire of Democrats for years—but without it, decentralized mass protest would be near-impossible!

The Forge

How the First Amendment of the Internet Underpins Modern Activist Movements - The Forge

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has drawn the ire of Democrats for years—but without it, decentralized mass protest would be near-i...

We helped the UC Berkeley Cybersecurity Clinic to organize risk assessments for mutual aid groups. Now, here’s the report with digital security recs for orgs + for projects that want to build mutual aid tools: https://cltc.berkeley.edu/publication/securing-mutual-aid-cybersecurity-practices-and-design-principles-for-financial-technology/

“Fight for the Future specifically highlights Flock's involvement in releasing surveillance footage to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been escalating raids and deportation operations under the direction of the Trump administration. Flock has also provided data to law enforcement to assist in investigating people traveling out of state seeking abortion medical care. “

CNET

Digital Rights Group Tells Amazon Ring Owners to Turn Off Cameras This Halloween - CNET

The concern is over Amazon's new partnership with Flock, which allegedly shares data with federal and local officials conducting immigration r...

NO RING FOR ICE 🎃 If you’re headed out trick or treating, you could also educate neighbors with Ring doorbells using our door tag!

Fight for the Future

Ring = ICE

‼️ ICYMI: Amazon Ring announced a partnership with the notorious surveillance tech company Flock, which was recently exposed for secretly sharing camera data w/ ICE & law enforcement investigating people who travel for abortion care. It’s an act of solidarity with our vulnerable neighbors to ditch Ring altogether but for now, please spread the word and cut those cameras OFF spread the word: fftf.link/RingEqualsICE

TEACH-IN alert 🛠️!! Tomorrow at 7ET we’re joining Step Up Louisiana , Sassi South & other NOLA community voices united in the fight against racist tech to discuss what it means to build safe communities that reject the lie of surveillance = safety. RSVP👉http://fftf.link/nola

With the spread of mandatory online ID checks, this is only going to get worse!

TechRadar

Wisconsin wants to force all adult sites to block VPNs – here

The bill has now landed in the Senate for consideration

We’re campaigning to keep world governments from banning or blocking them. It’s not too late to take action: www.defendvpns.com Without big grants supporting this work, we need your help to power the inbox-stuffing, phone-melting wave of pressure required to stop VPN bans in their tracks. Can you donate today to help sustain the fight to Defend VPNs?

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day Hundreds of artists are withdrawing their labor & refusing to participate in major festivals or events as KKR & its subsidiaries facilitate egregious human rights abuses against indigenous people. Spread the word: fftf.link/noart4genocide