Gudday.
I wanted to make a more formal post talking about the current and upcoming censorship laws being introduced in most countries in the Western world (UK, AU, EU, USA).

It's becoming increasingly scary to think about just how much control these laws will/do allow governments, to where they can essentially shut down freedom of expression within all online spaces, places that for the most part, have given many people areas to voice their opinions freely, whether you would agree with those opinions or not.

I'm thankful to live in a country that, as of the writing of this journal, does not have such a law actively being worked on (though there are groups pushing for one to be implemented, how very coincidental). Though as i understand many websites may be forcing their users that reside even outside of countries with forced ID verification laws, to submit IDs to view their content, so even if you're country does not have such a law, you may still be forced to give third parties your private information when using websites such as youtube.

All this in the name of "child safety" which make no mistake, is simply a guise to fool people into agreeing with these laws without proper investigation as to what they entail.

I don't know what the future of the internet will look like, but if these kinds of laws are allowed to pass then i expect any future laws will be even more invasive and used to control and silence those who do not support the current governments agenda. I urge you all to take a stance against these laws however you can, as i will do should my country attempt to implement them.
Email your representatives, speak with your friends and family, anything at all.

And should these laws pass wholesale, i question whether i am willing to sacrifice my privacy and security for what amounts to watching silly videos online and occasionally uploading something here...

I remain, VanFuchs