All the pro-freedom arguments ring hollow and insincere to the wider world.

From an outside perspective, the tech industry/community has repeatedly demonstrated that it's actually very pro-surveillance and child exploitation. From that same outside perspective, another argument of 'hey, we have to combat all attempts at protecting children to avoid surveillance' just sounds like self-serving lies.

You can argue that the tech world is not a monolith, but it looks like one from a wider societal perspective, and often the conflicting calls are coming from the same exact sources. Every AI company, for example, bleats about the potential harms of AI while chasing after them headfirst.

If you want to argue against this kind of legislation, you need to repair a lot of lost trust first.

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nitwit005 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> If you want to argue against this kind of legislation, you need to repair a lot of lost trust first.

Not trusting tech companies, or companies in general, is simply the correct attitude, so that's not happening.

I don't feel your typical person feels the tech industry is somehow "pro child exploitation" though. I'm not even sure how one could be in that camp, in practical terms.

	▲	Planktonne 14 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The average person is aware that the tech industry has been enabling online grooming, AI-generated CSAM, and a host of other things that aren't great for children. Any attempt to regulate these things, or even simply criticise them, is met by a horde of disingenuous arguments about the importance of free software.

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duxup 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I feel like if there's a bad actor... this kind of legislation just ignores it / the problem.

Meanwhile kids will still find ways to do what they wish online and it will be hidden... adults exposed to these same bad actors.

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Planktonne 15 hours ago | parent [-]

I don't think this legislation is perfect, but I think it's a response to the bad actors pretending for decades now that they were concerned about freedom while acting against it.

This is the result of people no longer having any trust in people who claim to care for freedom while harming others; you can't keep drawing from a poisoned well.

	▲	duxup 14 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I think it undermines the entire reasoning not dealing with the bad actors and reasonably questions what the actual intent is. Social media companies bad ... laws imposed by government on individuals who aren't the people doing bad things. That's absurd.