Inside the Secret Conservative Plan to Censor the Internet (ft Siri Dahl)

Age verification laws are the latest front in the religious right's movement to censor your speech and limit your Internet access, including what information you can access. Whitewashed as interventions to "protect children," these conservative laws and their so-called content moderation actually make it more dangerous for kids, especially trans and queer kids cut off from digital lifelines. No one in Mississippi can access Bluesky, including critical local news alerts, thanks to the state's ban. You know who warned us this would happen, back when Visa and Mastercard first started refusing to process payments for what conservatives—not you—have deemed NSFW video games, the games you can no longer play? Sex workers.

This week, Katelyn and Christine interview adult performer and content creator Siri Dahl, one of the first people to call out the Trump administration’s anti-pornography crackdown for what it is—an effort to suppress free speech for all. The Supreme Court’s June decision upholding age verification laws for porn—“corn”—websites arms Trump’s federal lackeys with your data and allows them to more broadly encroach on internet privacy. What is obscene? This government wants to decide and limit what information you can access, from gender-affirming info about trans identities and hormone therapy for trans and menopausal people to reproductive health issues about menstruation, contraception, and abortion. It is a fascinating conversation between intersectional feminists who recognize that sex work is another facet of bodily autonomy.

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Links for Apple:

• Follow Siri Dahl via her website, www.siridahl.com, and Instagram @thesiridahlagain
• Siri’s SFW free speech explainer video
• Stream and support the Corn Telethon on September 4!
• Ashton Pitttman for the Mississippi Free Press: Editor’s Note | Bluesky Blocks Mississippi IPs, Citing State’s Age Verification Law, Free Speech and Privacy Concerns
• Jasmine Mithani for The 19th News: Supreme Court clears the way for increased age verification for porn sites
• Karl Bode for Techdirt: Waypoint Writers Quit After Vice’s Chickenshit New Owners Delete Articles Critical Of Steam Policies
• Josh Taylor for The Guardian: Mastercard and Visa face backlash after hundreds of adult games removed from online stores Steam and Itch.io
• Christine Grimaldi for The Flytrap: The District of Abortion
• Martin Austermuhle for The 51st: What’s going on with the National Guard in D.C.?

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