2d ago

Congress Passes TAKE IT DOWN Act Despite Major Flaws

www.eff.org

Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act, giving the powerful a dangerous new route to manipulate platforms into removing lawful speech that they simply don't like. President Trump himself has said that he would use the law to censor his critics. The bill passed the Senate in February, and it now heads to the president's desk.

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3d ago

Congress Passes TAKE IT DOWN Act Despite Major Flaws

www.eff.org /deeplinks/2025/04/congress-passes-take-it-down-act-despite-major-flaws

95 comments

The democrats pushed this through for the same reason they've pushed other bills to censor the internet, using piracy or CSAM as excuses. They aren't really trying to protect anyone, they want and need control over the population as much as the republicans do, so that they can maintain the cash flow from corporations that own them. So many people still look at the democrats as an opposition party to the fascists, but that isn't true at all. They work together because they're two sides of the same party. The only thing they're truly concerned with protecting is their own money and power.
Both the democrats and republicans are profoundly evil.
- Republicans pass legislation through the two houses of Congress they entirely control, a Republican president signs it.
  You: "The Democrats pushed this through."
  
  It passed 409-2 and the 2 no votes were Republican.
  Senate was unanimous.
  
  https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/119-2025/h104
  Two republicans voted no. Every Dem who voted, voted yes.
  We may not be able to say they stopped it, but I think it's reasonable to want them to try to.
  
  Your comment sounds pretty fucking stupid considering every single democrats who voted, voted yes. Now get that boot out of your mouth, you're embarrassing yourself.

American decline is happening at a much faster pace than I anticipated.
If you don't own a gun, now is the time.

This reminds me of the DNC super donor Ed Buck who would lure in gay black men and kill them by injecting meth into them while raping them.
He managed to do it for years and wasn't until one of the victims survived to be able talk about it that he was sentenced as with every previous body it was said it was a private issue and a sad loss of a friend.
Photos managed to get shared of his racist, rape, death den helping sway the public.
Ed Buck would have loved this bill and its ability to actively scrub his image further.
If it feels like monsters would like something I don't want it.

Wait, US Congress still exists? Certainly wouldn't know it based on how the nation has been governed for the past 4 months.
- They exist for the important work of censoring critics.

If you want to see how your representatives voted
- Why the fuck did all the democrats vote Yes for this
  
  Because they'd like to use it too.
  
  Fascism is an integration of government and corporations. Democrats are officially just the other side of the coin after this. 100% one party in the country. The longer any politician fights under the banner of Republican or Democrat the longer they want this system to continue.
  
  I'm so done with them. Primary all of them.
  
  Because the mainstream democrats (the corpocentrists, mostly) believe that the tools of fascism and oppression are perfectly fine to keep around as long as they're wielded by enlightened leadership. All you have to do is simply never lose an election ever. Nbd. Why do they want to keep the tools of fascism around? Uh... (Hurriedly stuffing cash in pockets) Safety, terrorists or child molesters or something, look don't worry about it.
  
  I think because the sentiment of the bill is good.
  The problem is on the required action and the broad definition of what a "covered platform" is.
- So just assume they voted yes since only 2 republicans voted against including the Democrats
  
  I'd like to know why those 2 Republicans voted "no" when every Democrat voted "yes".

Call it what it is: a censorship law. Apparently the climate of fear that makes people self-censor wasn’t enough.
Watch for a LOT of ‘extreme left’ opinions get taken down and their authors imprisoned.
- It won't stop with journalists and authors. They'll be looking in Facebook posts, Reddit comments, Twitter threads, Instagram, etc. And random citizens are going to start disappearing.
  They'll want people to know it can happen to anyone, not just the most visible or high profile critics.
- And darlen AOC so called progressive voted for this shit.
  
  Politicians are still too afraid of optics, they don't want to be on record as voting against taking down revenge porn. Too many of these bills are written with a good-sounding premise but the details are where they get you.
  
  As did Bernie.
- AIPAC is driving this. Thats why they got the voting numbers that they did.
- Any chance courts can stop this bill for being unconstitutional.
  
  The NSA mass surveillance program that Snowden blew the whistle on was found unconstitutional during Obama II. THAT SAME AFTERNOON, the Republican Congress and Senate passed the (I shit you not, this is what this MF is named) USA FREEDOM ACT that basically re-instantiated the program and Obama signed it straightaway. Turns out, they were able to get shit done quick and in a hurry when the shit was fascism.
  
  Can, probably yes, will, probably no

OK so this is meant for revenge porn / stolen photos... but it's written so broadly that it will affect basically any online speech. Great.
- Senate:
  Unanimous Support
  House:
  207 Republicans and 202 Democrats voted Yea
  2 Republicans voted No, 0 Democrats
  11 from both parties abstained
  https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/119-2025/h104
  WTF happened to resisting Trump's fascist agenda? This is blatant controlled opposition
  
  Trump's fascist agenda was always their agenda as well. They just weren't quite as openly racist about it. Democrats have oppressed minorities as much as republicans have, and it wasn't Trump that was sending riot police to crush peaceful sit-in student protests against genocide. That was a democrat, and was only the latest in a long line of truly horrible things the democrats have done in the name of fascism.
- it passed. it fucking passed. i don't think people realize what they're about to use this for (or at least they don't fully realize the implications).
  
  And a helluva a lot of Dems voted for it like lemmings…
- Trump himself told the whole nation in his address that he plans to abuse it.
- 100% it was meant for the latter not the former

America needs a reset or to be splintered. The one we have is straight up evil.
- I'm American, and I vote heavily splintered. We are constantly doing shit that is profoundly evil, so we need to be weakened enough that we don't have the ability to project power outside our own borders, for the safety of the Middle East and other small countries the world over.

Democrats on lemmy after the election: Not voting against Trump is no better than a vote for him.
Democrats after a vote that allows Trump to censor whomever he wants: Not voting is #Resistance.

Another step closer to achieving his Nazi wet dream.

Anyone else hear thunderous applause?

I want off this ride
- The ride don't stop until you make it stop.

While this is bullshit, we should be able to weaponize it right back at them - any lies the administration spews (which let’s face it, that’s everything) needs to be reported relentlessly.
Make them feel it!
- Reported to who? The people telling the lies?
  
  The article mentioned requiring a reporting mechanism which must be resolved within 48 hours. Because of the impracticality of the timeframe it went on to assume that anything reported would just be removed.
- gulf of america?

rumor has it that AOC voted for this
- Not a rumor, only 2 house members voted against (both republican).
  mfw we can pass a bipartisan spy law no problem but a bipartisan daylight savings law is still too hard.
  
  To be fair, DST is a more complicated issue. Everyone wants to end it, but there's disagreement on how to do it.
  One side wants to not be missing an hour of sleep half the year and wants to go to standard time only.
  The other side is psychopaths. We had a Spring Forward. I'm owed a Fall Back. If they try to take that away from me, I'll take up arms.
- They all did, it was 409 vs 2, with 22 not voting:
  https://clerk.house.gov/evs/2025/roll104.xml
  And ironically the only two Nays came from Republicans.
- She did. She ‘objected to some of the wording’ but jumped in line like a good little puppet.
  
  Her and Bernie won't acknowledge palestinian defenders in their rallies. Puppets to the bone like all the others, just another form of controlled opposition.
- censorship is bipartisan, they just want to censor different things
- She's part of the problem.
  We like to believe she isn't, but she's a proud consumer just like the rest of them.
  She will never fight back against the culture of consumption until it becomes cool to do so.
  I can eat for literal days, having several pounds of meat, for $15. Meanwhile she feels justified in defending spending $15 on avocado toast and her useful idiots support her because they're part of the problem, too.
  All democrats become conservatives when their consumerism is threatened.
  
  She absolutely was a progressive, until that corporate lobby money started hitting her bank account.
  Now her bullshit is just performative, like all the rest.
- Kompromat

Remember, America, it's through your inaction that these changes are possible. Really, they should be thanking you for standing aside and letting them remodel the whole government.
- I'm fighting back in the ways I can.
  Namely by reducing my contribution to the eternal consumption engine while convincing others to do the same so our rulers have fewer resources to use against us.

“Flood the zone” benefits both parties when it comes to power grab shit like this. This barely made headlines until it was already passed and it’s too late.

Good news, now we can report all those christians online that won't shut the fuck up!!

I wonder how fast left leaning youtubers will go down.

I’m confused isn’t this just for images tho?

Oligarchs gonna oligarch.

Isn’t this what the DMCA is for?
- Yeah but the DMCA was vaguely reasonable. This is meant to be weaponized.
  
  the DMCA was vaguely reasonable
  No it wasn't. It too was MEANT to be weaponized from day one. The difference is that almost all of the people in control of both parties and all mainstream media were in favor, so it got a false veneer of reasonability in coverage.
  The DMCA is just as bad as SOPA and PIPA, which was always the intent from the powerful industry groups lobbying for all three bills and the politicians they own.
  
  Meant to be or not, it’s still weaponized.
- I think you mean the communications decency act? Most of that has been found to be unconstitutional as will likely be the fate of this bill...
  
  Not with the MAGA Supreme Court on the job.

House of Representatives passed the TAKE IT DOWN
I am confused. The title say congress passed the bill while the article says the house is the one that passed it (so congress should be next).
Which is it?
- Congress is the combination of the House of Representatives and the Senate. America has a bicameral legislature. (Congress=House of Reps + Senate)
  Because this passed the Senate in Feb and the House recently it is correct to say that this bill has passed Congress.
- Literally the most basic of basic civics... Depressing.
  Congress is our legislators. Our Congress is "bicameral". It is broken down into two houses: the Senate (upper house of Congress), and the House of Representatives (lower house of Congress).
  People often use "Congress" as a shorthand for the House of Representatives (but only when they also mention the Senate to make the distinction. Or at least some sort of context making it clear they mean the House).
  However, technically, "Congress" includes both houses.
  Nobody refers to the Senate alone as "Congress," and if they do, they're doing it wrong and likely causing all sorts of confusion.
- The bill has passed both the Senate and House so now the president just has to sign it.
  
  Which he would gladly do. Very sad
- how many countries are there in the world these days? cause whatever the number is, that's where we are in education.

95 comments