Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted

Phoenix Calida @phoenixcalida.bsky.social · 14h

The reason marginalized groups are so over representated in sex work is that we are literally not allowed to exist anywhere else

So we found a different way to survive

You cannot support sex worker rights if you don't support the people in the sex work industry

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Phoenix Calida @phoenixcalida.bsky.social · 14h

Let me be super fucking clear

You cannot support sex worker rights if you don't also support trans people, non white people, immigrants, drug users, disabled people, women, queer/gay people, and poor people and human rights in general

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swop-usa.bsky.social @swop-usa.bsky.social · 1d

The focus on pornography and blaming it for every social problem has led to actual predators flying under the radar until it's too late.

Stop blaming porn and start finding actual solutions.

Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 1d

JFC. Ron DeHaas, founder of the Christian antiporn app Covenant Eyes, has stepped down from NCOSE after his 38-year old son was charged with sexual abuse of a child.

Covenant Eyes is the app used by House Speaker Mike Johnson and his son to monitor each other's internet behavior.

Covenant Eyes Cofounder Helps Post Bond for Adult Stepson, Who Is Charged With Felony Child Sex Abuse

In August, Thomas Wideman, an adult stepson of Covenant Eyes cofounder Ron DeHaas, was arrested during a CSAM sting operation.

churchleaders.com

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Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 2d

Buried in Michigan's antiporn bill is a provision to effectively outlaw "circumvention tools," such as VPNs.

Mark my words: legislators will increasingly leverage porn panic to restrict or ban VPNs, and to limit internet privacy far beyond adult sites.

Experts raise privacy concerns over Michigan bill targeting pornography and VPNs

Rep. Josh Schriver, the bill’s sponsor, says the law is designed to target only producers and distributors of pornography, not everyday internet users.

www.wilx.com

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Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 2d

And @microsoft.com's MSN bows to religious fascism, whitewashing content from outlets like Christian Post that portray LGBTQ+ people as violent, controlling and focused on converting children.

www.msn.com/en-us/news/u...

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TrickyC (he/him) @trickyc66.bsky.social · 8d

this is why lD verification is the wrong move, to be resisted at every turn: the stewards of that data are not savvy or sophisticated enough to keep it secure.

business guys can't protect shit

Misty K Snow @mistyksnow.bsky.social · 8d

Age verification is great at keeping people safe... NOT!

Discord customer service data breach leaks user info and scanned photo IDs

An “unauthorized party” may have accessed the names of users, the last four digits of credit card numbers, and more.

www.theverge.com

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Bluesky Safety @safety.bsky.app · 14d

In Ohio, starting on Monday 9/29, we'll be implementing an age assurance solution similar to what we're doing in South Dakota and Wyoming. Read more here: bsky.social/about/blog/0...

Our Approach to Age Assurance - Bluesky

We’re committed to keeping our community informed as we navigate new regional regulations.

bsky.social

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Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 9d

Oops looks like someone tried to find a payment processor

https://kolektiva.social/@noescape_vg 🏴🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸 @noescapevg.com · 10d

Then what the fuck is the point of you

Important: The Horror Zine does NOT accept any material that contains adult or sexually explicit content; abuse or harming of women or children; any rape scenes; serial killers; slasher; gore for gore's sake, or splatter punk. We do NOT accept any religious or political themes. We do NOT accept any submissions written in Olde English, Victorian, or 19th Century styles. We do NOT accept any submissions told in a diary or letter or journal format, written in numbered chapters, told as memories, or told entirely as dialogue (someone recounting past events). We do NOT accept any submissions created with the use of, or any assistance form, Artificial Intelligence (AI). We do NOT accept fan fiction.

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Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 9d

"Due to various circumstances like recent restrictions from payment processors and the changing online landscape, our team has found it difficult to continue.

With saddened hearts, we plan to close Manga Planet’s digital service at the end of March 2026."

mangaplanet.com/blog/closure...

Closure of Manga Planet’s Digital Platform – Blog | Manga Planet

mangaplanet.com

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Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 11d

"Passing ineffective law to satiate the public breeds contempt for the law and the political process. It also deters efforts to find solutions that really will work. Having already passed a law, the politicians can move on to the next thing, even though the law in question is ineffective."

Port: We should care if the laws we pass actually work

If politicians make a new law, it should work, and if it doesn’t work, it shouldn’t be the law.

www.inforum.com

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Boytits Ascendant @boytits.bsky.social · 10d

There's a lot to be said about the way many DV services receive funding from the DOJ and VOCA (victims of crime act) and how the financial entanglement of these services with the criminal justice system is not ideal and how one can care deeply about survivors and also reject the carceral system 1/11

antifa’s sleepiest soldier @emilydwarfield.bsky.social · 25d

Just so everyone is aware, the same Trump regime that is claiming to be “tough on crime” has refused to release victims’ services grants for the next fiscal year.

Federal funding for programs that serve survivors of DV, trafficking, and other forms of violence runs out at the end of the month.

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Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 16d

ICE is partnering with Amtrak to stalk cruising spots in Penn Station to arrest and deport gay immigrants using “public lewdness” laws.

Cruising crackdown in Penn Station bathroom puts at least 20 men in ICE custody

State and city laws prohibit local police departments from turning people over to ICE. That restriction does not apply to the federally run Amtrak Police Department.

gothamist.com

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Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 15d

The legislator behind the new Ohio age-verification law doesn't even know what's in the bill. He claims that it excludes social media sites. No such language exists.

This is why you don't push something you couldn't get passed the normal way into an budget omnibus.

www.wkbn.com/news/ohio/ho...

Rep. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania Township), who co-sponsored The Innocence Act, has claimed the measure will not affect social media sites like X. However, the Free Speech Coalition, a nonprofit trade association for the adult entertainment industry, disagrees.

Director of Public Policy Mike Stabile argued that Ohio’s law is particularly vague compared with other states and therefore may result in a variety of platforms choosing to enact age verification measures to prevent legal issues.

“It affects not just porn sites, but any site that might have material that is defined as harmful to juveniles,” Stabile said. “Under the law, I think that sites like X and Reddit and Bluesky may have to begin age verifying. … As we’ve seen in other places, services like Spotify may decide to do it as well to avoid potentially triggering the law.”

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swop-usa.bsky.social @swop-usa.bsky.social · 17d

SAY THE LINE BART!

Big Demon Energy @mayawest.online · 17d

say the line Bart meme-

Quote:
Instead, they arrested 111 sex workers, none of whom was underage and none of which led to a human trafficking arrest.

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The Marshall Project @themarshallproject.org · 19d

"Cell phone images smuggled out of jails and prisons across the country reveal food that hardly looks edible, let alone nutritious. ...kitchen workers at prisons in Arizona, Oregon, and elsewhere reported seeing boxes of food that were served to prisoners marked: 'not for human consumption.'"

Prison Food Is a Growing Billion-Dollar Industry. Many Meals Are Inedible.

As private food providers' contracts grow, the meager and moldy portions behind bars have forced some people to eat toothpaste and toilet paper.

www.themarshallproject.org

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Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 18d

The author of this Arizona age-verification bill admitted that *he* would never upload a government ID to access but passed this law for the rest of us.

Adult content sites to cut off access or require IDs in Arizona

A law passed earlier this year is set to go into effect this week, cutting off access to adult content sites for Arizonans.

www.kold.com

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Netpol @netpol.org · 20d

'Sex Work: It's just a job'.

Netpol is co-host for a screening of a new film from the US on decriminalising sex work, with a Q&A including @alexvitale.bsky.social and sex worker allies.

🗓️ Friday 3 October
📍 Keyworth Arts and Media Centre
🎟️ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/film-scree...

Sex work - It's just a job. The story of the struggle to decriminalise sex work through an assembly of people who work or have worked in the sex trades

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SΞX WOЯK CΞO @sexworkceo.bsky.social · 20d

SW is real work. The IRS knows it.

Your landlord knows it. Maybe it’s time your mom stopped calling it “that little online thing.”

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swop-usa.bsky.social @swop-usa.bsky.social · 21d

The only people who think handcuffs help? The people who have never been handcuffed in the back of a police car

Handcuffs are not rescue.

Handcuffs are not help.

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Annie Altman @anniealtman108.bsky.social · 22d

Podcast Episode 155. Curious! Sex Workers Are Humans with Phoenix Calida

Thank you thank you @phoenixcalida.bsky.social @swop-usa.bsky.social @swopbehindbars.bsky.social 💟

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

155. Curious! Sex Workers Are Humans with Phoenix Calida

Podcast Episode · All Humans Are Human · 09/09/2025 · 1h 16m

podcasts.apple.com

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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 23d

Not enough people are paying attention to a major target for Brendan Carr and the Trump admin’s crackdown on free speech: social media. It’s under bipartisan attack, even though it’s a crucial forum for reaching the public and fighting back.
spitfirenews.com/p/is-anyone-...

Is anyone going to defend free speech online?

Government censorship on social media is already here. But it can get so much worse.

spitfirenews.com

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Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 24d

"Not that the parents who were complaining about these books in the situation I was involved in had anything to worry about. Their children had never entered the library in the first place and were certainly not book readers.” — @sassylibrarian.bsky.social

‘They said I should be purged and killed’: The librarians who stood up for free speech

How two school library workers found themselves on the front line of an ideological crisis in the US

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Michael @fleerultra.bsky.social · 24d

so many dead canaries and we just keep on mining

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Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 24d

Brazil follows the UK's lead down the rabbit hole of censorship. The government will punish platforms and speakers over vaguely defined harms, under the guise of child protection.

I realize child protection sounds great, but Imagine what exercise of this power looks like under authoritarianism.

Brazil enacts age verification law for minors online

If companies fail to comply with new rules regulating Big Tech, they may face penalties such as fines of up to 10% of their revenue in Brazil, capped at $10 million per violation.

www.courthousenews.com

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swop-usa.bsky.social @swop-usa.bsky.social · 23d

Yes.

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