Center for Online Safety and Liberty

Hello Bluesky! We're a new nonprofit providing fiscal sponsorship for independent projects that promote online safety and liberty. Our four priority areas are: * Safer Hosting * Supporting Fans * Cyberbullying and Abuse * Legal Advocacy Read more on our website and spread the word!

How can we build safer online spaces without silencing free expression? COSL’s Drawing the Line work supports digital rights, privacy, and community advocacy. Your donation helps keep this work going! https://c4osl.org/support-us/ #COSL #DrawingTheLine #DigitalRights #OnlineSafety

COSL works to build safer online spaces while defending digital rights, privacy, and creative expression. If these values matter to you, consider donating to help keep our work going! -> https://c4osl.org/support-us/ #COSL #DigitalRights #OnlineSafety #Privacy #CreativeFreedom

"At no point have the authorities stopped to consider that the law itself may be the problem." https://reclaimthenet.org/australia-social-media-age-ban-court-case

We were promised REPEATEDLY that age-verification law was narrow, and would ONLY apply to porn. But— as we warned —it was always a ruse. Since conservatives got their ruling in FSC v Paxton, they’ve pushed to age-gate anything and everything. It’s not going to stop with social media or chatbots.

From media panics to platform governance across the Asia-Pacific, COSL advocates for online safety that protects our rights and freedom of expression. Support our research and advocacy for a safer, freer internet: https://c4osl.org/support-us/ #DigitalRights #OnlineSafety #FreeSpeech

COSL fights for online safety that protects our rights; not panic-driven censorship. Support Drawing the Line and our public advocacy for a safer, freer internet. Help fund the work: https://c4osl.org/support-us/ #OnlineSafety #DigitalRights #FreeSpeech #InternetFreedom

India’s Supreme Court has ruled that children possess a fundamental right to access the internet, rejecting blanket age-based prohibitions as an appropriate response to online harms. https://indianexpress.com/article/legal-news/children-fundamental-right-internet-supreme-court-blanket-ban-10925649/

(Also note that this is referring to *fake* scenarios) See how censorship happens. This applies to live actors, but remember Texas has a new law making drawn illustrations a felony. They're counting on us being too ashamed to defend our rights, let's not be www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

New from COSL: Moral Panic to Permanent Law explores how fear of new media can fuel censorship that lasts long after the panic fades, often harming marginalized creators most. https://c4osl.org/moral-panic-to-permanent-law-the-pattern-of-fear-censorship-in-media/ #DigitalRights #FreeExpression

COSL explores how fear around new media can lead to censorship. Support our advocacy for protecting people, digital rights, and creative freedom. https://c4osl.org/support-us/ #DigitalRights #CreativeFreedom

Support COSL’s work for safer online spaces, creativity, harm prevention, and digital rights. Every donation helps keep this mission moving forward. https://c4osl.org/support-us/ #DigitalRights #OnlineSafety

As bills on social media, algorithms, and AI move through legislatures, it's worth remembering how past moral panics over new media left behind broad laws that outlasted them https://c4osl.org/moral-panic-to-permanent-law-the-pattern-of-fear-censorship-in-media/

"On September 11, IFPI asked the EC to include yt-dlp, a command-line program used to download videos and audio from sites like YouTube, in the Watch List." reclaimthenet.org/eu-piracy-wa...

"The amended Crime and Policing Bill also bans publication or possession of sexual content in which adults portray characters under 16. That provision is also awaiting an enforcement date." www.xbiz.com/news/301195/...

"Ministers in the UK are preparing the ground for new rules that would keep under-16s off major social media platforms, with the strongest surveillance age checks yet, such as passports, driving licenses, credit checks, or facial age estimation." reclaimthenet.org/uk-social-me...

One more principle before Drawing the Line goes to APrIGF Kathmandu TOMORROW 🛑 It’s time to center survivor autonomy instead of political convenience. Join the discussion tomorrow ⏲ 10:15 AM NPT ⏲ 4:30 UTC In person or online streaming are both free - https://c4osl.org/drawing-the-line-

Banned Books Week starts today! This year’s theme is: #LetBooksBe What do you think books should be? Share your answer in the comments: ✨ Let Books Be Free 🎉 Let Books Be Fun 🌎 Let Books Be Diverse 💡 Let Books Be Thought-Provoking ❤️ Let Books Be Themselves

Slapping a ban on complex topics doesn't address the root causes of online harm; just sweeps them out of sight. Genuine digital safety requires the hard work of building consent culture and social support, not lazy censorship. 2 more days - https://c4osl.org/drawing-the-line-aprigf/

When platforms rewrite the rules, creators feel the impact first. Support COSL’s work to protect safer online spaces, creativity, privacy, and digital rights. https://c4osl.org/support-us/ #DigitalRights #FreeExpression #OnlineSafety #CreatorRights

COSL’s latest work explores how the law can protect people online without punishing fiction or lawful expression. Your support helps keep this rights-respecting online safety work moving. Support COSL: https://c4osl.org/support-us/ #OnlineSafety #FreeExpression #DigitalRights #Law

When "online harm" laws expand to cover #shadowbanning, fiction, sex ed, & #QueerContent, who's actually protected, and who just gets erased? On Oct 6, Drawing the Line heads to APrIGF in Kathmandu to confront this hard question. Join us https://c4osl.org/drawing-the-line-aprigf/

EU Kids Act Won’t Keep The Internet Accountable And Trustworthy The EU Commission draft law to restrict young people’s access to the internet that it presented last week will come at a high... https://www.techdirt.com/2026/09/29/eu-kids-act-wont-keep-the-internet-accountable-and-trustworthy/

A disturbing fantasy is not automatically evidence of harmful behavior. The article argues that claims about fiction causing real-world abuse need evidence and not simply assumptions about what people might do. https://c4osl.org/pornography-harm-and-the-limits-of-the-law/ #FreeSpeech #Research

It's not just Republicans that are coming after your #DigitalRights and #privacy. This is a bipartisan issue being pushed by both parties. https://reclaimthenet.org/chris-murphy-government-internet-regulation

"Alabama has just created one of the most expansive age‑verification and behavioral‑surveillance mandates ever imposed on a social media platform." https://protectingkidsonline.substack.com/p/the-tiktok-settlement-is-more-than

"YouTube argued that 'blanket bans' could push children to 'less safe services', while Meta - who own Facebook and Instagram - also argued a ban could drive children to 'unregulated alternatives'." https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/cqn8md79j420o

When does concern about pornography become a reason to criminalize fiction? A new C4OSL article examines the difficult line between real-world harm and fictional expression. https://c4osl.org/pornography-harm-and-the-limits-of-the-law/ #DigitalRights #FreeExpression #OnlineSafety

Europeans! Chat Control 2.0 is around the corner and it could mean that all our chats will be monitored even without a warrant. Sending emails to your EU representatives takes only 2 minutes. Do it NOW (I did) https://fightchatcontrol.eu/?level=national#contact-tool

🚨 Chat Control 2.0 is back on the table tomorrow, September 29. I strongly oppose any system that could enable broad, suspicionless scanning of private communications. Private messages, photos and personal data should not become subject to mass surveillance. #ChatControl #StopChatControl #Privacy

Wattpad’s new content rules are pushing some writers toward AO3. But the bigger question is: who gets to decide what fictional content crosses the line? https://c4osl.org/what-wattpads-new-rules-and-the-rush-to-ao3-truly-reveal/ #Wattpad #AO3 #Fanfiction

This discussion calls for people who understand the law, clinical research, online platforms, and digital safety. Join them as they examine how legislation can protect the vulnerable without turning the internet into a surveillance state. https://c4osl.org/medical-school-berlin-workshop/

"Aylo said that updates to the Act requiring age verification had 'not achieved its goal of protecting minors' and had 'diverted traffic to darker, unregulated corners of the internet'." https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6eq8dw3dlyqo

Maybe you've noticed we haven’t used this panel's official title in our posts about it. Word choice is Drawing the Line's whole argument; we won't undercut it in our own copy. Same panel, described the way we think it should be. Register here: https://c4osl.org/medical-school-berlin-workshop/

3 days to go til we join a panel hosted by the WRITE team at Medical School Berlin to examine how written fiction on taboo and underage sexual themes should be treated in law and policy. Register here: https://c4osl.org/medical-school-berlin-workshop/

New from COSL: Keisha D unpacks Wattpad’s rule changes, the rush to AO3, and what fuzzy platform standards mean for writers, survivors, and marginalized creators. https://c4osl.org/what-wattpads-new-rules-and-the-rush-to-ao3-truly-reveal/

Online safety policies are headed towards a narrow view of protection that often results in censorship rather than education. We need your help to push back against overbroad laws and advocate for evidence and freedom of expression. Double your impact today by donating: https://c4osl.org/support-us/

New from COSL: Jeremy Malcolm looks at pornography, harm, and why laws aimed at protection can slide into regulating adult expression and fiction. https://c4osl.org/pornography-harm-and-the-limits-of-the-law/

Maybe you've noticed we haven’t used this panel's official title in our posts about it. Word choice is Drawing the Line's whole argument; we won't undercut it in our own copy. Same panel, described the way we think it should be. Register here: https://c4osl.org/medical-school-berlin-work

New COSL pieces are tracking how platform rules and online-safety laws affect writers, artists, and rights online. Donations help sustain the research and advocacy: https://c4osl.org/support-us/

at the end of the day, its US law that is gonna be twisting ANY platform into complying panicking does nothing. if you want to make a diference, contact your senators and demand they vote no on KOSA, as an example of one such bill www.badinternetbills.com

COSL is pushing for digital safety that protects real people without erasing privacy, expression, or creative communities. Help keep that work moving: https://c4osl.org/support-us/

"As FIRE has long warned, the treaty opens the door to greater violations of free expression online — and new cybercrime bills popping up around the world show why." https://www.fire.org/news/blogs/free-speech-dispatch/countries-are-hiding-censorship-cybercrime-bills-un-treaty-could

"4chan and Kiwi Farms have lost their attempt to stop Britain’s online safety regulator in a U.S. court, with a federal judge ruling that Ofcom is protected by foreign sovereign immunity" https://www.lawcommentary.com/articles/4chan-kiwi-farms-uk-online-safety-act-us-court