KOSA / age verification / AI regulation update: Punchbowl News is reporting that Sen. Cruz says the Senate Commerce will markup Sen. Blackburn's package of bills if she introduces it (although he said yesterday he doesn't think it has the votes). If it happens, it'll probably be on July 29 (1/N)

Oh look, an AI spamming bot asking "How do you balance vigilance against bad actors with keeping the public’s trust" 🤣 Is this a trick question? Blocked and reported.

👀 Punchbowl News is reporting that Senate Commerce is looking at July 29 for a "kids and AI" markup -- likely to include KOSA as well as Cruz' chatbot bill and perhaps some other AI bills. The date isn't finalized yet so keep your eyes peeled! (Via Ben Brody on Xitter)

Here's Axios's summary of the KIDS Act and KOSA passing the House, highlighting the opposition in the Senate (although for the wrong reasons). As I said in the post at the top of the thread ... www.axios.com/2026/06/29/h...

One easy way to contact Congress about FISA is to call the US Capitol switchboard at 202-224-312. Here's a simple script ... Or, you can use Indivisible's calling tool at indivisible.org/actions/tell...

Beware the ResistBot message asking Congress to reauthorize FISA "to protect us from surveillance overreach". That's exactly wrong! If Congress reauthorizes FISA without reforms, that *extends* surveillance overreach! Instead, we want to ask them to let it lapse unless it's reformed.

At the end of the day, though, what really matters here is Blacksky's amazing progress. And while Rudy deserves every bit of the credit he's getting for this success, as he consistently points out it has been very much a team effort -- and they deserve every bit of credit too!

And ATmosphere development is thriving in general. These projects are learning from each other, building off each others' successes, and working together to improve the platform.

Blacksky has continued to progress by leaps and bounds in the months since I first wrote "'Decentralization' and erasure last December -- expanding the team and excuting on @rude1.blacksky.team's vision

Here's the summary from DAIR's page at www.dair-institute.org/tigray-genoc... #tigraygenocide #contentmoderation

65+ Civil Society Groups Urge Democratic States to Protect Individual Data, Privacy Under Trump Yeah really, sounds like a great idea to me! www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2025-02... Thanks @accountabletech.bsky.social @fightforthefuture.org and @ultraviolet.bsky.social for organizing!

Here's an excerpt from the section on grounds for concern about Bluesky in the medium-to-long term. Actually the moderation philosophy relates to a huge short-term concern as well: how will scaling impact rapid safety? Composable moderation is an interesting idea, but still just a prototype ...

As always, it's important to think before you engage or share. "5 ways to fight post-election disinformation on Bluesky and the Fediverse" ,on the @iftas.org blog, is a deep dive into tactics. about.iftas.org/2024/10/29/5...

Bluesky's a fediverse too, as well as being part of the ATmosphere and (thanks to @snarfed.org and Bridgy Fed as well as Friendica) the ActivityPub Fediverse. Here's the terminology I'm using. See "There are many fediverses" in privacy.thenexus.today/bluesky-atmo... for more,