A media release issued on March 7 by the company of U. S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez ( D- N. Y. ) included remarks made by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, a party with a history of supporting LGBTQ rights that were formerly known as Morality in Media, that were quoted as Morality in Media.
The concerns a republican, bicameral that was introduced by Ocasio- Cortez to fight the proliferation of no- sexual, biologically obvious “deepfake” media — created by” software, machine learning, unnatural intelligence, or any other computer- generated or scientific means” — by establishing a federal civil right of action for victims.
” Rep. Ocasio- Cortez is leading a nonpartisan act to prevent nonconsensual algorithmic sex that centers individuals ‘ civil right of action”, the congresswoman’s chief of staff, Mike Casca, said in a speech to the Washington Blade on Saturday. ” Companies from left, right, and core support it”.
Casca said in a separate conversation on X that “i disagree that quoting a team in a launch is an endorsement of that group, particularly given the need for military support to pass anything in the house and the senate, but I do agree with them.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s company made the statement, which is unoffensive and pertinent to the law, when it made notes by NCOSE CEO Dawn Hawkins. For example, she said “it is past time that our laws get up and hold the perpetrators of this misuse accountable”, calling the measure” a crucial step ahead” in securing” justice for survivors through legal remedies”.
NCOSE has attempted to distance itself from the avowed anti-LG positions that the corporation and its management held in the past, but there is ample evidence to support the claim that the organization underwent an intellectual transformation.
In December of this year, Hawkins wrote a letter on behalf of her firm that vowed to stop LGBTQ victims from being sexually exploited, and that she regrets that there had been instances in our group’s history due to our leadership change in 2011 when remarks were made that were in fact anti-LG+.
Additionally, the statement noted that “our former namesake, Morality in Media ( MIM), was associated with actions that starkly contrast with our current values,” including “possible advocacy against Disney’s extension of benefits to employees ‘ same-sex partners and a press “arguing that homosexuality is connected to crime.”
The following statistics cast doubt on the accuracy of these statements, along with Hawkins ‘ declaration that” we do not survive statements and actions by recent workers that spread dangerous misinformation and hatred toward any specific group or individual”:
- Benjamin Bull, the existing general counsel for NCOSE, was the head of the far-right legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled an anti-LGBT love party. The prosecutor also served as executive producer for ADF International.
- Bull discussed the Supreme Court of India’s selection in an interview with previous Fox News host Bill O’Reilly that reinstated the LGBTQ sex in 2013.
- Hadley Arkes, a liberal political scientist with longstanding relationships to NCOSE ( he was listed as a board member on the organization’s 2022 990 type ), supports the dismissed process of conversion therapy, which is prohibited in 20 U.S. state. When delivering in 2021, he said,” We’ve had some people who, with treatment and change, only have come out away from that living”.
- Arkes also opposes same- sex marriage. He compared the choice to marry gay and lesbian couples with the choice to shoot heroin during the same event in 2021. Close to the end of his two- hour lecture, the professor conceded that,” I think I’ve said enough to offend everybody tonight”.
- Errol Naidoo, an anti-LG minister who has blamed abortion and the “homosexual agenda” for” a culture of death” in his country, delivered the keynote address at a conference that Hawkins organized in South Africa in 2022. He was quoted in a Nigerian newspaper as saying” I hate gays. It runs against God’s wishes”.
- Also delivering a presentation during the conference was Sharon Slater, president of Family Watch International. The SPLC lists the organization as an anti- LGBTQ hate group, noting that Slater has claimed LGBTQ people are more prone to disease, more promiscuous, and likelier to engage in pedophilia.
- Slater has also forged close relationships with proponents of these policies, including Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa, who backed the law passed last year that forbids homosexuality from entering prison ( and the death penalty in some cases ). He has also defended the criminalization of LGBTQ behavior in African nations like Uganda.
The Kids Online Safety Act, a bipartisan legislative initiative to combat the sexual exploitation of minors and other harms facilitated by Big Tech and social media companies, is a major supporter of NCOSE in addition to the DEFIANCE Act, which was introduced last week by Ocasio Cortez.
LGBTQ and civil rights organizations objected to earlier iterations of KOSA because they worried that the law might restrict access to queer youth online or queer people from using online communities.
On Feb. 15, however, a coalition of seven national LGBTQ organizations wrote to U. S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal ( D- Conn. ), who introduced KOSA along with Republican U. S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn ( Tenn. ), informing him that they would no longer oppose the bill.
Signed by GLAAD, GLSEN, the Human Rights Campaign, PFLAG National, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the National Center for Transgender Equality, and The Trevor Project, the letter thanked Blumenthal for “hearing our concerns” and “updating the legislation to address potential adverse consequences for LGBTQ+ youth”.
Congress has been attempting to pass legislation for years to stop market-dominant tech platform companies from stifling their operations and hold these companies accountable for the harms they caused. More recently, many lawmakers have come to consensus about the need for bipartisan federal privacy laws and regulations aimed at developing emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, but none have so far been passed.
Support among Republicans and Democrats for bills like KOSA and the DEFIANCE Act were bolstered by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on online child sexual exploitation at the end of January, where the senators grilled the CEOs of TikTok, Discord, Snap Inc. ( Snapchat ), X ( formerly Twitter ), and Meta ( which owns Facebook and Instagram ).
Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled U.S. House is preparing to vote on a bill that would impose a ban on the well-known video sharing platform in the U.S. or force the parent company’s divestiture of TikTok by its Chinese parent company ByteDance.
Although the measure would have to pass in order to gain bipartisan support, the measure comes as a result of the concerns raised by TikTok about the risks posed by American users, as well as the lack of supporting evidence for some of these claims.
