Posts in Legal Advocacy
OTW Signal, July 2026
Every month in OTW Signal, we take a look at stories that connect to the OTW’s mission and projects, including issues related to legal matters, technology, academia, fannish history and preservation issues of fandom, fan culture, and transformative works. In the News This June, the OTW joined several of our allies in signing a letter opposing the NO FAKES Act of 2026 in its current form. The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), which led the coalition, stressed that while they share concerns about harmful AI-generated replicas, the bill as currently proposed would harness the already-flawed Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice-and-takedown system to target… Read more
Social Media Bans and AO3
Recently, the Australian Parliament passed the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill as part of the Online Safety Act of 2021 amendment. Starting in late 2025, the bill will prevent teenagers under 16 from using social media platforms including Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter/X. The bill plans to apply enormous fines to tech companies that don’t take measures to prevent minors from creating social media accounts. Despite its intentions of protecting minors’ mental health, the ban has sparked debate over digital censorship and privacy – raising notable concerns related to identity verification, digital access, and freedom of expression. One frequently cited concern is that… Read more
H.R. 9495 and the OTW
As many of you are aware, H.R. 9495—also known as the “nonprofit killer”—passed in the U.S. House of Representatives last Thursday, November 21. OTW Legal has received a number of comments from understandably concerned users, and we’d like to take this opportunity to provide more information about this bill as it makes its way to the U.S. Senate. Section 4 of H.R. 9495 would give the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury unilateral power to revoke the 501(c)3 status of any nonprofit, with minimal due process, simply by claiming it is affiliated with terrorism. The bill allows the Secretary to limit the disclosure of evidence against… Read more
Update on KOSA
Governments around the world have sometimes introduced legislation that tries to regulate online platforms and limit access to “harmful” content, instead of regulating bad behavior itself. However, not all proposed internet legislation thoroughly considers the challenges of living in the digital age and the risks of government regulation. We have covered some of these proposed laws in the past, and we’re still keeping an eye on a number of proposals. You can follow the ones we’re watching at Bad Internet Bills. The most recent development in the US is that the US Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), but the US House of… Read more
Canada’s Bill S-210
Internet bill S-210, An Act to restrict young persons’ online access to sexually explicit material, aims to protect Canadian youth but instead could drastically alter Canada’s online landscape for everyone. Like various proposed US age-verification laws, it would not affect the Archive of Our Own (AO3) because AO3 is not a commercial website. However, it would introduce serious risks to Canadians’ ability to securely access content on the internet, regardless of their age or of whether or not that content is sexually explicit. S-210 creates liability not just for providers of adult content, but for internet service providers (ISPs) as well. Age verification requires providing… Read more