Some legitimate businesses (marijuana dispensaries come to mind) do have to operate under those conditions - they typically accept cash and sometimes cryptocurrency. Illegitimate businesses also somehow manage to find ways to earn profit, so I don't buy for one second that it's impossible to work around. It's just not easy to run a hate speech site, and honestly there's nothing in the 1A that says the government has to proactively take steps regulating various industries to make it easier - just that the government itself is not allowed to be the entity making it difficult.

Not really. We didn't need the internet's clown car and septic tank to save us from UK age checks. The SCOTUS already said our domestic ones are perfectly legal, so they're coming, like it or not. This is more a case of the US government getting an opportunity to say "You don't get to abuse the rights of our citizens, that's our job!"

I doubt it. Even if you pump out a septic tank, soon enough it fills right back up with shit. Seems someone claiming to represent Kiwi Farms has an account on X (Keepin' it real classy there as usual, Musk) and their latest post is about how the Minneapolis shooter was a trans woman. No doubt using that as a justification for their continued persecution of members of the trans community who have absolutely nothing to do with the shooter.

This was actually pretty common during the heyday of iOS jailbreaks that a developer would brag about having a jailbreak they didn't want to release.

I think you mean it's more like a hollow victory, since it isn't requiring the usual age verification. Seriously though, as near as I can tell it's a typical paid adult site where they have the most boring 15-second previews available to watch for free, and everything else requires a credit card (which more-or-less should satisfy an age check requirement law anyway).

For the time being, discussion forums and social media are still exempt from age checks, so there's plenty of porn on Reddit and X. But I'm sure closing that loophole is next on the agenda. The ultimate irony is that all the UK really has to do is cool their heels for a bit and we'll implement our own nearly identical age verification laws here in the US.

If you do something horribly unpopular, there's no God-given right that says you're entitled to earn a profit from it. Heck, even if it's something that seems offensive in only the most childish interpretation of the term, like removing an old man and a wooden barrel from your corporate logo, that's still fair game for that sweet, sweet, free market money to stop flowing your way.

So, how's that whole connect the world via the internet and hope people get over their differences thing been working out?

We're kind of heading in that direction anyway. Even without the great firewall, when the site itself decides to do their own blocking it's effectively the same thing. Examples:

Redgifs: Dear User,
As you may know, your elected officials in florida are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website ...

Pornhub: Dear user,
As you may know, your elected officials in Florida are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website ...

Eastboys: (just FYI to anyone wondering, yes, it's a gay adult site) Oops, this one still works. Guess it's a little difficult getting a site in Czechia to keep up with Florida's laws. /s

Yep, the SCOTUS upheld Texas's age verification law. It's entirely ass backwards to expect websites to comply with all the laws of everywhere they could possibly be accessed from, but here we are.

Considering the content those sites host, the site operators probably shouldn't be visiting any country which lacks really strong free speech protections.

4chan is an anonymous shitposting forum, and Kiwi Farms is most accurately described as a far-right cesspool of hate speech. They're both textbook examples of the 1A being stretched to the absolute limit of its interpretation. I doubt very many sponsors want to be associated with either of the sites, so money based on page views probably isn't a huge factor here.

We're definitely not any better, as the whole TikTok saga demonstrates. Though, TikTok does have a US presence and since it's accessed by Americans primarily via its mobile app, that necessitates having business relationships with our domestic smartphone duopolies.

If TikTok was just a website run entirely out of China, the US government would basically have to take a page out of China's own playbook and block it with our own "great firewall".

If these sites are wholly US based, couldn't the operators just throw the fines into the garbage? Hate to say it, but China's already figured this one out - if you don't trust your citizens to venture out onto the global internet, you put up a firewall. The rest of the world has no obligation to follow the UK's (or anyone else's) laws.

Did we forget that ransomware is still a thing?

Granted, I'm not excusing what is clearly a user-hostile default setting on Microsoft's part, but their given justification does hold at least a little bit of water.

Bump stocks were banned during the previous Trump administration. The electorate just tends to have a very short memory for these sort of things.

Except that it ruffles feathers to even suggest that people should question why we still condone certain forms of sexual discrimination, so good luck ever getting other sports organizers to see things that way.

It's kind of ironic too, because if you're the parent of a young boy who'd rather do girl scout activities - yup, they'll be discriminated against and can't join. We certainly talk a great game about progress towards equality, but where the rubber meets the road there's still at least a few activities where what genitalia you were born with defines whether or not you'll be welcome.

Also, raising awareness of systemic inequalities in society was the original definition of "woke", so if it's making right-wingers with mod points feel uneasy, now's their chance to finally use the word in its correct context.