denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)
[staff profile] denise posting in [site community profile] dw_news

I'll start with the tl;dr summary to make sure everyone sees it and then explain further: As of September 1, we will temporarily be forced to block access to Dreamwidth from all IP addresses that geolocate to Mississippi for legal reasons. This block will need to continue until we either win the legal case entirely, or the district court issues another injunction preventing Mississippi from enforcing their social media age verification and parental consent law against us.

Mississippi residents, we are so, so sorry. We really don't want to do this, but the legal fight we and Netchoice have been fighting for you had a temporary setback last week. We genuinely and honestly believe that we're going to win it in the end, but the Fifth Circuit appellate court said that the district judge was wrong to issue the preliminary injunction back in June that would have maintained the status quo and prevented the state from enforcing the law requiring any social media website (which is very broadly defined, and which we definitely qualify as) to deanonymize and age-verify all users and obtain parental permission from the parent of anyone under 18 who wants to open an account.

Netchoice took that appellate ruling up to the Supreme Court, who declined to overrule the Fifth Circuit with no explanation -- except for Justice Kavanaugh agreeing that we are likely to win the fight in the end, but saying that it's no big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime.

Needless to say, it's a big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime. The Mississippi law is a breathtaking state overreach: it forces us to verify the identity and age of every person who accesses Dreamwidth from the state of Mississippi and determine who's under the age of 18 by collecting identity documents, to save that highly personal and sensitive information, and then to obtain a permission slip from those users' parents to allow them to finish creating an account. It also forces us to change our moderation policies and stop anyone under 18 from accessing a wide variety of legal and beneficial speech because the state of Mississippi doesn't like it -- which, given the way Dreamwidth works, would mean blocking people from talking about those things at all. (And if you think you know exactly what kind of content the state of Mississippi doesn't like, you're absolutely right.)

Needless to say, we don't want to do that, either. Even if we wanted to, though, we can't: the resources it would take for us to build the systems that would let us do it are well beyond our capacity. You can read the sworn declaration I provided to the court for some examples of how unworkable these requirements are in practice. (That isn't even everything! The lawyers gave me a page limit!)

Unfortunately, the penalties for failing to comply with the Mississippi law are incredibly steep: fines of $10,000 per user from Mississippi who we don't have identity documents verifying age for, per incident -- which means every time someone from Mississippi loaded Dreamwidth, we'd potentially owe Mississippi $10,000. Even a single $10,000 fine would be rough for us, but the per-user, per-incident nature of the actual fine structure is an existential threat. And because we're part of the organization suing Mississippi over it, and were explicitly named in the now-overturned preliminary injunction, we think the risk of the state deciding to engage in retaliatory prosecution while the full legal challenge continues to work its way through the courts is a lot higher than we're comfortable with. Mississippi has been itching to issue those fines for a while, and while normally we wouldn't worry much because we're a small and obscure site, the fact that we've been yelling at them in court about the law being unconstitutional means the chance of them lumping us in with the big social media giants and trying to fine us is just too high for us to want to risk it. (The excellent lawyers we've been working with are Netchoice's lawyers, not ours!)

All of this means we've made the extremely painful decision that our only possible option for the time being is to block Mississippi IP addresses from accessing Dreamwidth, until we win the case. (And I repeat: I am absolutely incredibly confident we'll win the case. And apparently Justice Kavanaugh agrees!) I repeat: I am so, so sorry. This is the last thing we wanted to do, and I've been fighting my ass off for the last three years to prevent it. But, as everyone who follows the legal system knows, the Fifth Circuit is gonna do what it's gonna do, whether or not what they want to do has any relationship to the actual law.

We don't collect geolocation information ourselves, and we have no idea which of our users are residents of Mississippi. (We also don't want to know that, unless you choose to tell us.) Because of that, and because access to highly accurate geolocation databases is extremely expensive, our only option is to use our network provider's geolocation-based blocking to prevent connections from IP addresses they identify as being from Mississippi from even reaching Dreamwidth in the first place. I have no idea how accurate their geolocation is, and it's possible that some people not in Mississippi might also be affected by this block. (The inaccuracy of geolocation is only, like, the 27th most important reason on the list of "why this law is practically impossible for any site to comply with, much less a tiny site like us".)

If your IP address is identified as coming from Mississippi, beginning on September 1, you'll see a shorter, simpler version of this message and be unable to proceed to the site itself. If you would otherwise be affected, but you have a VPN or proxy service that masks your IP address and changes where your connection appears to come from, you won't get the block message, and you can keep using Dreamwidth the way you usually would.

On a completely unrelated note while I have you all here, have I mentioned lately that I really like ProtonVPN's service, privacy practices, and pricing? They also have a free tier available that, although limited to one device, has no ads or data caps and doesn't log your activity, unlike most of the free VPN services out there. VPNs are an excellent privacy and security tool that every user of the internet should be familiar with! We aren't affiliated with Proton and we don't get any kickbacks if you sign up with them, but I'm a satisfied customer and I wanted to take this chance to let you know that.

Again, we're so incredibly sorry to have to make this announcement, and I personally promise you that I will continue to fight this law, and all of the others like it that various states are passing, with every inch of the New Jersey-bred stubborn fightiness you've come to know and love over the last 16 years. The instant we think it's less legally risky for us to allow connections from Mississippi IP addresses, we'll undo the block and let you know.

fallenfavored: (Default)
[personal profile] fallenfavored posting in [community profile] ascendedverses
There was something off putting about the fate of seeing a body lay lifeless. Caked in blood. Given up the ghost. To see a thing so often, would dull the senses., you'd think. But no, his empathy was not gone. No, his prideful smirk of justifying the means of awful persons breathing their last, had not left either.

Still. .

Such moments were somber. Even for one who heralds from a more darker disposition of existence.

Knelt down, the sound of a bag ruffled off his shoulder, and a tool is pulled from it's compartment. Long yet slender, sleek in design, but simply just a pole from first glance.

On his back, the Jian that held his most coveted secret, and a visage...veiled by the shadow of his hood.

He's finishing a commission. No more, no less. Standing upright..his dull gaze takes in the visceral sight.


π™²πš˜πš–πš–πš’πšœπšœπš’πš˜πš— πš’πš—πšπš˜:

πšƒπšŠπš›πšπšŽπšπšœ: 𝟽 πš‹πš˜πšπš’πšŽπšœ.
πš‚πšπšŠπšπšžπšœ: π™³πšŽπšŒπšŽπšŠπšœπšŽπš
π™Ύπš‹πš“πšŽπšŒπšπš’πšŸπšŽ: π™»πšŽπšŸπšŽπš• 𝟻 π™²πš•πšŽπšŠπš—πš’πš—πš
π™°πšπšπš’πšπš’πš˜πš—πšŠπš•: π™²πš˜πš›πš™πšœπšŽπšœ 𝚝𝚘 πš‹πšŽ πšŒπš•πšŽπšŠπš—πšœπšŽπš. π™³πš˜ πš—πš˜πš πšπš˜πšžπšŒπš‘ πš‹πš›πš˜πš”πšŽπš— πšœπšžπš›πš›πš˜πšžπš—πšπš’πš—πšπšœ.
π™Ώπš›πš’πšŒπšŽ: 𝟷,𝟹𝟿𝟼,𝟺𝟻𝟢,𝟢𝟢𝟢 πš πš˜πš—

Moving had it's challenges. But the Wuzong operated no matter the location.

To work.

The sleek pole shifted it's end point to a mop like head. His waistband held a spray can that was filled with a special liquid. It's practically water, but it's medicinal aroma begs to differ. Spraying down around the bodies caused the crimson aftermath to grow slick and malleable..thus mopping away to absorb it with sheer ease.

This process was irregular, but precise. Quick, yet done with the utmost dexterity. Angles were sprayed and swiped the moment they came in contact with the black mop. The floors, the walls, the desk (or what's left of it) all the way down to the soles of the once living's shoes.

Not a trace of blood to be found, or left, minus the bucket that would hold the rinse of the dark red ichor his tool would squeeze out.

Now, for the bodies. Bags are pulled from his pack, small but shifting growth with a mere tug of a string. Stretched to ease them all up in their respective body bag, and rolled into a pile, altogether.

"7 bodies in 20 minutes." Checking his phone at the time. It'll be a while until the owners of the establishment returned. Some gang in Soul. A hit was put out, and an assassin answered. Their main quarters are now forfeit, but that's not his problem. He's just the cleaner.

Tapping the 'confirmed' button over the commission. He takes a picture of the body bags, and sends it. Soon his payment will come through, but now he has to seal the deal. The Cleansing. And so this is where things get interesting. Even for Xue Ying, he found that the Wuzong had knowledge of arts and techniques no normal mortals could or SHOULD possess. This lighter for starters . As he clicked it on, it's flames glowed a brilliant, icy blue hue. Lighting the corpses on fire was to ensure the utmost lack of evidence. Nothing else burned, but the bodies. It was perhaps...not normal, for a mere human to see. But to him, these corpse devouring flames were another tool slipped into the human realm by some devious demonic entity, or mythical being. But he has no evidence of that, just a hunch, really.

Not staying a moment longer, Xue Ying finds himself trudging outside. It's midnight. And he's already finished. How did things become like this? How is he able to keep this going? He dreads thinking of the Mythic Beast research he'll conduct tomorrow. His sleep pattern is all messed up, not to mention, he's applied to be bodyguard for VIPs. With..no real luck, on that front. Anything to do..'this' less. But that's how life is. Well, his life.

Chilly hands keep to his pockets while he keeps his head down. Hopefully, no one questions the sword along his back. But it's so quiet..surely he'll run into no one, and he can go home and sleep..
Page generated Aug. 26th, 2025 12:09 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios