butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway:

xenoqueer:

systlin:

miyajimosachi:

solacekames:

neuropunk-travesty:

apocalyptic-mailman:

adrainea:

jnyrmni:

deadbilly:

theironguardian:

Silicon Valley needs to brought to heel.

In a March 1 release, Microsoft is warning customers using Office, Xbox, Skype, and other products that the company is prohibiting offensive language and inappropriate content starting on May 1.

“Don’t publicly display or use the Services to share inappropriate content or material (involving, for example, nudity, bestiality, pornography, offensive language, graphic violence, or criminal activity),” Microsoft warns in a portion of their new codes of conduct.

Microsoft also added that the company plans on “investigating” users who are accused of violating the new policy and will block content from being sent to other people.

So will they have monitors watching 24/7 to make sure nobody says something “bad” on Skype? And so nobody uses the service for cyber sex?

Also, Office? Does that mean nobody can use the Office suite to write stories that involve sex, violence and un-PC dialogue?

Who decides what is offensive?

Who decides what is offensive?

Who decides what is offensive?

Time to go back to pen and paper my dudes.

You want fanfiction? I’ll mail it to ya, free of charge in my own slutty, slutty handwriting.

anyone got alternatives to…basically all of Microsoft’s services?

Office: https://www.openoffice.org/
Skype: https://discordapp.com/
Live Mail: https://protonmail.com/
Xbox:  https://www.xboxalternative.com/

• Libreoffice and Openoffice are both free, open source and very similar in interface, but I prefer Libreoffice having used both. 
• Discord is better than Skype, but Discord can and will delete your accounts for breaking their terms of service (you’re not supposed to use Discord for anything illegal). In practice, they’re pretty hard on the far right and Neo-Nazis, and often delete their servers, which in my book is a good thing.
• ProtonMail is pretty decent and easy to use. 

I don’t use Microsoft for anything but school because it’s garbage anyway but Discord is a great app.

Seriously openoffice is great. 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/servicesagreement/upcoming.aspx

Here’s a link to the actual statement from microsoft, for fact checking purposes.

This change in TOS is almost certainly a result of the anti-sex work bill SESTA (also called FOSTA), which will hold service providers responsible for all content on their service, even if that content is ostensibly private. This is supposedly to prevent craigslist, fetlife, backpage, etc from being used as sex trafficking platforms (even though they aren’t), but the primary effect is going to be making sex illegal. Not all sex, of course, just the kind that puritans hate.

Rest assured that, as is always the case, queer content will be considered more obscene than straight content, that sex workers will see a spike in murder and assault, and that people will be charged with crimes for “victimizing” themselves by taking nude photos of their own bodies.

Microsoft is not at ALL the only company that will be rolling this out in the future, and a lot of companies have already closed their doors or severely limited what their platforms allow, in much the same way. For example, Google is banning people who have nudes on their drive accounts, including people whose sexts and email attachments automatically synced to drive. https://trickandswitch.tumblr.com/post/172106947361/lyssamaxiscute-rrottenbee-fromacomrade-sex

Craigslist and Reddit have done the same, and Fetlife’s staff are considering closing the platform entirely. https://www.csoonline.com/article/3264658/privacy/microsoft-to-ban-offensive-language-from-skype-xbox-office-and-other-services.html

Not to cry wolf, but this is the end result of increasing conservatism in not only the right wing sphere, but “leftist” spaces as well. So, here’s a friendly reminder to fight sexual conservatism wherever you come across it, and yes, that includes puritanical “fandom” beliefs that can be used as a gateway to indoctrinate otherwise well intentioned leftists into trying to decide what sex other people can consent to, and all the censorious behaviour that comes along with that.

Supposedly this is also in part meant as an anti-bullying measure, but yes the effects of the new anti-sex-work bill are clear here and in general and are extremely damaging.

Microsoft To Ban ‘Offensive Language’ And Monitor Your Private Account