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情報通信審議会　情報通信技術分科会　陸上無線通信委員会 5.2GHz帯及び6GHz帯無線LAN作業班（第13回）の開催について

松本総務大臣閣議後記者会見の概要

令和6年度地方財政審議会（8月21日）議事要旨

令和6年度地方財政審議会（8月28日）議事要旨

New Tech Doesn’t Solve Old Problems With Age-Gating the Internet

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, and TechFreedom urged the Supreme Court today to strike down HB 1181, a Texas law that unconstitutionally restricts adults’ access to sexual content online by requiring them to verify their age. 

Under HB 1181, signed into law last year, any website that Texas decides is composed of “one-third” or more of “sexual material harmful to minors” is forced to collect age-verifying personal information from all visitors. When the Supreme Court reviews a case challenging the law in its next term, its ruling could have major consequences for the freedom of adults to safely and anonymously access protected speech online. 

"Texas’ age verification law robs internet users of anonymity, exposes them to privacy and security risks, and blocks some adults entirely from accessing sexual content that’s protected under the First Amendment,” said EFF Staff Attorney Lisa Femia. “Applying longstanding Supreme Court precedents, other courts have consistently held that similar age verification laws are unconstitutional. To protect freedom of speech online, the Supreme Court should clearly reaffirm those correct decisions here.”  

In a flawed ruling last year, the Fifth Circuit of Appeals upheld the Texas law, diverging from decades of legal precedent that correctly recognized online ID mandates as imposing greater burdens on our First Amendment rights than in-person age checks. As EFF explains in its friend-of-the-court brief, there is nothing about HB 1181 or advances in technology that have lessened the harms the law’s age verification mandate imposes on adults wishing to exercise their constitutional rights. 

First, the Texas law forces adults to submit personal information over the internet to access entire websites, not just specific sexual materials. Second, compliance with the law will require websites to retain this information, exposing their users to a variety of anonymity, privacy, and security risks not present when briefly flashing an ID card to a cashier. Third, while sharing many of the same burdens as document-based age verification, newer technologies like “age estimation” introduce their own problems—and are unlikely to satisfy the requirements of HB 1181 anyway. 

"Sexual freedom is a fundamental human right critical to human dignity and liberty," said Ricci Levy, CEO of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation. "By requiring invasive age verification, this law chills protected speech and violates the rights of consenting adults to access lawful sexual content online.” 

Today’s friend-of-the-court brief is only the latest entry in EFF’s long history of fighting for freedom of speech online. In 1997, EFF participated as both plaintiff and co-counsel in ACLU v. Reno, the landmark Supreme Court case that established speech on the internet as meriting the highest standard of constitutional protection. And in the last year alone, EFF has urged courts to reject state censorship, throw out a sweeping ban on free expression, and stop the government from making editorial decisions about content on social media. 

For the brief: https://www.eff.org/document/fsc-v-paxton-eff-amicus-brief

For more on HB 1181: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/05/eff-urges-supreme-court-reject-texas-speech-chilling-age-verification-law

Contact:  LisaFemiaStaff Attorneylfemia@eff.org

　８月６日、79回目の原爆の日を迎えた広島の平和記念式典は、平和記念公園の入園規制を市が打ち出し、異様な雰囲気のもとで営まれた。　式典に大きな混乱はなかったが、公園全域への入園規制で、園内各所にある原爆犠牲者碑への平和を求める市民の参拝や自由な行動は阻まれ、会場内の式典参列用の被爆者・遺族席では、規制で移動を妨げられた結果、５００席を超える空席ができるなど、信じがたい光景が生じた。　このところ、被爆地広島では、「広島をヒロシマでなくす」動きが続く。今年の８・６で露わになった「..

　「人を第一に考えよう」（Put people first!）をテーマに、第25回「国際エイズ会議」（AIDS2024）が７月２２日から２６日まで南ドイツ最大都市、ミュンヘンで開かれ世界１００か国以上から約２万人が参加した＝写真＝。北九州支部は感染症対策にも力を入れており現地で取材。国連首脳がエイズ対策は「岐路に立っている」と対策強化を呼びかけ、開催国ドイツのショルツ首相も「２０３０年までにエイズの流行を終わらせるという目標に向けて協力しよう」と国際社会にさらなる取り組みを訴..

黒鉄好＠安全問題研究会です。東北新幹線で先日起きた「はやぶさ6号・こまち6号」の列車分離事故については、今後の調査や報告を待ちたいと思いますが、取り急ぎ、現時点でのコメントです。「はやぶさ6号・こまち6号」の連結器が走行中に外れ、両列車が分離した事故に衝撃を受けています。この手の事故は、在来線では古くからあるものですが、高速走行中の新幹線では、報道されているように初の事態です。鉄道車両のブレーキは、自動車でもバス・トラックなどの大型車に導入されているものと同じです。圧縮空気の力でブレーキパッドを車輪に押し当て、摩擦で止めます。圧縮空気は、機関車／先頭車からの操作によって、車両同士を結んでいるパイプを通じて後方の車両に順次、送られていきます。この圧縮空気の力で、ブレーキパッドを操作しています。（黒鉄好）