Hey John,

We need a firestorm to take down online ID checks for good—so we planned one. Mark your calendar for the Stop Online ID Checks Week of Action, next week December 1st-5th. Here’s what you can do ahead of time:

1. Join Fight’s urgent actions Signal chat. If you haven’t already, joining our Signal chat⁵ is the fastest and most secure way to hear about opportunities to take action next week and beyond. We don’t post things often, so when we do, you know it’s go-time.
   
   

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2. Make a donation to fuel the fight. We’re up against some of the slimiest politicians and special interest money out there. If we want to stand a chance against ID checks as a small, queer woman-led team, we need funds to punch up. Any amount you can spare makes a huge impact.
   
   

   FUEL THE FIGHT

No one should be demanding your ID, credit card info, or face scan just to navigate to your favorite sites, read the news, or play games. But that’s the growing reality for Internet users globally, as online ID check laws take hold in places like the UK¹ and many US states.² We’ve written extensively about how ID checks invade our privacy and cut off vital access to things like abortion info and sex education.³ The disastrous roll out of the UK Online Safety Act¹ alone shows us just how important this fight is right now. But the politicians pushing these policies aren’t just overly cautious, or killjoys.

When it comes to online ID checks, censorship isn’t an unfortunate byproduct: it’s the point. Fascists and the spineless tech companies pre-complying with them can talk all they want about “safety” and “convenience,” but we know the truth. The loudest proponents of online ID checks hate queer and trans people. They’d love to see porn banned and abortion restricted.⁴ They want an end to online anonymity. They want to control what we see, who we talk to, and what’s considered “appropriate” for public discourse.

We’re fighting back to save the Internet we need at a time when it really, really matters. Next week, we’ll share out more quick and easy ways to drum up opposition to ID checks and demand tech companies stop complying with censorship.