The 404 Awards: Honoring The Worst Of The Worst Tech Policy Ideas
from the 404-open-internet-not-found dept
Today is April 4th, or 04/04 no matter which direction you use for showing dates (and, look, while it’s ingrained in my head, I think we can all admit that the US version of month/day/year is kinda weird.).
But, error code 404 is (somewhat famously) the HTML code for “page not found.” In the early days you’d get a boringish page that looked like this:
But, then someone realized you could customize your 404 and you usually get a more stylistic (and occasionally amusing?) page denoting that you’ve gone to the wrong place, and the page you were asking for is not to be found.
Either way, the good folks at the Chamber of Progress, who have been doing an amazing job tracking all of the many, many, many (seriously, too many to count) state bills that attack the open internet, have now released the 404 Awards on 04/04 to recognize (I wouldn’t say celebrate…) some of the worst policy proposals to attack the open internet. It’s such a good idea that I’m kinda mad I never thought of it and did it right here on Techdirt.
Welcome to the First Annual Tech 404 Awards, a celebration of the worst of the worst tech policy ideas that 2023 has to offer. In a special nod to the Error Code 404 landing page – which tells users their link is broken or page doesn’t exist – our Tech 404 Awards recognize legislation that threatens to break the Internet and harm digital consumers.
Every year, some lawmakers introduce and debate thoughtful, well-intentioned legislation with the goal of making the Internet a better place. Others sit down with pen and paper and scratch out the first tech policy idea that makes for a good sound bite. It’s anyone’s guess as to which bill will pass.
I should note that some people get all up in arms about claims that something will “break the internet,” but when people make that claim they do not mean that these bills will completely kill the internet to the point that it no longer exists, but rather that they will significantly harm the fundamental principles and framework that make the internet what it is today – an open, accessible, and innovative platform for communication, commerce, and creativity.
The list of “winners” includes Utah’s new “protect the children” bills, Texas’ bill to force ISPs to block abortion websites, NY’s and Minnesota’s bills to add a tax to delivery services, Iowa’s bill that effectively opens up massive fines for social media companies if they do any moderation, and Ron DeSantis’s entire tech agenda, which wins the “Worst Constitutional Violations” award.
Congrats to all the winners, and sorry to all the losers… which is made up of basically everyone who relies on and uses the open internet.
Filed Under: 404 awards, bad bills, florida, iowa, minnesota, new york, utah
Comments on “The 404 Awards: Honoring The Worst Of The Worst Tech Policy Ideas”
Odd, I would think you would be celebrating all the losing bills, and offering condolences for all the winners.
Me, I’m going to indulge in a little 420 before it’s all 410.
One thing about the New York bill…
from the link in “a tax on delivery services”
[ED: bolding mine]
This doesn’t apply to four out of the five boroughs of NYC (i.e. all except Staten Island), which is a significant chunk of New York State. It’s a shame that that blatant fact of NYC transit infrastructure didn’t occur to the Chamber of Progress. I expected better.
That being said, NYC (or at least everything except for Staten Island) is not the whole of New York State, or even most of it, so for the most part it is valid. And I guess it seems silly to feel unacknowledged when we’re probably the most-acknowledged city in the world other than maybe London, Paris, or Tokyo. However, I’ll speak with my state senator about that legislation and the harms it would bring. I don’t agree with him on everything, but he’s very civic-minded and that’s the least I expect out of a statesperson when one party is openly fascist.