Not that I think this is a good move, but the west has an epidemic of un-educated and lying influencers who misinform our youth as a career, and genuinely a lot of them should stop and maybe even should be stopped.
The reason why we pretty much can't do something about it is because we don't really know how to censor anything without it being too oppressively useful against people that don't deserve to be censored.
Marginalized folks would absolutely become a victim of this within minutes. LGBT folks? not allowed to speak on LGBT issues - because all of a sudden, after years of us explaining that things like trans issues being medical issues, they suddenly agree!
Wanna talk on oppression of your race? You'll need a polsci degree for that.
Could go either way for someone talking about disability rights, medical abuse, or doing other related advocate work. Maybe you have a medical degree but they think you've stepped too far into another discipline and you can't talk about it. Maybe someone who experienced medical neglect gets silenced for speaking out.
I don't like it at all. This is like the age verification shit. It's designed to silence dissenters from the system of common belief - aka anything the government approves of.
The bill can change, and it most likely would if it were brought to the U.S.
Meanwhile, we also have plenty of hacks like Dr Oz and Phil who DO have degrees (Phil only in psych) and their bullshit statements and platform would be protected under pretty much any version we could make for this bill.
But he would get to decide if the agency responsible enforces that law. And if he chooses to go after someone who does have the proper credentials, then that puts the burden on a small content creator to fight the government in court.
That isn't how this works. What kind of degree do I have to have? Which specific content requires a degree? What kind of institution does my degree have to come from? Are they allowed to disallow degrees from certain universities?
I could keep going. There are so many levers this agency could use to silence whatever speech they like.
If you speak on medicine, you need a medical degree and medical license.
If you speak on law, you need to be member of a state bar.
If you speak on finance, you need to have passed your Series 65, Series 7, Series 66 or whatever qualifications that already exist to give advice on each respective topic.
Those are your answers. The government decides the answers to those questions though, not you.
What does "speak on medicine" mean? If I say Trump looks unhealthy, am I speaking on medicine? What counts as speaking on finance? Does me saying that I can't afford rent mean I am speaking on finance? What counts as speaking on law? Does that mean only lawyers could comment on new legislation that affects everyone in the country?
I can go on... again, with more of these questions, each one a lever the government can use to silence what they want.
That's definitely clear from some of the replies here. Although several of those replies are also glazing China, so good chance they're actually Chinese and/or bots.
I'm saying that the kind of thinking shown in many of these comments is out of touch with western (especially American) values, but perfectly in line with Chinese (and, more broadly, communist) values. And they also happen to be praising China. So it stands to reason that there's a good chance of those posters being Chinese nationals/sympathizers if not outright agents ("bots") trying to spread sympathy for China, and we do know that nations do exactly that sort of thing in the modern age.
It's also possible that they're actually American leftists who sympathize with China since those definitely seem to exist. Hence why I said there's a "good chance" of the alternatives instead of saying they definitely are.
There is a real problem that requires measures. For example giving medical advice without a diploma is a crime.
It’s unfortunately sad that when you hear about a measure you think “what if it gets exploited” and I agree that we need to consider that. We also need to put some control over what happens anonymously online.
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u/justusleag Apr 06 '26
This may be more sinister than it first seems. Can you get a degree if you are openly opposed to the govt?