8-09-2025
Backed into a corner
Let's catch up first
Hey, hope everyone is doing well.
You'll probably notice that the website layout has returned to its original layout. If you didn't notice, then...fair enough XD
To put it simply, the last few months have been pretty crazy. I've finally finished college and have successfully moved back in with my mom. Thank goodness that nightmare is over with XD. Despite this being over with, there is still so much to do. For one, the job hunt XD but other than that, I've needed time to reflect over everything I've accomplished the past few years as a content creator.
One thing that's become very clear to me over the years is that I've grown less and less fond of social media altogether. It's seemed more like an addiction to me rather than giving me anything productive. Sure, back then being able to discover such great creators that I've now gotten to work with and even become friends with in some cases has been great, but that era is over. I don't want to completely throw YouTube away because it is a great resource of information, but at the same time I spend way too much time on the platform for my own good. I've wanted to break away for a really long time, however I never really had a reason to do so due to how much I rely on YouTube for hosting my content. However, due to recent events that I'll get into, I don't feel comfortable using YouTube as a primary platform anymore.
Online Censorship
If you haven't kept up with the news lately, I'll give you the bullet points.
Recently, the United Kingdom has passed a country-wide law known as the Online Safety Act. The original intention of the law was to protect children from harmful content such as pornographic material and content involving dangerous or violent content. However, the law has superceded its originally stated purpose and has become a tool for Parliament to censor any material at will under the guise of protecting children. Multiple political topics have been reported to be completely blocked under the new rule, and it's forced many websites as a safety measure to buckle down its age verification measures. The current method of verifying users on most platforms appears to be requiring users to upload A PHOTO OF THEIR FUCKING GOVERNMENT I.D. to verify whether they are an adult or not. Granted, people have found out that a lot of these methods can be overridden, but these methods are slowly starting to be knocked out one by one. This includes VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), which are services that allow users to pass their internet traffic through a private server to somewhat mask your internet traffic. For many people, VPNs are useful, if not essential to allow users to access platforms while dodging internet censorship, especially in countries that are more restrictive of freedom of speech. So for the U.K. to crack down on VPNs after passing a law like this and completely ignoring a petition from their own citizens, it's clear Parliament does not care for Internet Privacy, wich is a clear foundation of the Internet as we know it.
Now you're probably wondering, why does this matter to us if this is only happening in the U.K., well to put it simply, it's not just happening in the U.K., it's happening in many other places. The U.K. was simply the first to get called out. Over here in the U.S., many states have already passed content censorship laws, on top of that three bills have been introduced that not only is suggesting some form of i.d. verification to access the internet, but also is interested in censoring content as well. To top it off, platforms such as YouTube have announced that they are introducing age verification anyway for countries outside of the U.K. and other platforms such as Spotify and Discord seem to be following suite.
What I plan to do about it
So, hopefully this is all just a big media scare and nothing really comes out of like like what happened with COPPA and Article 13 (if anyone remembers those incides, good times). However, to me since I was already planning to move away from social media, this seems like a smart move to make anyway. I'm going to be stepping away from a lot of social media platforms in general. I have some plans on how I can step back from social media as much as possible that way I can focus on stuff that matters to me such as the TFB brand.
I most likely will invest in a VPN of my own, and maybe when I make crazy money I'll get into setting up a homelab that way I can have a bit more control over my tech life. More on that in the future.
The Future of TFB
As for what happens to TFB as a brand, to put it simply I'm taking the route of being a digital nomad. I've given up on the dream on becoming a successful YouTuber a long time ago. To me, it doesn't matter. I am and always will be an online artist/creator. If one platform dies, I just move on. It's part of why I started this website. I always feel like having one central place everyone can go to in case all fails is always for the best, so that will be my intention.
Fortunately, I have a plan to where I can place my content in the future. As for my animations, I am planning to transfer my animations to Newgrounds. That platform seems to be more understanding of artists and animators, plus they seem to be tackling the online censorship issues properly. However, I will have a backup elsewhere just in case Newgrounds goes as well. The intention is to always have a backup in case a service goes down. The goal is to one day in the future host the website myself as well as all of my content that way no one can take me down XD
So basically, I'm not going anywhere. I plan to release a seperate update in the future to let everyone know where my content is going, so be sure to look forward to that. Now that college is out of the way, I should be able to return to figuring out projects stuff now, and now that I know myself a lot better this should work out better.
I do want to make a college retrospective blog post in the future to go over my thoughts as well over the whole thing, as well as provide an explanation as to why I've been so flip flop over the past few years. Anywho, hope everyone has an amazing day, and I hope to hear from you all soon. Make sure to sign the Guestbook or send me a message on Discord if you have questions.