@mhoye Unpopular opinion:

Identity verification isn't so unattractive in 2026 — social media is destroying democracies via anonymous armies of bot people steered by aggressive foreign actors like Putin and Musk.

The libertarian model that the Internet was built on is failing societies.

@txtx some people will accounts there are, and so are people with accounts in other places, because social media it's not just those places, and because the requeriments for id verification are way broader than social media.

@dalias @mhoye

@DiogoConstantino

I don't agree with the premise that there is no possibility for a solution that takes various factors into consideration.

@dalias @mhoye

@txtx that's like telling us to nerd harder.

@dalias @mhoye

@DiogoConstantino So? What's wrong with trying harder? Is laziness an excuse?

I want more fellow tech people to step away from the libertarian ideals of the current Internet, and start coming up with ways to help save democracy from aggressive states and their disinformation campaigns.

@dalias @mhoye

@txtx @DiogoConstantino @dalias @mhoye

Stepping away from the libertarian ideals of the internet is just an indirect way of saying you want the internet to step towards authoritarian ideals.

And you can take that evil shit and shove it. Have you not noticed what authoritarians do with power yet??

Are you aware that all of our social security information and most of our medical records have already been compromised? You REALLY want to fork over more personal information to some cloud where hackers and data brokers and fascist regimes can just play around with it? Once that data is getting hacked and spoofed, they'll just keep demanding more invasive data to prove ID-- right down to our retinal scans and fucking DNA.

None of this shit is about protecting kids, no matter what pretty claims they put on the tin. NONE OF IT.

@dalias @violetmadder @txtx @DiogoConstantino

Libertarian just means you're not the boss of me and selfish now. We've done that experiment and now we have the evidence. The libertarian ethos and its loudest adherents hasn't protected us from totalitarianism at all. It and they have endorsed and supported it.

Regulation isn't oppression. The fact that you don't need to worry what's in the water when you turn the tap doesn't give you less freedom, it gives you far more.

https://cosocial.ca/@mhoye/116041537130876423