Guess who's behind the sudden rush of age verification legislation?
In the US, #Meta is spending $26.3 Million to hire at least 86 Lobbyists from 40 lobbying firms, and lobbying in at least 45 states. It is confirmed that Meta wrote the Louisiana age verification bill.
In the EU, Meta is spending ten million euros annually on lobbying, retaining 18 lobbying firms.
Edit: this article is based on LLM generated material, and I haven't spent the time to check its sources
@simon_brooke Are we sure about this? I thought I saw a post yesterday that said that this idea had come from an LLM someone was using to help them figure it out and they wrote a post based on that.
But I don’t know if that was this post or a different one.
@foobarsoft Follow the link.
Yes, provided we accept the authenticity of the authors of that site, we are sure about that. They publish enough of their data that it would be possible to verify it, although I have not done so in any depth.
It's the same post, I read it yesterday too and it was mentioned in the methodology section. Which today however looks a bit cleaned up from what I remember
https://tboteproject.com/git/hekate/attestation-findings#methodology-and-tools
The potential LLM authorship discussion on reddit, make of that what you will
https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1rshc1f/i_traced_2_billion_in_nonprofit_grants_and_45/oa7lywh/
@gotofritz @simon_brooke @foobarsoft the first I saw of this was https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings?tab=readme-ov-file
They freely admit the AI and tell you to check the primary sources. Which I do not have time to do.
I don’t condemn using AI for research - it’s a tool, and clearly assembled this in inhuman time. Is some of it wrong? Probably.
AI hype is a planet-cooking disaster. The tech itself is just another tool - maybe useful for good, or evil: https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/12/normal-technology/
@codinghorror @simon_brooke
;) Always have been, but more slippery. C.f.: the church (or other transnational religious authority).
Of course, the reason Meta wants these laws passed is to prevent people from having alternatives when Zuck doxxes all his users.
If he does it alone, pretty much everyone with a functional brain will leave.
#meta #Zuckerberg #Facebook #Instagram #Threads #AgeVerification #Privacy #PredatoryCapitalism #Surveillance #FirstAmendment #Coup #Protest #Activism #SurveillanceCapitalism #BigBrother #TheNewInquisition
It’s not just about attacking privacy and removing it from society. I think it’s also more about control.
Control of what a person sees, what a person thinks, what the person will be “allowed” to do depending on the party in charge involved.
@simon_brooke I'm aware. Anyone willing to review what I want to send to my local rep?
*edited want to willing - seems more appropriate.
^edit 2 I did text him the link. Delivered not yet read.
@chimpchomp @simon_brooke At the very least, it sets two novel precedents:
1. that when a kid is harmed on the Internet, Facebook and Instagram aren't held liable— rather, the OS manufacturer is.
2. that creating barriers to information at a systems level of consumer computing be normalized, along with bolstering arguments to centralize the systems needed to implement these policies
@rezmason @chimpchomp @simon_brooke
Is there any way #Meta can leverage #ageVerification for improved ad targeting and behaviour monitoring? Otherwise all we're saying is that they're trying to get ahead of a potential problem and make sure the law is structured in a way that sees them as unlikely to be culpable... Which is sad, but is probably also the reason for half the lobbying of governments by anyone the world over.
#surveillanceCapitalism #law #surveillance #massSurveillance
@doboprobodyne @rezmason @chimpchomp
> Is there any way #Meta can leverage #ageVerification for improved ad targeting and behaviour monitoring?
Obviously there is. Age is one of the key indicators used in targeting. But in seeking to ascertain age, they can also ascertain other useful indicators.
@palfrey Indeed. If there was age verification legislation, I'd probably have to implement age verification on my blog, which would make it substantially more expensive to run a personal blog.
Which is about trying to price people out of maintaining their own independent websites, since Meta, Google et al find it much harder to monetise independent websites.
@simon_brooke For accurate lobbying spendings in the European institutions per year, see the LobbyFacts project:
sidb
Simon Brooke
Michael Cook
gotofritz
Kynx
near
Sharp Cheddar Goblin
Jeff Atwood
doboprobodyne
Miss Gayle
ItsComplicated
Patrick Loftus 🖖
Yoodle 🇨🇦
rezmason
Disreputable_Craftsman
Tom Parker-Shemilt
Skyper 💻🎧☕📖
Mercurial