Tuan-Anh TranMar 21
Eric Schultz

systemd, the base of most Linux systems, merged in the basics of an age verification system.

This is a massive fuck you to every queer child that the FOSS community cares more about money than user freedom.

https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954

userdb: add birthDate field to JSON user records by dylanmtaylor · Pull Request #40954 · systemd/systemd

Stores the user's birth date for age verification, as required by recent laws in California (AB-1043), Colorado (SB26-051), Brazil (Lei 15.211/2025), etc. The xdg-desktop-portal project is addi...

GitHub
Mar 20 at 5:07pmWeb
Show threadLEdoianMar 21

@wwahammy Unfortunately not the only one that tries to comply in advance, as seen on the xdg mailing list this month (so far)

(Note: yes, #TheyHaveNames, but the emails also have bodies and some people there are opposing the proposals. Please don't shame everyone involved without trying to understand them lol)

The xdg March 2026 Archive by thread

Show threadEric SchultzMar 21
@ledoian I definitely wasn't criticizing all people at those links. There are a lot of good people fighting. But we need to remember those who are perpetrating evil.
Show threadVal Packett 🧉Mar 21
@wwahammy absolutely no verification is there. a single number field does not impact user freedom. absolutely no one is getting money from this, all they're getting is endless harassment and abuse
Show threadEric SchultzMar 21
@valpackett I don't think they're getting money for it. I think they believe they're doing the right thing.
Show threadSpeaktrapMar 21
@valpackett @wwahammy Well they gotta start somewhere, that's just the first step
Show threadwithoutclassMar 21
@valpackett @wwahammy well, they made systemd after all, what did they expect?
Show threadVal Packett 🧉Mar 21
@withoutclass aaand another one for the block list
Show threadwithoutclassMar 21
@valpackett @wwahammy jokes are illegal apparently lol
Show threadJak2k 🏳️‍🌈Mar 21
@wwahammy No, it isn't. If a queer child can run sudo, it can change that field. And if not, it can probably still run an XDG portal that always returns "18".