systemd-censord.

*Slow clap*

From: FloofyWolf
Recently, a proposal has been made to implement an API for a new California censorship regulation, "On the unfortunate need for an "age verification" API for legal compliance reasons in some U.S. states" by Aaron Rainbolt. I believe the approach outlined to be very short-sighted, in that creating a bespoke API for each of the hundreds of government censorship requirements that debian will presumably now be following...
https://jwz.org/b/yk41

@jwz Given the ridiculously stupid things happening in the world now, I had this sinking feeling that it would be for real. But after reading FloofyWolf's full post, I'm fairly certain it is satirical.

(See https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2026/03/msg00018.html )

For me #Linux is the last bastion of computing freedom, now that MS and Apple appear to have become largely just #enshittified marketing/surveillance/fee-charging engines. I can certainly imagine a future where Linux (of all flavors) is under all-out assault from the tech-bros.

On the need for a censorship API for legal compliance reasons in some countries and U.S. states

@aebrockwell @jwz unfortunately this is satire based on real life, systemd has really merged age verification https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954. This is just champion satire showing how absurd the logical endpoint of that action is.
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

@chopsstephens @jwz Argh. Depressing. Thanks for the extra info.

It's a bit like TheOnion (news) over the last few years - satire and reality are merging in a tragic statement of where reality is going.