@iaruffell

Because it's not a single state, not even a single country. I think this video about systemd is elucidating:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5AcreFk40U

Watch until the end, because the last message is important.

#systemd #linux #ageverification

@ammdias

I thought the Colorado situation was ongoing. But that doesn't invalidate my point that some statutes are given rapid attention and others, which are designed to help minorities are not.

Oh, and at the risk of being snarky, I note with amusement that a response to a point about accessibility is a youtube video. Honey, it is wasted on me.

@iaruffell @ammdias

These age-verification laws are getting promoted by Meta, in their ongoing efforts to evade culpability for content moderation & to eliminate privacy as a civil right.
https://www.gadgetreview.com/reddit-user-uncovers-who-is-behind-metas-2b-lobbying-for-invasive-age-verification-tech

https://fortune.com/2026/03/02/social-media-companies-age-verification-addiction-privacy-concerns/

https://thedeepdive.ca/who-pushes-age-verification-bills/

Meta never abided by child protection laws before. Why now?
https://archive.is/ZyajL

https://winbuzzer.com/2026/03/18/reddit-user-uncovers-meta-2b-lobbying-age-verification-xcxwbn/

They want to be able to sell ads adjacent to CSAM content for the Epstein Class & not face the type of repercussions ...

1/

@Npars01 @ammdias

Certainly. But that doesn't address my question about the readiness of FLOSS to comply in one case and not the other.

Privacy is enshrined in Article 8 of ECHR, which is a bit harder to undo, although the right in the UK are now intent on leaving (for other reasons).

@iaruffell @ammdias

My guess?

Linux developers may have patrons that they don't want to irritate.

My observation is that swift unemployment in a day job follows when a FOSS developer fails to fall in line.

@ tante@ tldr.nettime.org is just one example I can cite.

Age verification is getting unprecedented levels of support from funded mass malign influence campaigns.

@Npars01 @iaruffell @ammdias There's no need to guess: Linux developers that are trying to address this are concerned about legal exposure.

Ultimately, if CA decided to bring suit against one of the vendors or projects, the law would *probably* be overturned, etc. But that costs a ton of money that vendors don't want to spend and projects do not have. The EFF has said that they believe the law will apply to the distributions, regardless of whether they are based in CA or not.

I'm a bit concerned about the frenzy over this: it seems to have originated with a right-wing personality and is taking on a tone similar to the anti-Mono and anti-systemd brigading that was particularly nasty. And people are turning on FOSS developers in a particularly nasty way now. It's not helpful, and it's not conducive to solving these problems. Disagreeing with the way projects/distributions are handling it is fine, of course -- but people should be able to argue without slinging hate at people at the first sign of disagreement. We should be better than that.

From what I've seen so far, none of the proposed ways to comply with the CA age-verification requirement are even difficult to disable.

There is too much badness going on right now for this kind of vicious infighting.

Note: I wrote about all this here: https://lwn.net/Articles/1062112/