Christine Lemmer-WebberApr 15

Well this is truly bad. US national level OS-level age verification bill. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/8250/all-info

The text of it isn't out yet.

EDIT: Well the text is now out and it's as bad as you could imagine. It's not even just that you need to verify your age to access a website... operating systems must verify your age to let you *use a computer at all*

EDIT EDIT: Thanks to @Andres4NY for pointing out that it also holds responsible anyone who has any software shipped on the operating system of a computer, meaning FOSS developers eveywhere

Show threadChristine Lemmer-WebberApr 15

We don't know who's funding this stuff for sure, there was the vibecoded analysis that came to the conclusion of Meta, but I suspect that could be true but Meta wouldn't be alone.

Who stands to benefit from this? A lot of forces of centralization, and anti-LGBTQ orgs:

- Microsoft, for sure, since they are seeing Windows' dominance threatened?
- Apple, for similar reasons?
- Peter Theil and similar surveillance company owners and operators?
- Anti-queer orgs and think tanks like the Heritage Foundation?
- Cloudflare, who will probably run the age verification paywalls everyone will be forced to deploy?

Who's behind this? Who's getting politicians so excited about it? There's such a swell of bipartisan support seemingly out of nowhere, and my suspicion is a lot of that enthusiasm is coming from check-writing.

So who's behind it?

Show threadbbbhltz

@cwebber

My bet is whoever is spending a lot on ads.

Online gambling/casino apps?
Crypto [stuff]?

It isn't about the children, that's for sure.

It is about getting those big returns from advertisers and shifting the blame to lawmakers, states, and parents.

I think it is awful that it has come this far. Boomers deciding how teens should use the web instead of holding the platforms accountable is proof of their weakness.

Apr 15 at 1:33pmWeb
Show threadF4GRX SébastienApr 15
@bbbhltz @cwebber it's not about money, it's about control.
Show threadAmorpheusApr 15

@bbbhltz @cwebber Plausible. Consumer preferences are predominantly built over childhood and adolescence. With age verification, future consumers can be targeted and conditioned more accurately.

Knowledge is power. Making money out of it is projection of power.