Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads, began closing teen accounts from 4 December. It said anyone mistakenly kicked off could use government ID or provide a video selfie to prove their age.
Snapchat has said users can use bank accounts, photo ID or selfies for verification.
In other words, Australia just enforced “internet by passort”, right? Very useful if the goal is build a surveillance state. Besides the fact that is required from platforms to store these IDs and in case of any data breach hakers will get not only email addresses, but emails + id.
Also looks as a very cool feature for platforms themselves: match of users data between different systems becomes much easier: no more expensive and complex digital fingerprinting, just direct match by ID.
There’s evidently a concerted international effort to end anonymity and privacy on the internet, disguised as protecting children. It would be worrying at any time, but it’s particularly alarming when authoritarian fascism is also on the rise pretty much everywhere. ID verification (sold as age verification) is a major step towards making it impossible for political dissidents and victimized groups to organize resistance or read uncensored information without being put on a list, to find, support and defend each other, or to travel freely.
I think it may be time for the public to create their own P2P mesh networks that are “disconnected” from the main internet.
Also as a self-hoster I wonder how this would effect smaller individuals that run their own blogs and websites. How would a small random person be forced to put up a ID verification on their website that they might be running on a small POS laptop?
If ID verification is required but not practical for small independent websites, these laws effectively make it impossible to run an independent website. So only big corporations can serve content on the internet.
In other words, Australia just enforced “internet by passort”, right? Very useful if the goal is build a surveillance state. Besides the fact that is required from platforms to store these IDs and in case of any data breach hakers will get not only email addresses, but emails + id.
Also looks as a very cool feature for platforms themselves: match of users data between different systems becomes much easier: no more expensive and complex digital fingerprinting, just direct match by ID.
There’s evidently a concerted international effort to end anonymity and privacy on the internet, disguised as protecting children. It would be worrying at any time, but it’s particularly alarming when authoritarian fascism is also on the rise pretty much everywhere. ID verification (sold as age verification) is a major step towards making it impossible for political dissidents and victimized groups to organize resistance or read uncensored information without being put on a list, to find, support and defend each other, or to travel freely.
I think it may be time for the public to create their own P2P mesh networks that are “disconnected” from the main internet.
Also as a self-hoster I wonder how this would effect smaller individuals that run their own blogs and websites. How would a small random person be forced to put up a ID verification on their website that they might be running on a small POS laptop?
If ID verification is required but not practical for small independent websites, these laws effectively make it impossible to run an independent website. So only big corporations can serve content on the internet.
This is the thing I’m most afraid of. It’s why I’ve been moving everything to self hosting and de-googling.
Corporate Internet sucks anyway. I’m fine with ending anonymity in it.
First they come for the …
Yeah, slippery slope. Sure.