Sanya the Bantyr Bird

Some large and growing eagle

Icon by @AimeeLesleySim
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[Mullvad.net @mullvadnet]

So-called age verification for social media is spreading across the world, framed as an effort to create a safer internet for children. In reality, age verification lays the foundation for a fully controlled internet.

The age verification rush must be slowed down, and politicians need to recognize the consequences of different types of legislation and systems.

Age verification is the wrong approach to fix “the social media problem”
The big tech social media companies are bad. Their business model is bad; it is based on mass surveillance and manipulation, and they cooperate with governments in mapping entire populations. But age verification is fundamentally the wrong approach to preventing children from using big tech social media platforms. Introducing age verification is based on coercion; the state forces social media companies to verify their users’ identities. But the big tech social media platforms already know which of their users are children. Their business model depends on knowing this. They know how old users are, and they know exactly what type of person they are. As age verification is based on coercion, politicians could instead force platforms to stop doing the things politicians consider harmful to children, or force them to block children (again, they know who they are) from using their services. But instead, politicians seek to massively invade everyone’s privacy and undermine democratic rights on a global scale. In other words, the latter is the real objective – they do not want to protect children; they want to impose control.

Slippery slope of age verification
It is undeniable that age verification threatens freedom of expression, risks increasing mass surveillance, and is likely to lead to censorship. It will not only shrink the online world and reduce young people’s right to privacy (for example, if VPN services were to be restricted); but also risks becoming a significant step toward a controlled internet for everyone.

Most age verification is identity verification
Most countries are now considering introducing age verification systems, meaning that everyone would have to identify themselves either to the service/website they want to use or to a third party capable of linking them to their activity on that service or website. This is not age verification but identity verification, and the consequence is therefore that freedom of information is restricted (you can no longer visit regulated websites anonymously) and that you can no longer post anonymously on social media. This is a major problem in countries like the UK and Germany where the police conduct raids on people’s homes for posting content on social media that the authorities dislike. Or in the United States, where authorities are trying to pressure tech companies into revealing the identities behind accounts protesting ICE. Social media identity verification removes important tools for activists in countries where criticizing those in power is dangerous.

Restrictions on app store or operating system level
Some countries are looking to impose identity verification at the app store level or even within the operating system itself. This is an exciting experiment, since this is possible to circumvent using open-source operating systems. Some countries are already looking to include open-source systems. Since open-source systems cannot be controlled, politicians would ultimately need to ban devices that are not controlled by the state. The end point: telescreens like those in Orwell’s 1984, devices that both monitor you and broadcast only the information approved by the state.

The Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) alternative and the EU
The EU has presented its own age verification app as “completely anonymous”. The idea is to use Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) cryptography to break the link between the age credential issuer (EU governments) and the regulated services/sites. Currently, the EU app does not have ZKP functionality, contrasting Ursula von der Leyen’s claim that the app ”is technically ready to be used”. But more importantly, the app is currently designed to always function without ZKP technology; if ZKP is unavailable, the app falls back to a non-ZKP model. Even if fully developed ZKP technology could be implemented in the future, it would remain an optional extra feature that countries may choose to disable and that the EU could remove at any time.

Read more on our site.
https://t.co/wTVKHMS1zg

[Sanya the Bantyr Bird @BantyrBird]

@MarinStrade @sashameetsrus "two degrees in Russian and East European studies" and doesn't even have a clue about the very famous Tito-Stalin split or the also famous Non-Aligned Movement of which Yugoslavia was a founding member. 'Under the Soviet yoke' like Jesus Christ learn some history...

[Americana Pipedream Apparel @amerpipedream]

Stasi Agents Need Jobs Too!

[Traceix @usetraceix]

Das crazy.

[Sanya the Bantyr Bird @BantyrBird]

@AprilsBooks Hello, man here. I for one am quite fond of political thinking and activism, don't let one dickhead or some stupid twitter suspension keep you down. Try not to channel your frustration against the other sex too, that's another way they keep us divided.

[MESSI JUSTICIALISTA @Astartebord]

100.000 viviendas entre 13 personas ?

[🦇💜CuppyCakiee💜🦇【VIRTULANTES】 @CuppyCakiee]

Why do we need to verify our age for a game that requires you to be 18+ to purchase in the first place? Is that not what fucking classifications are even for in the first place.

Something isn't adding up here.

I don't like this at all. We genuinely cannot be apathetic toward this. I am not giving my private information to these companies, period.

[Sanya the Bantyr Bird @BantyrBird]

Do not under any circumstances turn to AI, you don't need it. Do not submit to digital ID, we don't need it, we should have the same rights on protections online as any other public or private space. Do not be complacent. Do not go gentle into that goodnight...

[Matthew Johnson @J_Stobrimore]

@Jack_Cobalt_fur That issue is precisely why many are turning to AI.

[duck @ExtremeBlitz__]

“Delaying” instead of “Cancelling”

[Sanya the Bantyr Bird @BantyrBird]

@FreyArtWatcher @Slic_Ric_DaRula @Renegade17651 You're not sorry, you clearly cannot admit when you're wrong.

[Sanya the Bantyr Bird @BantyrBird]

@Rem_Phase02 At least a few times a week now I see someone post a completely normal, safe-for-work meme, except I don't really see it because DISCORD WANTS TO "VERIFY" MY AGE FIRST. Half the servers I see have the meme channels marked nsfw so I can't see them too. These bootlickers are insane

[Sanya the Bantyr Bird @BantyrBird]

@toof_black @EssengerMusic "Oh you value your rights and privacy? You must like chatting up little kids!" Says the MORON mindlessly defending a company that loves fostering child sex communities and doing nothing to moderate it. I think you're projecting, sicko

[Sanya the Bantyr Bird @BantyrBird]

@toof_black @EssengerMusic

[Sanya the Bantyr Bird @BantyrBird]

@rogeriomarquest @caitoz Best sit this one out bub

[Sanya the Bantyr Bird @BantyrBird]

@KarolusWangus @Nameless_Weevil @ciarannugent You clearly didn't even read the article you posted. You really have to be a special kind of boot-licker to still defend that illegal invasion and buy the very obvious propaganda...

[Sanya the Bantyr Bird @BantyrBird]

@manasamashubby @polyfraggrenade Several NATO nations straight up deny people the right to change their gender and even go so far as to ban same-sex marriage but sure keep living in your stupid delusions. I'm sure LGBT individuals in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Turkey and more really love their nonexistent rights

[Sanya the Bantyr Bird @BantyrBird]

@WOLFKY_GNAR No tail!? 😤

[Zaza Waybright @Le_Unorthodox]

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