Tech Reality

Retired from the world of IT support. Moved to making YouTube videos that are more for entertaining myself than anything else. Davinci Resolve Studio user.

[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

[Mrs Ronald Raccoon @CentralReserva9]

Sky news are warning not to turn Henry Kowaks murder into a political football...

Said the Org who turned George Floyd's death into a political football

Fuck off Sky

[Annie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧🩷 @Lipstick_Lass]

@JohnSwinney @ScotlandNT

[Roger the Policeman @RogerthePolice]

@joannaccherry I would like @COPFS to publish why it decided to prosecute me for assault, after I successfully prevented a suicide in police cells.

[That’s Labour Innit 🥀 @UKLabour_Innit]

Grew up looking at Police Officers with total respect.

Nowadays look at Police Officers with total disgust.

Anyone else feel the same?

[AC_SPARTAN @ACSPARTAN1]

Yet another brutal rape in a Glasgow lane while people pass by. The audacity and ferocity of these attacks should be mainstream news and the city centre should be flooded with police on foot patrol. Glasgow is not safe. It hasn’t been for a very long time.

[Phil Hyland @pjhlaw]

All the parties and party leaders went along with covid at the time.

Therefore none are fit to lead.

If the politicians could not see through the constructed nature of the scare event then they all lack the required vision.

Every single MP from 2020 failed the test.

No amount of hipster beards can change that.

[Pat Condell @patcondell]

These are dark days for Britain. Our legal system has been corrupted. Judges are openly politicised. The police, formerly trusted and respected, are feared and despised.
No native person, especially if they oppose the establishment, can expect fair treatment in a British court.

[Craig Houston @CraigHouston_]

I bet good money I’m on it.

[Linuxiac @linuxiac]

Plex is tripling its Lifetime Pass price to $750 on July 1, while Jellyfin mocked the move with a satirical $0 “price increase.”
https://t.co/9mGNtXf1Et

#Plex #Jellyfin #Multimedia #OpenSource

[Jeff Geerling @geerlingguy]

Dump @plex, use @jellyfin

[Tech Reality @reality_tech]

@Daniel_Batal Well… I’m staring at it… thought it was a 3D SIRD and seen a cat in it… but no! Now you explained it, it all makes sense! :)

[Restore Edinburgh @RestoreEdi]

Make sure everyone you know in Makerfield sees this clip from September 2025. Burnham saying he will put the UK back in the EU.
Share this like crazy people 👇

[Craig Houston @CraigHouston_]

When a disgraced ex Councillor for SNP agrees to a charity bet based on me getting more votes than he did with a party behind him and then does this..........................

Austin Sheridan has no principles.

[Craig Houston @CraigHouston_]

I think we need to consider drug testing our MP’s.

[Craig Houston @CraigHouston_]

🚨CLOWN WORLD

In Holyrood a Rhodesian with an Arabic scarf states she will do all for Scottish people. Then takes proper oath without a raised hand.

What has Scotland became?

[Pete @PeteBritish]

Digital ID will be voluntary, in the same sense that water and food are also voluntary.

Prepare to stand by your principles and say #NoToDigitalID

[Daisy 🇬🇧 @Daisy_Dook]

I'm so sick and tired of being told to accept every culture but my own.

My culture is ALL I need 🥰

[Restore Halifax @RestoreHalifax]

They say digital ID will be voluntary... until it won't be.

[Craig Houston @CraigHouston_]

SNP refuse to work with a Party in Scotland voted in by Scottish voters but will happily work with a party with ties to terrorists who murdered Scottish soldiers.