Microblog Memes

Please remove the link to the youtube channel at the very bottom. It sdoes not seem to have anything to do with the rest of your post and looks like a conspiracy theory-mill. Otherwise I will have to remove the entire post, wich I'd prefer not to do.

The part that frustrates me the most about all of this is how it's a chess move towards a massive power-grab by the few and monied. What's more frustrating is how many people completely miss this, instead focusing on this first move.

We can argue the validity and the expense required in complying with such laws, especially the egregious "on every device" language. But that's not the point.

Up front, only the most powerful and well-connected will be able to comply and lobby for exceptions to this law. And the only feasible way to pull this off is with 100% cloud-connected devices that are already prepared to gather biometrics and basically stick a camera in your face. That means that Apple, Microsoft, every cellphone vendor, every cell network provider, are pre-selected as winners in this race. Anything else can't possibly come up to this level, and/or won't due to the obvious ethical conflicts it causes.

Looking at an even bigger picture, the problem sets up widespread de-facto censorship. It's surveillance and a cudgel for sites that don't participate in said surveillance, all in one.

We've already seen major social media consolidated and owned by the obscenely wealthy and powerful, who are nakedly well-connected with government. Requiring ID to use these sites effectively pushes anyone with a brain OUT of that space. Algorithms were already punching-down on our ability to coordinate and find common ground across the (largely artificially generated) political divide. Now, we're self-segregating and retreating to spaces like Lemmy. The proposed laws would make it much harder to start and maintain alternate media, and hosting an environment full of dissenting opinions would be well-documented and served to law enforcement on a silver platter if ID laws are adhered to. But if you don't comply? Be prepared to lose that whole site since it'll be illegal to do so.

Our company builds control devices for conferences. They are network accessable. So we would need some kind of age verification for a device that switches microphones on and off. Makes sense, does it?

(Sorry, I'm from Finland, I don't know much about the finer points.)

Well this is good. The folks in New York don't need to worry about mega noisy AI data centers in their backyards anymore!

Or any other kind of datacenters!

Or internet infrastructure as a whole!

ISPs will just have to chuck their gear in the Atlantic! No way they'll implement this shit for every single piece of gear. Because they know users won't put up with authorising themselves at every network hop through NY.

Let me quote a joke IT security exam from the late 1990s:

"Your computer has just received a packet from the network. What do you do? Do you need a sledgehammer or is a smaller hammer enough?"

This is what is ahead. Don't give in!

Any info about who is pushing this so hard right now? It seems too much of a coincidence that this seems to be pushed everywhere around the world atm. Makes me think it's not the usual incompentent police and secret service combination

I don't think I want the Epstein class to have an easy way to determine who is (and therefore also isn't) an adult over the internet.

Nobody has proposed better ways to fight against malicious targeted misinformation.

Like, that's a big problem when everybody has a computer and internet connection and there's external forces trying to influence distrust, misinformation, and conspiracy theories to erode democratic values or topple a government. It's a problem that's only going to get worse with the current rise of LLMs.

We don't live in utopia.

We need better solutions for both progress and sustainability purposes. People on both Reddit and Lemmy love to circlejerk sarcastic jokes or doomer bullshit, but never want to discuss, propose, or crowdsource ideas.

What does everyone else got for solutions? Let's hear some critical thinking and ideas here - give it a try - think about a solution instead of bandwagoning.

I’m getting tempted to go off the grid and just make do with meshstatic or such.

I refuse to live in a big brother world.