Meta Platforms: Lobbying, dark money, and the App Store Accountability Act

Am I the only person who recognized that this bill explicitly does not require any sort of id verification? The point is to make apps and websites more accountable.

If we want really a set up where a child does not access it...

Psychology has a higher success rate...just tell them that their parents use it....

There are many systems where accuracy is loose and that is its core feature...for example postal addresses worldwide...I can a mistake in the address but the letter or package will still get there...

How much do you want to bet that Amutable, via its founder's control of the systemd codebase and ability to drive change, will be first-in-line to force a switch to its variant of systemd, along with a module for age verification?

I don't see it as coincidence that with all these laws passing, suddenly he announces a secure, "controlled", "locked down" version of systemd. Why, RedHat and Ubuntu can simply drop in this new variant, pay a small fee, and be done with compliance.

Now it is only age verification. Next they will try to impose digital ID.

That's when you know the new world has begun.

Where do I donate to oppose this bullshit?

I want to open my wallet. It should be the top comment.

This truly is the best democracy money can buy. As long as money and/or favors change hands in exchange for getting favorable laws passed, it's just legalized bribery and buying off your own "democracy".

And it snowballs, the more favorable laws someone buys, the more favorable their position, and the more they can buy in the future. The transition from "democratic facade" to "outright oligarchy" will be swift and seamless.

The original post was removed from reddit but it links to this GitHub repo that has most of the same information, but in a different format:

https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings

I am now waiting for Gruber (daringfireball.net) to post another rant about how terrible EU regulation is.

Zero-knowledge proofs are the way to go for this type of thing, I find it mind-boggling that the US lets itself be bamboozled into complete lack of privacy.

Not surprisingly, Meta is possibly the worst "offender" behind funding of these campaigns.

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Wasn't it Apple that was trying to get Meta to implement age verification in the first place? So, Meta is trying to get them to do it, which seems right.

Why does Apple always get a free pass?