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Age verification is just a precursor to automated attribution of speech

nonogra.ph

111–120 of 663 posts

Re: Age verification is just a precursor to automated attribution of speech

#111
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social media age verification is like none of those - social media is the modern public square and age verification is asking everybody to show their papers before participating in free speech in the public. It will have a chilling effect on free speech and will be a tool for authoritarian control

A poor analogy. The public square has never been properly anonymous. If you start saying things which contravene laws or the rights of others, the police have been able to capture you and unmask your identity, if concealed.

So the solution for criminals in the public is for everybody to show their papers walking into a public square? It is not, we have requirements for police process like warrants and a process for determining the requirements for urgent conditions of arrest.

Re: Age verification is just a precursor to automated attribution of speech

#112

This is a reminder to curate and prune all your past social media contribution, because when this goes thru, you KNOW they will apply it retroactively. You'd loathe to lose your cushy job over a moment of lucid honesty back in 2011.

I haven’t had any social media accounts since I gave it up for Lent in 2018 and I’m increasingly starting to wonder if that’s a liability for me because there’s no social graph that whatever agency would otherwise use to, idk, confirm I’m not a threat or something. The lack of a digital footprint like that may look weird.

Re: Age verification is just a precursor to automated attribution of speech

#113
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems unlikely that running a website without age verification will be illegal across the entire planet.

It seemed unlikely to me that cookie banners would be a thing across the whole internet if nothing else because no website operators would put them in. How wrong was I. All they need to do is popularize the idea of "if your website doesn't do X, it'll place lower on google" and people will do anything. My websites still don't have cookie banners and the police still hasn't come to my house. And the websites uses cook…

Ironically 99% of them don’t meet legal requirements. They serve no purpose.

Re: Age verification is just a precursor to automated attribution of speech

#114
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you telling someone else how their hypothetical implementation works?

There's no hypothetical, they tried to equate this to basically buying a gun where you do the certification on purchase. Internet connected devices are not planned to be controlled like that but per session. Under that model what they proposed is obviously not going to work.

Comment 1: “maybe it should be this way”

Comment 2: “it can’t be that way because of this”

Comment 3: “but it can, because it could maybe be this way”

You: “There was no hypothetical”

Oh my god the comments are getting so stupid. Please, I beg you to stop.

Re: Age verification is just a precursor to automated attribution of speech

#115
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social media age verification is like none of those - social media is the modern public square and age verification is asking everybody to show their papers before participating in free speech in the public. It will have a chilling effect on free speech and will be a tool for authoritarian control

Your local library has age and ID requirements. Your local 'town square' has 'some rules'. Parents are entirely able to overcome any of this if they so choose - including feeding their kids alcohol, guns etc. - and so the freedom does materially exist. Social Media isn't a place for free expression - it's mostly toxic - like exposing your children to the most vile, inauthentic people. The more genteel places, frankly…

My local librarian did not restrict my books to the kids section when I was a kid. Also librarians have fought civil legal battles to keep reading activities anonymous. Libraries are unlike the restrictions and risks of the proposed legislation being discussed for social media

Re: Age verification is just a precursor to automated attribution of speech

#116

My theory is that age verification is just another way to push human verification. These large tech companies need a way to verify a user is a real person and not an AI bot. Both for displaying ads to real users and cutting down on spam. Nobody would support a "give away my anonymity online so I can be shown an ad for Coca Cola" bill. But it's easier to sell a law to boomers and lawmakers if you use the disguise of "…

Indeed a lot of social media platforms are used by foreign powers to create discord. Human psychology is much more attentive to negative messages and this is too easy to weaponize. A solution against that would probably be world changing. It would have to preserve anonymity still of course.

Re: Age verification is just a precursor to automated attribution of speech

#117

What would you say to someone who is afraid that a bad actor will find their kids on Discord/Minecraft/4chan and encourage them to commit suicide or shoot up their school?

I would tell them to not give their children internet access at all until they think they are ready. Does it sound realistic? I don't know. From technical point of view certainly realistic, a child doesn't have money / devices of his own

Re: Age verification is just a precursor to automated attribution of speech

#118

My theory is that age verification is just another way to push human verification. These large tech companies need a way to verify a user is a real person and not an AI bot. Both for displaying ads to real users and cutting down on spam. Nobody would support a "give away my anonymity online so I can be shown an ad for Coca Cola" bill. But it's easier to sell a law to boomers and lawmakers if you use the disguise of "…

The ad companies I think would want the opposite

If they cannot distinguish real people from bots they can just charge more for more ads shown !

Re: Age verification is just a precursor to automated attribution of speech

#119
If I say something illegal during a meeting, people will notice it and will report it to the police. Then I may get arrested or fined.

Why should it be different on the internet ? Provided we live in countries where freedom of speech is enacted.

Of course in Russia or china it's different but surely they already have tools like that.

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