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

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

#821

Post by 5upplied_demand »

otterley wrote: post #750
swiftcoder wrote: post #731

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not sure what's a mess about a driver's license, social security card Neither of those are accepted by various states' voter id laws, nor can you reliably board an airplane with them since RealID. The only foolproof identity card in the US appears to be a passport (which, you know, global federal identity card... exactly what the folks against universal ids dislike)

My research suggests that all U.S. states that require identification at the polls accept a driving license as a form of valid photo ID. Are you aware of any that don’t?

> My research suggests that all U.S. states that require identification at the polls accept a driving license as a form of valid photo ID.

Not today. However, there is a bill in the Senate, that the President is demanding to be passed, that would eliminate this reality.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2026/03/17/save-amer...

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

#822

Post by dylan604 »

redm wrote: post #654

The question I keep coming back to regarding the recent debate around age verification is "Why now?" I'm 47, and I started using the internet in my early teens through BBS gateways. I've seen every age of the Internet, and there's always been widely available pornographic materials. Why all of a sudden is this a crisis? Perhaps I'm missing something?

I would suggest removing your artificial filter limiting your thinking to porn. During the days of BBS type sites, the monetization of personal information was not a thing. Forcing a user to be identifiable in a government mandated manner means the data gathered about you becomes more valuable because it can be pinned to you, not an account you've made, but to you. The government likes the same result if not for the same monetary reasoning, especially this government. Knowing who you are, what you've said, what you read, watch, listen, as well as where you are/have been will all be valuable in different forms of value.

Any reasoning after that is just fluff to get people not looking at it critically to accept it.

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

#824

Post by Aurornis »

cheesecompiler wrote: post #790
Aurornis wrote: post #718

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meta didn’t spend $2B. Even the original report doesn’t say that Meta spent that amount. The $2B number was the sum of all the numbers Claude could find, not the money Meta spent. There is so much AI slop in this article and source that it should be tripping everyone’s clickbait detectors, not being taken as accurate reporting.

Does the amount listed change the underlying point?

This trick is called a Motte and Bailey fallacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motte-and-bailey_fallacy

The fallacy starts with an extreme argument to hook people (the $2B number in the headline) but then retreats to a different argument when the hook is shown to be questionable or wrong.

I do not support this law and I’ve been a spoken critic of age verification on HN. However I think articles like this are not helping the cause. They’re so easy to disprove that they become strawman arguments for the other side. Opponents can dismiss their critics are liars because headlines like this $2B number are so easily shown to be false.

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

#825

Post by pessimizer »

gclaramunt wrote: post #746
sieep wrote: post #723

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just look at the freaking mess that is trying to proof your identity in the US. Care to elaborate? I'm not sure what's a mess about a driver's license, social security card. I've never once had any issue with my identity.

You must not live in the US or have very odd patterns, I'm positive a majority of the US population have free credit monitoring due to the multiple SSN data leaks. The situation is so bad that the SSA has to explicitly state: "Social Security card is not an identification document" https://www.ssa.gov/blog/en/posts/2023-03-23.html

Ah, yes, I'm sure the crap that they make up next week won't ever leak anything.

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

#826

Post by zimpenfish »

dylan604 wrote: post #787
sigmoid10 wrote: post #735

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone has (or can have) a driver's license and a social security card literally says it is *not* for identification because it lacks even the most basic aspects. But since the US never managed to come up with an actual system, companies started using SSNs like an identity verifier, because it is the one thing everyone has across every state. But that also makes identity theft or credit fraud trivial in the US…

> a social security card literally says it is not for identification It no longer says this, and has not for a long long time. My parent's cards did, but mine does not. Also, I'm old (for this forum at least), so this isn't a recent change.

> It no longer says this, and has not for a long long time.

Don't know about "a long long time" but the feds have been treating Social Security Cards as identification since 1943 (military, some agencies) or 1963 (IRS) (cf [0])

[0] https://www.straightdope.com/21341325/why-does-my-old-social...

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

#827

Post by 5upplied_demand »

hattmall wrote: post #772
hedora wrote: post #753

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The federal government is trying to create problems. For instance, a Real ID won't be good enough to vote this fall if SAVE passes: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2025/apr/18/byron-dona... There are also a bunch of other gotchas: Original birth certificates and all currently-issued military IDs are not acceptable, for instance (even though the bill lists birth certificates and military IDs as acceptable, there…

To be clear, it's not required to vote. It's required for a new registration to vote. Which is typically done when you get a new ID, which already requires having those documents, more even because you have to show proof of current residence.

So there is no problem to solve?

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

#828

Post by tashbarg »

f1shy wrote: post #728
tashbarg wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I agree. But I can not see how the legal framework could be better. Insults are illegal. Prosecution needs to look into all reported cases.

The problem with “insult is illegal” is that is hard to define insult. I beg to differ, that is a good system. The full explanation is here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oS9Ey3C_E-U&pp=ygUgQXRraW5zIG9... > Prosecution needs to look into all reported cases. The ramifications of that sentence in terms of cost, effort and possibly other nuances, makes me shiver. Note how a minimal misbehavior of a relatively small port…

Please tell me more about that much better system.

And probably also tell it to some lawmakers. But start with me.

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

#829

Post by zimpenfish »

sigmoid10 wrote: post #735
sieep wrote: post #723

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just look at the freaking mess that is trying to proof your identity in the US. Care to elaborate? I'm not sure what's a mess about a driver's license, social security card. I've never once had any issue with my identity.

Not everyone has (or can have) a driver's license and a social security card literally says it is *not* for identification because it lacks even the most basic aspects. But since the US never managed to come up with an actual system, companies started using SSNs like an identity verifier, because it is the one thing everyone has across every state. But that also makes identity theft or credit fraud trivial in the US…

> companies started using SSNs like an identity verifier

Probably because USGOV said it is[0]

"In 1943 a presidential executive order directed the military and other government agencies to use the number for identification purposes, and in 1961 the Internal Revenue Service began using the number for taxpayer identification."

[0] https://www.straightdope.com/21341325/why-does-my-old-social...

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

#830

Post by cycomanic »

sippeangelo wrote: post #760
cycomanic wrote: post #721

These discussions remind me so much of the US discussions about federal ID documents as verification. There's a vocal portion of people which opposes any solution because "privacy, government overreach, surveillance ...". So instead of a solution like e.g. zero-proof age verification, that tries to minimize intrusions on privacy, the result is the worst of all worlds, maximum surveillance (but I guess it's ok if it i…

Please explain how opposition to privacy invasive solutions result in even more privacy invasive solutions being implemented? Is it purely out of spite from the lawmakers? This logic doesn't follow.

Ignoring the reality that some system of age (and ID verification, for certain tasks) system is desired by a significant portion of the population, and does have utility (despite the shouts for "just parent your children") is simply sticking your head in the sand. So by opposing any solution (even solutions that preserve privacy, like zero-knowledge), you make privacy concerns seem unreasonable and weaken stances opposing the more privacy invasive solutions.
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