Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

871–880 of 1001 posts

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

#871

Post by gzread »

vouwfietsman wrote: post #838
cycomanic wrote: post #830

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 opp…

> Ignoring the reality that some system of age ... system is desired by a significant portion of the population How do you think this came to be?

I'm not sure. It dates back hundreds of years, since children weren't allowed in bars

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

#873

Post by gzread »

ori_b wrote: post #850
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…

'Nobody is allowed to do it' remains a valid option.

How would a porn site operate on the internet?

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

#874

Post by skybrian »

glenpierce wrote: post #858
skybrian wrote: post #832

I don’t know why this isn’t a very simple Internet standard. The browsers on devices that have a child lock turned on could send an http header. People who have websites that are adult-only could configure their web server to check for that header and do something appropriate. That requires cooperation, but since most adult websites don’t want children to be visiting them, cooperation shouldn’t be hard to get. Govern…

As a parent, none of these are useful to me. Age is not a useful indicator of what’s appropriate for my kid. At best, this can avoid a small portion of some stuff they probably wouldn’t see anyway. The bad actors who I’m worried about actively try to circumvent any automated systems that block them. These age verification systems don’t help even if they worked as intended… or at least as advertised.

I guess it would be most helpful for websites that can show that they’ve done their part by setting a config flag.

If there’s no society-wide standard for what’s kid appropriate then it’s going to be hard to set up a system that satisfies everyone, but it seems like movie ratings sort of worked?

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

#875

Post by cortesoft »

gzread wrote: post #860
hedora wrote: post #741

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For there to be a solution, there needs to be a problem. These bills are not addressing a problem. Assume the online platform has a video feed of my kid, or their SSN, or a zero-knowledge-proof of age, or whatever. Now, what will the platform do with it? Concretely? As in: Name one bad outcome a reasonable parent would care about that's prohibited under these bills. If the bad thing happens due to willful negligence,…

The Illinois bill prohibits financial transactions, and feeds engineered to be addictive.

How do you define a “feed engineered to be addictive”? How do you distinguish between addictive and just good quality?

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

#876

Post by gzread »

jp191919 wrote: post #856
5upplied_demand wrote: post #821

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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...

>Records from a federal citizenship verification tool show that just 0.04% of voter verification cases were returned as noncitizens in August 2025. Seems like this is just one of those "feel-good" laws. A waste of time and money.

It's not about eliminating voter fraud - it appears to be about eliminating large swathes of legitimate voters, largely in correlation with how they are expected to vote.

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

#877

Post by brainwad »

Barbing wrote: post #701
brainwad wrote: post #653

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a different solution to your other repliers: do nothing, your kid will be fine in all likelihood. If you must satisfy the politician's syllogism, set some time limits and make them touch grass. But a thirteen year old oughtn't be parented like a three year old.

Age verification kind of disgusts me and your kid will probably be fine Isis did manage to recruit young men in the UK via telegram (OK, you just said “in all likelihood“, maybe I’m tossing you the exception that proves the rule)

To be clear, I'm against age verification. Teenagers should just have access to all of the internet, like we did when we were teenagers.

> Isis did manage to recruit young men in the UK via telegram

Not sure why this is an age problem, and why it's ok for 18 year olds to be recruited to terrorist organisations but not 17 year olds...

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

#878

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#879

Post by katsura »

skybrian wrote: post #832

I don’t know why this isn’t a very simple Internet standard. The browsers on devices that have a child lock turned on could send an http header. People who have websites that are adult-only could configure their web server to check for that header and do something appropriate. That requires cooperation, but since most adult websites don’t want children to be visiting them, cooperation shouldn’t be hard to get. Govern…

Then predators can show normal content to adults, while children are redirected. I'd rather the browser didn't leak this kind of information.

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

#880

Post by boyoboy »

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…

[dead]
Post reply on HN