The right to not reveal his identity is strong, and America destroys it

Covering the US technology policy over the past few years was to watch a series of dangerous waves of organization and political processes heading towards an inevitable convergence. To cover the US technology policy during the past few months, watching these waves collides invisible under the surface and head directly in the direction of the closest population center, with no warning from the storm on the horizon.

At the end of June, the Supreme Court ignited a two -decade -old precedent that protects the right to not reveal its identity online. It announced that the request for age verification of the extreme web sites offered a small burden and was allowed under the first amendment, Allowing such laws to move forward In nearly half of the United States, including the most famous US state, Texas. Although it is easy to delay the idea of ​​keeping the 13 -year -old children from Pornhub in theory, the decision explodes real concerns about offering barriers to legal speech.

In mid -August, the court went further: it’s at least Temporary Mississippi To extend this age verification to social media, this means, the vast majority of the spaces where people communicate with each other in 2025. Many other countries have similar designs on the Internet. South Dakota and Woewang started Impose their own laws This request is services with any sexual content that checks ages, not only covers sites like Pornhub But Bluezki And other multi -purpose web platforms that do not prevent porn. New York has just suggested rules This can see the rules for determining age on social media within the next two years. Texas and Utah has soon approved rules that require application stores to check the ages of users; A A similar bill awaits California Governor Gavin Gavin New Love.

This is more problematic. Civil freedom advocates warned for years against the existence Basically, there is no way To verify ages without erosion of privacy or a somewhat chilling speech. The politicians’ response was largely that the negative aspects are slim and justified to maintain the safety of children. early The results of the chaos Among the online safety law in the United Kingdom-which requires the ages of a variety of content-refers to otherwise.

And over the past week, things happened But significantly worse. The United States Government – including immigration and army authorities and the Ministry of Justice – Action barrier From inhaling people who made publications on social media, he finds rejected and threatens them by force of law. They are rising a Snitch case This would chase their targets to prosecute or strip the visas, a process that can become easier without limits. Data leakage similar to tea From social media.

While all of this happens, the Donald Trump administration directly coordinates the transfer of one of the largest social media platforms to the Manager -friendly technology. The negotiation process for months I produced a temporary deal To rotate Tiktok from her Chinese mother company; Among the rumors of Oracle and Andressen Horowitz, owned by Larry Ellson, gave the entire process Trump a tremendous crane on the service. This adds Tiktok to the stable companies owned by the characters align a large conservative, after x, owned by Elon Musk-which is currently He does his role To clear online is also undesirable.

These companies are unlikely to resist information demands about users, even if the law verification laws are written for compact privacy protection – a person like Musk may be DOX users without requesting it. Also, by the way, those that have the largest number of resources to comply with the laws to verify age or escape legal penalties to lift them, while services are smaller like Blouse and Mastodon struggle. And increasingly, the big platforms are those The least sympathetic For the weak minorities targeted by Trump.

The bottom line, in several parts of the country, the government would like to collect websites an unprecedented amount of identifying information about its users. in all The country, the government would like to track these users and try these users if they are rude, while maintaining direct lifting on large platforms online and placing non -proportional burdens on the smaller independent areas. It does not require the mastermind to see the risks.

But it seems that it takes more intelligent than many politicians can crowd. Democrats are the direct goal of this last political repression, but the party was a driving force behind killing The right to be a unit Online – New York and California are almost red. Former President Joe Biden signed the Tiktok Divest-AR-Ban Law after a Ethical panic from the two parties This has now been forgotten comfortably. (Not all Democrats, in fairness: Senator Oregon Ron Widen (D-AR), for example, was from Congress. Most strong defenders From privacy and speech.)

I have seen the argument that social media services are already a private nightmare, so what matters to the other erosion? But there is a big difference between the virtual experience that encourages not to disclose its identity and users are completely unable to maintain it. In areas where age cannot be verified, it is still possible to subscribe to many social media services with email addresses from privacy preparation providers such as Proton Mail using Tor or anonymous VPNS, which creates a reasonable amount, if not perfect in friction in exchange for easy identification of yourself from leaks. (new The proposed law in Michigan Will VPNS also prohibit, by the way)

I even do not go into the way in which technology companies use augmented reality and AI to pay for a sum of material and Psychological monitoring stateWith the help of the complete inability of the Congress to pass the protection of the privacy that you may have.

If we get ourselves out of this chaos, the protection of privacy is one of the countless policy reforms that the Americans must request. Add the most striking scrutiny and penalties for companies that fail to protect user data, and to close the gaps that gave the Trump administration (such as the heads of Barack Obama and George WW Bush former decades) Carte Blanche to trample Civil freedoms in the name of national security.

The lack of disclosure of his identity, unlike a lot of public discourse, a new and short -life phenomenon created by the “Wild West” of the Internet. He also argued in the book Jeff Cosf The United States is anonymousThe anonymous, founding publication of the formation of the country – was used by American freedom advocates to “persuade the masses freely and criticize the strong” and later reserved under American law. Despite its bodies, it deserves to be strongly defense, and now more than ever.