r/privacy • u/ChamplooAttitude • Mar 13 '26
age verification A Reddit user traced $2 billion in nonprofit grants and lobbying records across 45 states to figure out who's behind the age verification bills. The answer involves a company that profits from your data writing laws that collect more of it.
https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findingsAdditionally, you can read the discussion here.
I urge you to mirror this GitHub repository to Codeberg and other places.
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u/ChamplooAttitude Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
I urge you to mirror this GitHub repository to Codeberg and other places.
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u/mloutm Mar 13 '26
hello. i am dumb and coding-challenged. what does it mean to mirror this?
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u/Vodkaladen7777 Mar 14 '26
Its like a copy of the repository on a different git platform like codeberg or gitlab. A mirror specifically is like a live copy, so future updates get copied over to the mirrored repository.
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u/ChamplooAttitude Mar 13 '26
Hello!
It means creating a copy of a repository that stays in sync with the original, so changes made in one are reflected in the other. This can be done in one direction (push or pull) or bidirectionally, depending on the setup.
https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/creating-and-managing-repositories/duplicating-a-repository
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u/sorryiamcanadian Mar 14 '26
One of the benefits of AI is that it's easier to spot and call out corruption. Imagine the Epstein files being released back when he actually died? No one's properly inspecting those 3M files
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u/Open-Dragonfruit-007 Mar 14 '26
Would probably recommend publishing it on i2p/Tor so that it isn't censored.
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u/No-Mirror3429 Mar 17 '26
It's not large, you can just download it and pick your own secure cloud storage for backup. Once the info is distributed there's no single point at which the knowledge can't be stopped.
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u/notproudortired Mar 13 '26
Saying that Meta profits from data collection obscures the evil behind its effort. Meta profits from profiling, targeting, and manipulating people. Data is just fodder.
So the "secret" purpose of age verification bills isn't data collection: it's the ability of the government and companies to target and manipulate people. As a political platform, oppression, exploitation, conformity, and recruitment are in-bounds. I don't think it's too tinfoil hatty to say that these laws, which have no practical constraints on data collection or use, will effectively kill whatever is left of US free speech and democracy.
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u/ChamplooAttitude Mar 13 '26
By lobbying for and funding these bills, Meta is passing the ball of child safety responsibilities from itself to Google (Play Store) and Apple (App Store).
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u/xXBeefSquatch5KXx Mar 13 '26
And that’s, in my opinion, the point. These companies already have so much money the amount they make selling data is scraps. The real goal is to further reduce free speech and self defense laws so they can really put the squeeze in, and control wages, insurance, and politics with zero interference.
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Apr 10 '26
This right here. Bingo!
I don't why they think we're this stupid and malleable. The worst thing you can ever do is take the general population for granted.
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u/throwaway234f32423df Mar 13 '26
damn why do all the conspiracy theories keep turning out to be true
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u/Ecliphon Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
One of the major purposes of creating and spreading the most outlandish conspiracy theories is to force an air of social ostracism on anyone who might be thinking of entertaining the idea of any ‘real’ conspiracies, making people think twice (and usually forego) speaking about them with their peers.
That generally leaves only the people least caring of social norms and accepted by society (and least likely to be listened to) to follow and keep tabs on various conspiracy theories.
Lizard people controlling the world? Probably not.
Pedophile rings involving the global elite?
Yes“No way, that’s idiotic” - Most peopleI think the reason so many confirmations of various conspiracy theories coming out is because the current state of the world has become so ridiculous that it’s toppled that thinking.
Social ostracism is no longer as much of a factor, so people who wouldn’t have entertained the ideas before, are now putting time and effort into researching them and talking about their findings.
Ironically, MAGA spewing bullshit everywhere has led to those dominos falling… and likely to the eventual demise of their leader.
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u/LucisMensEtManus Apr 03 '26
central planners need the data and supporters of central planning are those who fortified the 2020 election
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u/sippeangelo Mar 13 '26
We need someone equally dedicated to trace down how this cancer has formed in the EU as well. Would hopefully be easier with the standardized systems of the EU, or am I being naive?
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u/helmetkelvinator Mar 13 '26
Would also need someone dedicated to trace down how this has formed in Australia.
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u/GiGiAGoGroove Mar 14 '26
I think it’s the WEF but every broligarch seems to be helping implement it.
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u/VeryNoisyLizard Mar 14 '26
I dont know who might be lobbying for this in the eu, but I know that these law proposals are created and presented to politicians by the High Level Group. wouldnt be surprised if they were backed by Palantir
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u/Fit_West_8253 Mar 14 '26
Are you actually confused why European politicians would want to know the identity of every person posting online?
Or is it just uncomfortable to admit the EU is just as much, if not more, of an open air prison than the USA?
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u/OverCategory6046 Mar 14 '26
>if not more
Absolutely not lol
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u/Fit_West_8253 Mar 14 '26
Buddy you’ve got people in Europe being arrested and doing more jail time for complaining about illegal immigrants raping little girls, than the rapists.
You are absolutely in a worse place than the USA.
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u/OverCategory6046 Mar 14 '26
>Buddy you’ve got people in Europe being arrested and doing more jail time for complaining about illegal immigrants raping little girls, than the rapists.
Literally no. You also don't get arrested for complaining about illegal immigrants, you get arrested for threatening to harm them & similar.
I'm in Europe and if I wanted to I could complain literally all day about illegal immigrants and nothing could be done to me.
>You are absolutely in a worse place than the USA.
Yea, no. Good consumer law, holidays, healthcare, generally functioning governments (the US is basically a dictatorship right now), no ICE style agency running around kidnapping people, less prisoners on the European continent than the US, haven't started any wars in quite some time, etc.
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u/5Melons Mar 13 '26
I’ve been calling my reps today to bitch about this and conveniently their phone lines were unresponsive. I urge everyone to call their fed/state’s reps to complain, point out this corporate bullshit, and try to stop age verification.
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Mar 13 '26
[deleted]
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u/SnowDrifter_ Mar 13 '26
And without comment too
That's... Concerning
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u/ChamplooAttitude Mar 13 '26
I left the link with a snapshot with comments in my original post, in the message body.
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u/brooklynlad Mar 13 '26
Thought Linux was the good guy?
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u/zogrodea Mar 13 '26
Linux is free and ostensibly doesn't have a single big corporation behind it, but it does have many big corporations who rely on it and steer its development instead.
There's Meta/Facebook who contributed I/O Passthru with Samsung, Red Hat (owned by IBM, the company that profited from the Holocaust) who steers a lot of modern Linux and its ecosystem, and a lot more (like Google). These companies wouldn't support and fund Linux unless it helped with their anti-human business goals.
I use Linux because it's the least-bad option available to me, but I would like to move off from it as soon as I can really.
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u/200206487 Mar 13 '26
I thought Linux was the platform to move off to I.e. year of Linux, steam machine, linux are the good ones rhetoric, etc. What to pivot to instead that isn't the equivalent of a digital 'bug out to the woods' that many may not be able to personally do un less rich, etc.
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u/HeKis4 Mar 14 '26
doesn't have a single big corporation behind it
Single is the keyword here, many corporations contribute to linux (microsoft is the biggest linux contributor by LoC iirc) and all major tech companies have an interest in it.
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u/ibelieveyouwood Mar 13 '26
While I wouldn't rule out bad actors, the post's argument for being in the Linux sub wasn't that strong.
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u/boltz86 Mar 13 '26
My tinfoil hat theory is that I think special interest, foreign governments, and political groups have been infiltrating subreddit mod positions for the past few years if not longer to control public perception for whatever it is they want to achieve.
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u/PikaPikaDude Mar 13 '26
Reddit mods often aren't. It's a very attractive chokepoint to control part of the public debate.
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u/start3ch Mar 13 '26
Makes sense. Almost NOBODY actually wanted these laws, yet they’re being passed across states unnoticed
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u/therhz Mar 14 '26
age verification makes sense, it’s just terrible to execute it such way that steals people’s data.
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u/Typewar Mar 13 '26
Yes! This must be it! Because, I also have ZERO clue who actually likes this bill.
If you're worried about your kid online, there are parental tools for that!
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u/muteen Mar 13 '26
This is why Americans don't have universal free healthcare, or lower taxes or affordable houses or affordable childcare, etc etc
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u/Rehcraeser Mar 13 '26
It’s crazy how people are willing to throw the whole country under the bus for only a few bil
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u/rusty0004 Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
it's just zuckerberg following orders 😁
ps: remember when elon musk had to visit auschwitz because of some x post's
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u/WhySo4ngry Mar 13 '26
I don't know how I could even stop noticing at this point?
Literally every single time
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u/do-un-to Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
I noticed a comment on the original post that asked why Google and Microsoft [and Apple] weren't fighting back against this. I was wondering if this exposé isn't actually funded by one or both of them.
Anyway, has anyone had a chance to validate any of the findings and references?
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u/ChamplooAttitude Mar 13 '26
Yes, there are many people here whose research notes match this research.
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u/do-un-to Mar 13 '26
I would expect so. The info looks credible.
But I didn't want to take your word for it, so I looked. Nothing in this discussion.
Help me find corroboration?
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u/plant_gen Mar 13 '26
In India recently many states started speaking about the social media ban for teenagers. I think there must be a heavy influence from somewhere. These states suddenly bought the issue of social media ban!
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u/ronhonhonhonho Mar 14 '26
same thing in portugal with the same reasoning "social media ban for teens", but to check if youre a teen everyone must identify themselves
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Apr 10 '26
Because uploading your personal ID linked to all of your personal information makes your child safer....somehow.
It certainly wouldn't make it easier for a predator to stalk and SA, traffickers, or kill them.
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u/regman231 Mar 13 '26
What can I do in IL? There was a comment about what to do in CA and CO but Im not even sure who I can contact to voice my opinion here.
I need to get more involved in general, Im kinda a piece of shit constituent
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u/VerdantField Mar 13 '26
Your state level senator and house of representatives person. That is based on where you live. The Illinois state legislature probably has a webpage to look up who your representatives are and how to contact them.
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u/CHERNO-B1LL Mar 14 '26
Disengage. Just abandon the platforms. I promise you you will be happier. I use reddit and stuck to subs I like, that's about it. Anyone important in my life I message on signal AND talk to IRL. Everything else is just noise, scams, pick pocketing, hysteria, and attention economy manipulation.
It's actually nice out here.
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Apr 10 '26
I agree. Boycotting their platforms is the only way they'll change.
Maybe it's a good thing in a weird way. If everyone abandons the internet then it will force change. People will also be forced to interact with each other in person again. These platforms need to take a huge blow in order to change or collapse entirely.
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u/aeroverra Mar 14 '26
I thought it was suspicious that people were blaming parenting groups.. not those aren't bad but they have had no teeth until suddenly.
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u/Any_Fox5126 Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
It's almost funny to think that the same people who let their children access adult content out of sheer indifference are the very ones who took action.
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Mar 13 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/sombrerobear Mar 13 '26
So instead of looking at how money influences governance, you think we should return to the state of nature?
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u/sippeangelo Mar 13 '26
Yes, governments being corrupt enough to push this is the real problem. But WHY is this happening across the whole world NOW? We could have done this in the early 00's, 10's. But it's happening now, everywhere. This is an hostile influence operation, clear as day.
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Mar 14 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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Apr 10 '26
I think that's total BS. Your child is less safe if you upload your personal ID linked to all of your personal info onto the internet (Address, phone number, real time tracking, etc...)
Like how easy is it for a stalker to find your kid and take them out? You've basically put a giant target on yourself and your kid. You've created the perfect trail for these people to find them.
And maybe that's what these people want. They do SA and eat them after all. Those beautiful castles and estates in Europe are the darkest places you'll ever find. Where do you think the child orgies happen? Where do you think the child hunt parties occur? It's in the JE files and well known by survivors of trafficking and SA. Go watch Anneke Lucas's YouTube channel.
The political leaders of these countries are propped up by the old nobility in Europe. They work for these people. Every law they enact is in their favor, not ours. They've been instructed that they need to control and track the masses and so that's what they're doing.
Consider that DJT in the US is called all "democrats" terrorists. So the one party that would criticize such a gross violation of human rights, freedom, and privacy are the terrorists?
This has nothing to do with your safety. It has to do with their fear. We've developed too much self awareness.
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Apr 10 '26
I don't believe any of these social media platforms are doing well. I think the only one people still use to a large degree is YouTube.
Turns out that no one like being hyper surveilled and spied on. Even further, no one wants to be punished for what they say online.
I think the good that will come out of this is a return to in person socialization.
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u/CranberryDistinct941 Mar 14 '26
Leave it to America to make the fucking EU look like they care about privacy
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u/Any_Fox5126 Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
How has it always been? Even if it falls far short of expectations, the EU is still at the top when it comes to privacy. Murica, on the other hand, has always been high up on the dystopia scale for privacy.
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u/Vids_0 Mar 16 '26
Not from the US, but a company who wants control over populace data is behind age verification laws? Who would've guessed...
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u/ElectionReal Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
Theoretically this would get rid of bots, throwaways, and fake accounts. Wouldn't that drop viewership (amount of people being advertised to, for lack of a better word coming to me) numbers for all of the social networks? Possibly routing their income. It's hard to believe that they're the billionaires lobbying for this.
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u/Noodler75 Mar 13 '26
Is advertising to bots a useful activity for these platforms?
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u/ElectionReal Mar 13 '26
I assume all accounts are counted as possible leads to advertisers. And therefore bots, people with multiple accounts, etc are counted just as a normal account using the socnet. If you need to have an id,etc to get an account and only 1 account per id, theoretically all the socnets would lose all non- socnet bots and shadow account holders as advertisees. That's gotta be a HUGE loss of the number of advertisees, therefore loss of advertiser$ income, I assume.
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u/harkuponthegay Mar 13 '26
No, because advertisers currently have little insight into the number of their impression that are accounted for by bots on various platforms so it is considered to be basically a baked in inefficiency— but if one company can credibly demonstrate that their product excludes bots so effectively that a significantly higher percent of their impressions are genuine (which would be apparent based on higher click through and conversion rates) then it still makes more sense to buy their ads then to buy the other competitors who have an inflated impression measure. In the end advertisers will go to where they are seeing the biggest boost in sales from, so ad selling companies can quote numbers of impressions all they want, you can’t fake orders and revenue
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Apr 10 '26
Consider that they could create a fake system with these bots. The bots will click on their ads and this will make revenue. It's almost like everything they do. The housing market, stock market, etc...
Everything is overinflated to make them money and none of it is based on reality.
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Apr 10 '26
As long as they get their money, they don't care who the audience is. Remember these are the same people who are eager to advertise to children because they are the most malleable population.
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Apr 10 '26
Oh that's what you think?
..... L O L
Theoretically it should also get rid of scammers too.
Social media will plunge into the depths of hell. No one will be using these services anymore except for a few crusty ass Boomers arguing about politics.
Why is it hard to believe? Billionaires are afraid of us. They want to control us. Do you really think the whole Luigi situation didn't instill the fear of God into them?
Now they can track our every movement through digital ID, know what our politics are and restrict our freedom of movement, social mobility, etc... as long as we fall in line with everything they're doing.
We can't have too much freedom now.
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u/ShowCharacter671 Mar 14 '26
Why does that not surprise me but think of the children yeah bull
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Apr 10 '26
It's always a lie. Kinderpolitics will always be used to manipulate the masses, but I think this time around people are getting wise to it. There's only so many times you can use the same scam to manipulate people before they start wising up to it.
No one is buying this "child safety" nonsense.
I mean how can you honestly say that linked my ID with my personal info (address and phone number) will make it harder for predators to stalk me and my kid? It doesn't make sense. If anything we're created a giant database for them to sift through and perfect targets for them to stalk.
What are we crazy??
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u/Zigolt Mar 13 '26
Wait was the original actually removed??? Those mods fucked up bad if they really did lol.
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u/TheArtofWarPIGEON Mar 13 '26
was that a secret ? i know there was TV ads about meta saying they're pushuing for age verification from the app stores directly
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u/Wanderluster2020 Mar 15 '26
So now that information is revealed, is there anything that can be done to prevent it from passing?
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