I suspect the endgame of this campaign is to have mandatory ID checks for social media. Police would have access to these upon court orders etc and be able to easily prosecute anyone who posts 'harmful' content online.
Funnily enough, when the Philippines did this, it was decried as a violation of human rights [1]. But usually, media are so silent on such things I'd call them complicit. One already cannot so much as rent a hotel room anywhere in the EU without showing government ID.
I couldn't help but feel extremely creeped out, and my girlfriend still to this day doesn't understand why I felt uneasy about it. "But you got your wallet back!", she says. "Of course the police know your number!". Having 0 privacy has been completely normalized, and I'm afraid we're far too late to do anything about it.
sidebar: i've been trying to raise awareness about "joint communications and sensing" wherever i can lately; many companies involved in 6G standardization (esp. nokia) want the 6G network to use mmWave radio to create realtime 3d environment mappings, aka a "digital twin" of the physical world, aka a surveillance state's wet dream.
https://www.nokia.com/blog/building-a-network-with-a-sixth-s...
Is this sort of flow normal elsewhere? It's certainly normal where I live.
I'd walk to a local library and use their wifi. Or walk to a local McDonalds and use their wifi. Or walk to a friend's/family's house and use their wifi. Or...
Followed by governments basically shrugging.
Also the fact that UK and Australia are kind of backwards on online privacy.
That aside, this is targeted. The fediverse and vbulletin forums of old, even reddit, are all social media but will never require facial recognition. If they do, then far worse things are happening to freedom.
They have this in South Korea: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43716932
I live in a Japanese city with a US military base and trust me, the only Western thing here are the few bars that cater to them.
(mind you, ID/age requirements for access to adult content go way, way back in all countries)
If you run a social media site, then you have an API that allows government access to your data.
Why is the Internet any different than say, a porn or liquor store? Why are we so fuckin allergic to verification? I'll tell ya why- money. Don't pretend it's privacy.
1. ID checks are not the same as age verification.
2. a social media website is not the same as a porn website.
if you take the stance that social media sites should require ID verification, then i would furthermore point out that this is likely to impact any website that has a space for users to add public feedback, even forums and blogs.