Hacker News Reader

Comment by vasco | Hacker News Reader

So I guess in 10 or so years whoever doesn't submit their ID card to every online service in existence will not be able to do much of anything online.

View on HN

Yeah, I for one am getting pissed already about having legitimate parts of the internet cut off unless I'm willing to submit to ID verification.

For example, discussions about recent killings by ICE in the US. This example is one where I really don't want to tie my real life ID to my online presence for fear of retribution if I ever feel confident to travel to there again.

So many platforms required you to register and confirm your age via face and ID scans in order to see any of the direct footage from recent events.

It will just go underground. Maybe that will make it fun again.

I'm not using any social media besides reddit (if it can even be considered a social media) and I have absolutely 0 problem going through life. What are you talking about ?

Yeah but after social media it will be "every site with user generated content" and later will be "any site that isn't verified" then its just a non neutral internet anymore. ID verification is inherently not aligned with net neutrality.

You're using it right now.

Funny thing is, too, that you can do age verification with zero knowledge proofs. No ID needed -- in principle.

Yet in practice, yeah, it'll be the death of anonymity. To allow ZKPs to take off would be letting a good panic go to waste, right? /s

While I believe the genesis of this age limit push is a good old fashioned moral panic, it's also obvious that the usual enemies of free speech are salivating at using this panic as a pretext to ban anonymity on the internet.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com