[amiga386]

You're not thinking more than one step ahead. If you let a third party define who "has ID", "is human", etc. you give that third party control over you. You already gave control of your attention away to the sites who host the UGC, now you also give away control of your sense of reality.

At any point they can tell a real human what they can and can't say, and if they go against their masters, their "real human" status is revoked, because you trust the platform and not the person.

If we want to go full conspiritard, we could accuse those of wanting to control speech to be the financial backers of those flooding social media with AI slop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gGLvg0n-uY -- this fictional video thematically marries Metal Gear Solid 2's plot with current events: "perfect AI speech, audio and video synthesis will drown out reality [...] That is when we will present our solution: mandatory digital identity verification for all humans at all times"

[edgyquant]

I am though. In the world I live in I already have to give power over myself to corporations and a government, I don’t buy this as an argument for continuing to let internet companies skirt existing laws.

[amiga386]

I don't know what to say. You will live in a world "where the average person unknowingly interacts with bots more than other individuals and where black market actors can sway public opinion with armies of bots", even more so after you and I and everyone on the planet are compelled to provide our identity at all times.

The various government actions trying to force "robust" age verification on the internet are being woefully naive in trusting other internet companies and letting them skirt existing laws on data protection.

That's not even mentioning other factions whose real goal is in shutting down legal speech that doesn't meet their Christian agenda: https://theintercept.com/2024/08/16/project-2025-russ-vought...

You are being a useful idiot, sorry. Your weakness is what politicians exploit when they say "think of the children", you fail to see the amoral power-grabs hiding beneath their professed sentiment.

I don't want you encouraging people to demand my identity because you trust "authorities" taking yours