Comment by motorest
10 days ago
> There is some amusing irony in the EU relying on the US for furthering its own authoritarianism.
I think you're trying too hard to post cynical remarks as if the were this major gotcha. Even though the bill is quite awful, Occam's razor is quick to point out this has all the hallmarks of an overzealous technocrat than authoritarianism. Try to think about it for a second:
- the goal of the legislation is to ensure adult content is not provided or actively pushed to children,
- adult content is pushed primarily by tech platforms,
- the strategy is to allow access to adult content only to users who prove they are adults,
- the strategy followed is to push an age verification system.
- technocrats know age verification systems can be circumvented if tampered with.
- technocrats proceed to add provisions that mitigate the risk of tampering age verification systems.
The detail you're glancing over is US's hegemony over social media and tech platforms. The world is dominated by three platforms: Microsoft's, Apple's, Google's. Even Samsung is not European. How do you expect to push a technical solution for an authorization platform without leveraging the systems that people use?
Also, the way the current US administration is pushing their blend of fascism onto the world is something I do not find funny. If anything, this would mean the American fascists are succeeding.
> How do you expect to push a technical solution for an authorization platform without leveraging the systems that people use?
Imagine a world in which there are ten thousand phone platforms, some of them are developed by communities rather than business entities, and anyone can easily create a new one. Can your system function in that world? If so, then do it that way. If not, then assume it shouldn't work and stop trying to build it.
> Imagine a world in which there are ten thousand phone platforms, some of them are developed by communities rather than business entities, and anyone can easily create a new one.
You'd be imagining a world that's very different from reality. Lawmakers have to operate in reality, though.
Most of the problems we face with computer technology are because of the dominance of a few megacorporations. Policies that increase their hegemony are making the problem worse, not better!
> You'd be imagining a world that's very different from reality.
If only there were some changes to the laws that could make the better version of the world the reality.
> Lawmakers have to operate in reality, though.
Someone should definitely inform the lawmakers of that.
> the goal of the legislation is to ensure adult content is not provided or actively pushed to children,
Yeah, you can stop here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_of_the_children
It's completely unnecessary,there are plenty of parental control options and software for parents to install.
What will happen in reality is that videos and information is labelled adult content when in reality it isn't, e.g. videos of democratic protests. How do I know that? Because that's what's already happening.
> How do you expect to push a technical solution for an authorization platform without leveraging the systems that people use?
Hardware attestation is an Open standard in the Android world, and it doesn't require Google buttplug in the phone to function.
Details here: https://grapheneos.org/articles/attestation-compatibility-gu...
(I'm not discussing with your other points because at this point they're null and void)
> an overzealous technocrat than authoritarianism
Maybe an easy to manipulate technocrat with an authoritarian figure guiding them from behind.
> the goal of the legislation is to ensure adult content is not provided or actively pushed to children
It always starts with the children or terrorists. It's an easy way to sneak the idea in your head. You wouldn't want children to be harmed or terrorists to win, would you? Once you got used to the though, everything else follows.
Name something you want or like I can lazily turn it into a "think of the children" situation.