I think it's already here (globally, I mean). The beast is just now confident to show its face.

My plan is to just never submit to an age verification. Change servers or self host if necessary. Worse comes to worse, we log off.

Because it de facto requires everyone using the internet to provide their identity, which is something that gives authoritarian types a huge boner. Once there is no such thing as anonymous discourse, it becomes trivial to target/arrest/harass/brutalize dissenters or indeed anyone the current regime simply doesn't like.

It’s part of the data center push, Palantir, all of it. Centralized info storage so if anyone starts to push back anywhere they know exactly who and where. That and ads. The internet is too anonymous.

It’s the same set of billionaires. A little line between countries doesn’t mean much to them.

Because the wealthy and the elite think we are on the cusp of a world with a massive labor surplus, no jobs, and nothing to follow it. There will be massive unrest, and so they want to lockdown the internet before that happens, so it will be easier to direct the angry horde at each other rather than at the top where all the issues are actually stemming from.

Because Meta and probably Bloomberg too, bribed them.

Social networks see the writing on the wall and want to create regulatory capture. If they provide the identify verification it is another hook into us.

Everyone in power wants it. They all say "It's for the children". State govs have already done it for adult sites.

They are throwing Bill C-22, (L)Awful Access and C-34 at the same time to confuse low information voters.

Now here's a camera I want full Slo-Mo 4K footage of the Benny's hitting the floor after you slap them out of JP.

You should check out reticulum if you haven't already. More use cases than just messaging.

We're not already doing that? (No we're not, my node is hella lonely)