From the press release [my emphasis]:
Require operating system developers like Apple and Google to verify users’ ages when setting up a new device, rather than relying on self-reported ages.
cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/25834609
The U.S. has been quietly building up a set of state-level laws that push operating system providers into the age verification plague.
California’s AB 1043, signed in October 2025, requires OS providers to collect age data at account setup and pipe it to apps through a real-time API. It kicks in on January 1, 2027.
Colorado is working on something nearly identical. SB26-051 (which we covered when it was still a proposal) passed the state Senate 28-7 on March 3, 2026, and is now waiting on a House vote to become law there too.
However, these are just state-level laws. A new federal bill, H.R.8250, introduced on April 13, 2026, by Rep. Josh Gottheimer, with Rep. Elise M. Stefanik signing on as cosponsor, has us intrigued.
I flat out have not been able to “catch up” my subconscious to the alarm bells my consciousness is ringing. That’s how significant the shift in the corporate stance is for me (though to be clear it’s not surprising and I never saw them positively).
Always always always the tech companies were at least a weighty line of defense, like you said. Not so much a guide toward good things but at least a “hey! I’m making money over here, don’t mess that up with your bullshit!” kept things manageable. (Well. Kinda. For a while.)
But yeah, the mask-off corporate fascism simply realizes it has shed those shackles entirely. They can directly fund and support the fascist in chief for basically all upside.
We are in fucking trouble. Like I said, I can’t even get my own goddamn brain to see the threat clearly.
Have hope; the pendulum always swings. One silver lining is that in this late stage of this current swing of the pendulum, many closeted villains have taken off their disguises to go party in the streets with their collaborators. When it swings the other way, there will be extensive documentation of who they all are, rather than just the scapegoats and figureheads.
I’m too old and been disappointed too many times to find that very cheering, but I appreciate ya. Pretty much strictly bummer mode for the rest of the comment, to forewarn.
The pendulum does indeed swing, and I’ve lately only really noticed how thoroughly the swing back is just blocked. Co-opted into what amounts to damn near nothing… in the best cases! Progress has been defeated, thoroughly, and has been reversing for some time, and that is now accelerating.
There is of course a low point somewhere, where things can only change, and our adventure in Iran may bring it, but the ruling class seems to have perfected the art of the slow simmer, at least here in the US. Defeating that will be ugly, but we do see some signs that they’re accidentally allowing things to boil via their unchecked greed.
Its true that they have gotten better at their “simmer tactics”, as you put it, but they have also let a lot of unrelenting blowhards into their ranks that have been so far impossible for them to stifle and are really cramping their style.
I’ve often felt that while history seems doomed to its cyclical nature, we have lived straddling two ages in human history. I am of course not at all sure how the Information Age will effect history unfolding this time and into the future, but I think it simply has to have some effect that has never before been seen prior, which is scary, but also fascinating and exciting.
One glimmer of hope I see already is the xenophobic, nationalist nature of these strongman autocrat types that cover the pages of history books does not play well at all anywhere but at home. Every time I see one of these infamous goons try to reach across the national boundary to help a fellow authoritarian gain or consolidate power, presumably in an effort to build up a new “Axis”, it is a kiss of death. In the past, it was much easier for these things to happen away from the public eye, and for the grotesqueness of the foreign autocrat to be largely unknown at home, but now the smoky back room is being live streamed around the globe, and the foreign autocrat has a billion views on social media.
Maybe the revolution be televised after all!
Sidenote, I really know what you mean about “straddling two ages”, what a bizarre and like…ineffably rare experience it’s been. A bit older than we, and computers (modern communication) are just a strange accessory to life - it’s mostly been lived IRL. Anything else must be imagined, and it isn’t easy, usually isn’t done very well. A bit younger than we, and there has never been a strictly IRL part of life. The slow way, that every other human before lived and died under. And so anything else must be imagined, and it isn’t done very well.
Utterly strange to one day notice this and recognize myself as among the small group of folks who really thoroughly experienced both. What a strange ride. Lucky, in its way, sincerely.
Sidenote aside, I don’t share your optimism regarding the rejection / degree of appeal for fascism and its companions, abroad. At all. Think I’ll leave it there, out of simple courtesy, and from having grown bored of my own words on the subject. Cheers friend.