Who's behind the age verification bills?
21 hours ago
- #Meta
- #legislation
- #privacy
- US state legislatures are advancing 'age verification' bills requiring operating systems to collect and broadcast user age data via system-level APIs.
- California AB-1043 mandates OS providers to expose real-time age bracket APIs to all installed applications, effective January 2027.
- Colorado SB26-051 and other state bills follow a similar template, with penalties up to $7,500 per violation.
- New York's S8102A requires biometric or government ID verification at device activation, banning self-reporting.
- The bills exempt broadband ISPs and telecom services but not open-source or non-commercial software.
- Meta is implicated in drafting and lobbying for these bills, with evidence of funding advocacy groups like the Digital Childhood Alliance (DCA).
- DCA lacks legal status as a nonprofit, and its funding sources are obscured, with ties to Meta and NCOSE.
- Meta has spent over $70 million on state-level super PACs to influence legislation, structuring donations to avoid transparency.
- The EU's approach to age verification uses open-source, privacy-preserving methods, contrasting with the US bills' reliance on commercial vendors.
- Meta's Horizon OS already complies with many proposed requirements, positioning the company to benefit from the legislation.
- Privacy concerns include the creation of persistent surveillance infrastructure at the OS level with no data minimization requirements.
- The investigation was suppressed on Reddit, raising questions about coordinated content moderation similar to Meta's past astroturfing campaigns.