Mastodon says it doesn't 'have the means' to comply with age verification laws

Submitted ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨BrikoX@lemmy.zip⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.zip⁩

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/29/mastodon-says-it-doesnt-have-the-means-to-comply-with-age-verification-laws/

Decentralized social network Mastodon says it cannot comply with age verification laws, like in Mississippi and elsewhere, and says it’s up to individual server owners to decide.

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miked@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Rochko made this argument with Mike Masnik (of TechDirt). Mike knows a lot more about the US law in the tech sector so I’m going with Mike’s take.

Mastodon will need to something in order to comply.

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givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I mean, kind of…

That means individual server owners have to decide for themselves if they believe an age verification component is a necessary addition.

The laws are written for capitalism. Not an open source code base that lets literally anyone create an instance of their own.

So “Mastodon” might have lawyers and shit, but a tiny instance with 100 people would just get shut down, or maybe even charges.

It sounded great at first, till I got to the part they were just passing the buck to smaller instances.

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- blarghly@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I mean, it kind of works, right? With tons of small instances, the government is playing whack-a-mole
  
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  - givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yeah. But the moles still get whacked…
    
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- NarrativeBear@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Hopefully sites will rather go dark then implement systems to store and retain “age verification” data, or more specifically “identify data”.
  
  Age verification in my mind just means people that want to create a website will now have large barriers to entry.
  
  Where I see this going is a service will probably pop up that will allow site developers to stick a third party “age verification” platform infront of their site that acts like a gate keeper or bouncer.
  
  Sign in with Facebook will probably become more common now that I think of it. Visiting bestbuy? Sign in with Facebook. Visiting a adult website? Sign in with Facebook.
  
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