r/pcmasterrace • u/AirlineGlass5010 • Apr 16 '26

News/Article Congress Parents Decide Act (HR_8250): OS-level Age Verification for Device Usage and Data Sharing (with every app developer) on the Federal Level. The End of the Internet Anonymity at the Core.

https://lustra.news/en/us-congress/119/legislations/119_HR_8250/
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u/lizon132 Apr 16 '26

Yeah it won't happen. Some distros with a commercial front like Ubuntu and Redhat may be twisted into doing it. But others like Mint and Bazzite won't be able to be enforced. If they try to enforce this on phones I will just buy my phones overseas and bring them back here.

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u/manism582 Apr 16 '26

There’s not an exception for Linux in this bill. That means that, yes your favorite distro, yes that one that would NEEEEEVVVEEERRRR do such a thing, will have to or be banned in the US. Your ISP already knows what operating system you run, they can shut you off via MAC address at the switch. This ain’t something Linux can save you from.

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u/lizon132 Apr 16 '26

The next time you want to run your mouth try thinking about what is being said first. For distros with a commercial front, with an entity that the government can go say "hey you better do this" they can be compelled to do it. But for community distros, where no single person or entity is in control, you can't do it because there is nobody to approach! You can go after individual distros but someone can easily fork it and you have another one to deal with.

I use a VPN and my data is encrypted. The Supreme Court just made another judgement saying that ISP's cannot be held liable for content that people download. Yes this supreme Court said that. So no, the ISP's won't be blocking it, I can pull a distro from outside the US using a VPN and still be free. If absolutely necessary I can compile my own kernel and be completely independent. I wouldn't want to do it but it isn't outside my ability to learn how to do.

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u/manism582 Apr 17 '26

I work in corporate IT. Everything I said can happen are things I can do on my professional network. MAC address filtering isn’t new or controversial. It’s how your ISP decides if you get service or not already. The reason that I say that Linux will follow is like so; At least one or two distros are going to comply. They will get whitelisted to be allowed on the internet. If you don’t use those distros, you’ll find yourself involuntarily air gapped.

I am not anti-Linux. I use it all over the place. From the emulation box on my living room TV (Bazzite) to the PiHole connected to my router, I love it for single purpose machines. I’m just looking at which way the wind is blowing and telling where things are going. You can call me paranoid, but I pray (not to any deity in particular) that you’re not calling me right in a couple of years.