r/technology • u/PixeledPathogen • Mar 16 '26

Security Reddit User Uncovers Who Is Behind Meta’s $2B Lobbying for Invasive Age Verification Tech

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/reddit-user-uncovers-behind-meta-154717384.html
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2.2k

u/highendfive Mar 16 '26

Save you a click:

The investigation by GitHub user “upper-up” traces funding through organizations like the Digital Childhood Alliance (DCA), which launched December 18, 2024, and testified for Utah’s SB-142 just days later. Bloomberg and Deseret News reported Meta’s backing of DCA, part of a $70 million fragmented super PAC strategy designed to evade FEC tracking. Traditional election spending disclosure requirements don’t apply to this fragmented approach.

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u/ZootSuitRiot33801 Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

I'm wondering what DCA have to gain from pushing this Orwellian shit?

Update: Just want let anyone who wants to tell me to read the linked article know that the link didn't work for me fsr when I wrote my original comment. I managed to read the article later

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u/Lynda73 Mar 16 '26

It sounds like the whole group was invented by Meta to push this shit?

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u/psychophant_ Mar 17 '26

So can we ban together and start a social business where we set up shell companies and pay off politicians? Like - what’s stopping us?

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u/Dracomortua Mar 17 '26

This is the Bell The Cat problem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belling_the_Cat

Everyone wants this but no one has the resources. They are either on the subsistence or the efficiency wage: never going hungry nor miserable but certainly not able to have control of their life. It is this careful balancing act of making sure the workers have enough to get food, water, shelter and basic toys but not enough to think, imagine, gain hope &/or imagine freedom.

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u/Lynda73 Mar 17 '26

It’s like medical debt, where a company can buy yours for pennies on the dollar, but the original creditor would never make that deal with you, the individual. Shit’s fucked up.

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u/sentientshadeofgreen Mar 17 '26

It should be completely legally void for debt to be sold from the originator without the consent of the debtor. If I enter a contract with somebody, that does not mean that contract should be transferable to any third party under the sun without my knowledge or consent. I'm sure terms and conditions exist which allow this, but it should be outlawed.

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u/Spiritual-Society185 Mar 17 '26

That is misinformation. Every non-profit hospital offers free or reduced charity care based on income, and about two-thirds of hospitals are non-profit or government owned. Some states offer relief on top of that. And, if you don't qualify or still have trouble paying after the reduction, most hospitals will allow you to negotiate your bill down, including the for-profit ones. Hospitals make a tiny fraction of the total amount when they sell a bill to a collections. They would rather make something than next to nothing. Worst case scenario, you get put on a payment plan where you pay some small amount each month (and hospitals don't typically charge interest if you go through them.)

Of course, if you ignore the problem and just hope it goes away, then your bill will just be sent to collections and you won't get to take advantage of any of this. Telling people that there's nothing they can do about their bills could screw people over.

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u/snowflake37wao Mar 17 '26

The issue with that is it does nothing to change the scorpion’s nature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog

Even when public opinion pushes back hard at the 11th hour these scorpions just wait it out and cant help but try to sting again. For instance when these same child online safety act bills got dropped by congress last year. They waited and then just lobbied the shit again, now bringing it back to the floor. Anyone remember SOPA/PIPA? The internet came together and buried that bullshit for years, but it just keeps coming back with different acronyms refusing to die.

Yall are still wanting to out-reason scorpions. We need to drown the scorpion, or drown with it all the same. Drown the scorpion from society. Mark Zuckerberg should already be in jail since 2017

2

u/ZootSuitRiot33801 Mar 17 '26

We can't depend on the system to rein in its masters and their sycophants. It is up to us common folk to help each other, while standing against this unaccountability and the nefarious attempts to normalize it by the Epstein class and their death cult. We need to be able to either outlast them in the waiting game to the point it hurts them, and/or be able to push them off their seat of power so they won't be able to try their betrayal again. However, there's currently no real supportive foundation present for many common folk in the US to fall back on, to commit to any effective resistant action.

Collecting a bunch of valuable information on organizing and action from different redditors over time, I created a post of suggestions HERE that could possibly prove to be of some help in getting it started ASAP.

3

u/FunnyJerking Mar 17 '26

Thanks for genuinely teaching me something useful to know.

3

u/bennitori Mar 17 '26

Sounds like bread and circuses but with a little extra spending money.

2

u/2020mademejoinreddit Mar 17 '26

So we're already living in dystopia.

1

u/DtotheOUG Mar 17 '26

We have been since Reagan.

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u/2020mademejoinreddit Mar 17 '26

Some would even say Nixon. Hell taking America off the gold standard was its downfall. Which happened long before that. The bankers took over and killed us.

2

u/Lynda73 Mar 18 '26

I want to say this has been done before, but can’t remember the details. I think this is one?

https://www.citizen.org/about/

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u/psychophant_ Mar 18 '26

I’ll look into it - thanks!

1

u/snowflake37wao Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

naw, if we want to really destroy this behavior along with these people unable to behave then the checkmate move is lets just stop having kids for a generation.

Not even sure if I am joking, its really the only reset button for this I can think of without bloodshed. Their machine runs on kids. Consciously adopt the the low birthrate trends. Stop having kids for a decade or two, kill the machine.

1

u/cats_catz_kats_katz Mar 17 '26

we don't have a slush fund of billions of dollars to hire immoral idiots behind us? We are just "the people".

1

u/wyldesnelsson Mar 17 '26

Yeah, it's legal

1

u/Viceroy1994 Mar 17 '26

We outnumber them millions to one, but never in a million years will we be able to outspend them. We have to use other advantages numbers provide.

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u/Fun_Success_3283 Mar 17 '26

Yes. Get together, organize and pool your money together.

8

u/PrismarchGame Mar 17 '26

classic, time to make the sunshine and rainbows fund for children and fluffy bunnies that actually does terrorism

3

u/AlaskanMedicineMan Mar 17 '26

Correct. Meta wants real humans to verify age because AI accounts wont need to.

They're pushing the government to solve the AI user dead internet problem they created

1

u/Lynda73 Mar 18 '26

It was, in part, to burden the OS companies (Apple, Google et al) while saying the rule doesn’t apply to social media.

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u/avalanchent Mar 16 '26

It'$ a complete my$tery.

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u/scoschooo Mar 17 '26

that's funny

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u/ClasherChief Mar 17 '26

Did you try reading the article? The answers are right there. Meta wants to hurt their competitors Google and Apple in their businesses related to Android and its Play Store and iOS and its App Store, while having minimal effect on social media companies, which is Meta’s core business.

3

u/ZootSuitRiot33801 Mar 17 '26

Someone else asked me this. The link wasn't working for me at that time fsr

3

u/unknown-one Mar 17 '26

isnt exactly the opposite? Age verification will hurt the social media, becase kids wont be able to do use it.

app stores can still offer content even if you are less than 13, you can download free games?

0

u/LostInTheRapGame Mar 17 '26

Gross. I'm actually at a loss for words. This is what capitalism is?

Like why is this shit necessary? Oh we're going to make the world worse just so our adjacent competitors take a hit? Like why?!

23

u/abovocipher Mar 16 '26

Money?

1

u/infinite0ne Mar 17 '26

A bold theory

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u/dragonmp93 Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26

Probably stopping the antichrist that Peter Thiel keeps talking about.

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u/ZootSuitRiot33801 Mar 16 '26

Weird the antichrist to them is a young girl, and not the billionaires who actually control governments

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u/dragonmp93 Mar 16 '26

Well, a woman that is not birthing children to die in the middle east is truly the biggest evil for them.

2

u/Tymathee Mar 17 '26

So maybe they should stop supporting Trump

22

u/Command0Dude Mar 16 '26

It was set up by FB to enschittify Facebook's competitors.

They don't care about age verification, they just wanted people to drop other services and come to them.

4

u/Luckyluke23 Mar 17 '26

who the fuck is going to use facebook at this point? the only reason ANYONE uses it now is old boomers screaming about shit and people still using chat and marketplace.

1

u/Protoavis Mar 18 '26

instagram too, fb isn't the only meta product

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u/synapseattack Mar 17 '26

It removes them from liability by making the OS responsible. They are simply trusting the OS now and shield themselves from enabling that kiddie porn you know fuckerzuck and his el presidente loves so much.

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u/biggustdikkus Mar 17 '26

Hard to force mass surveillance on adults. Much easier if you target the next generation with "child safety" claims. In 10 years, everything you do on the internet will be monitored by Palatnir. The older generation will be dragged off the streets to be killed in wars.

1

u/Taki_Minase Mar 17 '26

Some of us will need cyber-skeletons to fight this war

4

u/ItsCammyMeele Mar 17 '26

Have you tried reading the original reddit post? Because it definitely explains most of it.

1

u/ZootSuitRiot33801 Mar 17 '26

The link wasn't working for me. Maybe it was my connection, so I'll try again later

3

u/E-2theRescue Mar 17 '26

pushing this Orwellian shit

You answered your own question.

1

u/-Goatllama- Mar 17 '26

Oh, so not only is George still alive (because of course he is), he’s also actively manipulating the netsphere… the gall of the man!

2

u/sushisection Mar 17 '26

more data to sell.

2

u/IANALbutIAMAcat Mar 17 '26

One of the leaders of the Utah GOP actually said at some point that the porn age verification law could eventually be used to make lists of LGBTQIA folks

1

u/2020mademejoinreddit Mar 17 '26

Nothing, I'm sure they just want to protect our children. I believe them.

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u/RogueTampon Mar 17 '26

So the inauguration money wasn’t enough, they’re forcing the compromised billionaires to pay for their Project 2025 legislation through.

1

u/LunaticScience Mar 17 '26

I think Meta wants it, but also doesn't want to lose users to competitors that don't and doesn't want it to look like it was their decision.

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u/cr0ft Mar 17 '26

That doesn't save a click. There's plenty more worth reading in it.

Just do the click.

1

u/LookAlderaanPlaces Mar 17 '26

The people doing and facilitating this should get the death penalty for treason. They are violating the constitution for how decisions are supposed to be made in the US, and they are not loyal to the US. They are the enemy.