Parents Decide Act (H.R. 8250)
www.govtrack.us
To require operating system providers to verify the age of any user of an operating system, and for other purposes.

So, OS-level age-gating is going federal, which will effectively kill your rights to device ownership and what’s left of free speech and expression.

Enjoy your free speech while you still have it because this is a clear attempt to erase that right.

SOPA never died, it just went into hiding until time to reemerge, and now’s that time, this is basically SOPA in a save the kids trenchcoat.

  • degenerate_neutron_matter@fedia.io
    0·
    6 days ago

    Wouldn’t this just be unenforceable for any Linux distros not directly owned/maintained by a US-based corporation? I don’t really see how they could force a distro to comply, unless they start going after individual maintainers who live in the US.

    • folekaule@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      6 days ago

      They have many ways to do this if they want:

      • go after US entities, like the Linux Foundation. They only need to go after enough to make them fall in line
      • Make it illegal to distribute non compliant systems, including downloads
      • Make it illegal to operate or even possess a non compliant system

      Even if they don’t go after individuals they can do a lot of damage in restricting trade and business use of something. The mere threat of legal action is though to make business owners nope out.

      It’s already risky to draw attention to yourself by using privacy focused phones when traveling. It’s the ultimate “if your have nothing to hide why are you worried” situation.

      They’re forcing legitimate users to either give up or go underground and risk being seen as criminals.