Shouldn't surprise absolutely nobody, once you become the gatekeeper of the Internet, you're going to gatekeep.
Now it's torrent sites and next it's going to be other things the party in charge doesn't like.
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Now it's torrent sites and next it's going to be other things the party in charge doesn't like.
Nowadays... I actually think it might be a lesser evil. Picture such an ID, if there were a standard for it, enrolled into your computer.
If it were properly built, your computer could provide proof of age, identity, or other verified attributes on approval. The ID could also have micro-transaction support, for allowing convenient pay-as-you-go 10 cents per article instead of paywalls, advertising, and subscriptions everywhere. Websites could just block all non-human traffic; awfully convenient in this era of growing spam, malware, AI slop, revenge porn, etc. Website operators, such as those of small forums, would have far less moderation and abuse prevention overhead.
Theoretically, it would also massively improve cybersecurity, if websites didn't actually need your credit card number and unique identity anymore. Theoretically, if it was tied to your ID, it's like Privacy.com but for every website; much lower transaction friction but much higher security.
I think that's the future at this rate. The only question is who decides how it is implemented.
Politicians would be salivating at the idea of getting the real identities of dissenters, and religious fucks would finally have their way of banning porn and contraceptives.
We're already seeing it piecemeal, with Cloudflare supporting skipping CAPTCHAs on verified iOS and macOS devices; mobile driver's license enrollment options on iOS; age verification rollouts for websites with no-doubt people thinking how to streamline things; etc.
I personally think we are one big cyberattack from the whole concept returning fast. One big cyberattack from governments (and people in general) saying they've had enough of the free-for-all status quo. This isn't a good place to be.
What is this "one big cyberattack away" that you are talking about? Large sites get hacked all the time, and _nobody_ in power gives a single flying fuck. There are zero people held responsible for storing passwords in plaintext, or the admin password set to "123456" or passwords left as the default.
Seriously, what are you talking about?
The difference is we've grandfathered in a lot of older technology - x86, old desktop operating systems like Windows and Linux, old browsers, BIOS, etc. So the existing tools we have for censorship have to work around these existing platforms.
These platforms were created in a time where user control was paramount and security was an afterthought. They often do not have the mechanisms required to lock down the boot loader 100% of the time, or give a verified boot chain, or make sure the display signal isn't being intercepted. Our DRM and censorship, then, is very limited. I mean, even with secure boot - I can just turn that off. I can just turn on legacy MBR BIOS mode too. What now?
On other, newer, platforms, like your smartphone or smart TV, you'll notice the DRM is much stronger. Try changing out your OS on an iPhone. These platforms are ripe for the picking when it comes to censorship you can't circumvent.
So long as these older platforms exist, the usecases must be supported. Sure, we can "streamline" things on DRM heavy platforms like iOS - but we need to keep a trapdoor. Who is going to alienate Windows? Or x86 as a whole?