Looking into systemd complying in advance with fascism ("age verification"), I was curious who is employing Lennart Poettering these days.

[be@floss.social]

@einsiedlerspiel @Willow https://floss.social/@be/116257900057126266

[einsiedlerspiel@todon.nl]

@be @Willow

also this

Ageless Linux — Software for Humans of Indeterminate Age

(agelesslinux.org)

[be@floss.social]

Ageless Linux is actively resisting and tracking these laws, the companies lobbying for them, and how distros are responding:
https://agelesslinux.org

[be@floss.social]

@einsiedlerspiel @Willow oh this is great, thanks for sharing

[be@floss.social]

I am skeptical of Ageless Linux's argument that the motivation behind these laws is to make it impossible/expensive for FOSS operating systems to comply. I think the real motivation is to get ahead of the discourse about how Big Tech harms children. They want to claim that they're doing their part to protect children. That would be a great smokescreen to distract from efforts for regulations to make them change their tech to make it not harmful to anyone, regardless of age.

[be@floss.social]

https://tboteproject.com/ is tracking the dark money from Meta and the Heritage Foundation behind the age verification law astroturfing campaign.

[be@floss.social]

WARNING: This operating system contains GAY known to the State of California to trans the kids.

[be@floss.social]

@amillefolium Yep, the companies pushing these laws make their money by associating data produced by how people use the device to their identity. Making it illegal to be anonymous on the internet is very helpful for their surveillance, and thus profits.

[cryogenicice9@mastodon.online]

@Willow @be Yes, and then call for a raid on Meta's/X's/Google's datacentres to confirm they aren't running illegal OSes.

[fionasboots@lgbtqia.space]

@be Yeah fuck that! Am so glad I run a Linux system (on several devices in fact) that doesn't use systemd at all. Complying with fascism aside, WTAF why is an init system getting involved in this. Worse still, there did seem to be polite review comments suggesting this was premature ... then comments were turned off ... then Claude did a review and shortly after the thing got merged. Yeah, whole host of reasons not to use systemd then!

[octonion@tech.lgbt]

@be And the icing on the cake

[hipsterelectron@circumstances.run]

@be this is word for word the EFF line about regulations as monopoly protections. in some cases this can be true but i recall they always mention it regarding stuff that affects facebook, which results in the EFF claiming facebook regs actually help facebook.

[hipsterelectron@circumstances.run]

@be oh neat facebook involvement https://floss.social/@be/116259428771089394

[hipsterelectron@circumstances.run]

@Ember @be think your instincts are spot-on; i recalled a previous instance of propaganda laundering https://circumstances.run/@hipsterelectron/116261919716350723

[be@floss.social]

@Ember and embarassingly, they're handling this better than real distros 🥴

[be@floss.social]

I am starting to seriously consider switching distros to one that does not use systemd based on these recent events... maybe I should try Guix. Looks like it has KDE packaged now, unlike the last time I looked at it.

[coreysnipes@hachyderm.io]

@be What's the systemd connection? I've been watching the age discussion from the sidelines but not closely enough to know how that's related.

[f4grx@chaos.social]

@be he was microsoft for a long time iirc

[f4grx@chaos.social]

@be not sure kde and gnome are all white in this. I may be uselessly suspicious.

[firn@scholar.social]

@be Ah, one more reason to dislike systemd. Guess Devuan or something then.. Or all the way back to my bsd days..