Nostr notes by Kazani

The Verdict Against Meta and Google That Could End the Anonymous ...

2026-03-26T09:09:07Z

The Verdict Against Meta and Google That Could End the Anonymous Internet

https://reclaimthenet.org/meta-youtube-negligence-verdict-age-verification-surveillance

A Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in platform design, awarding $3 million to a plaintiff who experienced mental health issues, with punitive damages totaling $6 million.

This verdict could dismantle anonymous internet access by establishing a legal precedent for holding platforms liable based on their design, bypassing Section 230 protections.

The legal argument treats social media architecture (infinite scroll, algorithmic notifications) as a defective product, similar to a car without brakes.

If this verdict survives appeal, it provides a blueprint for over 1,600 similar cases nationwide.

Classifying social media as an addictive product could lead to government regulation, requiring identity verification and access controls for users.

Mark Zuckerberg testified that age verification should occur at the operating system level, managed by Apple and Google, rather than within individual apps.

This proposal, if implemented, would require identity verification for all smartphone users across all apps and websites, effectively ending anonymous internet access.

New legislation like California's SB 976 and the federal Kids Online Safety Act are moving towards device or OS-level age verification, mirroring Zuckerberg's suggestion.

Mandatory identity verification creates a significant risk of data breaches, potentially exposing sensitive personal information.

Anonymous and pseudonymous online speech is crucial for whistleblowers, dissidents, abuse survivors, and journalists, and OS-level ID checks would eliminate this protection for all users.

This is a genuinely impressive piece of OSINT work. Here's ...

2026-03-14T09:43:41Z

This is a genuinely impressive piece of OSINT work. Here's what it found:

The core claim:

Meta spent a record $26.3M on federal lobbying in 2025 and secretly funded a "grassroots" child safety group called the Digital Childhood Alliance (DCA) to push the App Store Accountability Act (ASAA) legislation that forces Apple and Google to verify user ages before app downloads, while placing zero new requirements on social media platforms like Meta's own.

The five confirmed channels:

1. Direct lobbying: 86+ lobbyists across 45 states. A Meta lobbyist literally drafted Louisiana HB-570 and handed it to the bill's sponsor, Rep. Kim Carver, who confirmed this publicly. The bill passed 99-0.

2. DCA astroturf: The Digital Childhood Alliance has no EIN, no state incorporation, no 990 filings, and its domain was registered December 18, 2024 with a fully-formed advocacy site live within 24 hours. Bloomberg confirmed Meta funds it. Under oath, its executive director admitted receiving tech funding but refused to name donors. Every piece of DCA content attacks Apple and Google. Meta is never mentioned.

3. Super PACs: $70M+ across four state PACs deliberately registered at state level (not FEC) to scatter disclosure filings and avoid centralized searchability.

4. Arabella network connection: Meta's Colorado lobbyist simultaneously chairs the New Venture Fund, which funnels $121M/year into the Sixteen Thirty Fund (no donor disclosure required). The investigation analyzed $2B in grants and found zero going to any child safety org ruling out that funding pathway, but the back-channel routes (fiscal sponsorship, consulting fees) remain unproven.

5. State legislative campaigns: ASAA is now law in Utah, Louisiana, and Texas (Texas currently paused by a federal judge).

The smoking gun finding:

Meta's own LD-2 Senate lobbying filings explicitly list the App Store Accountability Act (H.R. 3149/S. 1586) as a lobbied bill, while simultaneously lobbying on KOSA/COPPA 2.0 supporting legislation that burdens Apple and Google while opposing or seeking to amend legislation that would regulate Meta directly.

https://archive.is/qP6kR

EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by ...

2025-07-27T16:07:00Z

EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by Google

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyFromEU/comments/1mah79o/eu_age_verification_app_to_ban_any_android_system/

The EU is currently developing a whitelabel app to perform privacy-preserving (at least in theory) age verification to be adopted and personalized in the coming months by member states. The app is open source and available here: https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/av-app-android-wallet-ui.

Problem is, the app is planning to include remote attestation feature to verify the integrity of the app: https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/av-app-android-wallet-ui?tab=readme-ov-file#disclaimer. This is supposed to provide assurance to the age verification service that the app being used is authentic and running on a genuine operating system. Genuine in the case of Android means:

• The operating system was licensed by Google
• The app was downloaded from the Play Store (thus requiring a Google account)
• Device security checks have passed

While there is value to verify device security, this strongly ties the app to many Google properties and services, because those checks won't pass on an aftermarket Android OS, even those which increase security significantly like GrapheneOS, because the app plans to use Google "Play Integrity", which only allows Google licensed systems instead of the standard Android attestation feature to verify systems.

This also means that even though you can compile the app, you won't be able to use it, because it won't come from the Play Store and thus the age verification service will reject it.

The issue has been raised here https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/av-app-android-wallet-ui/issues/10 but no response from team members as of now.

In short: You can only be a full citizen of the EU if you accept the ToS from Google.

Most monetized YouTubers serve the algorithm, not the truth- just ...

2025-05-27T11:22:14Z

Most monetized YouTubers serve the algorithm, not the truth- just like mainstream media.

When content becomes a product, creators often chase views over value.

That’s why I struggle to trust them.

Have you found a good LLM solution to parse your RSS feeds and ...

2025-05-24T10:24:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…s8qj
_________________________

Have you found a good LLM solution to parse your RSS feeds and give you daily digests? nprofile1qqs9p3kw9e5u7za00x6jfz9jqsvvffheefaaptr9fdrzf4wqyh840kcpzamhxue69uhky6t5vdhkjmn9wgh8xmmrd9skctcppamhxue69uhku6n4d4czumt99u3kg57x (nprofile…g57x)

May I ask which LLM and RSS?

2025-05-23T07:02:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…y5g8
_________________________

May I ask which LLM and RSS?

Mining in India, Sahil bhai?

2025-05-06T07:05:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…39an
_________________________

Mining in India, Sahil bhai?

WARNING - Etcher Sends private information to third parties ...

2025-03-09T06:46:54Z

WARNING - Etcher Sends private information to third parties

Etcher is recommend by many people for burning image files to USB drives for distro testing, but TAILS just removed their recommendation for Etcher based on sharing information with third parties.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufDVKQ4C8-0

https://tails.net/news/rufus/index.en.html

I'm not sure what's happening in the world right now, but ...

2024-08-10T07:28:00Z

I'm not sure what's happening in the world right now, but a lot of it confirms my belief that religion is the most destructive invention in human history.