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"Social media is the pre-1964 cigarette," the author of the bill has said:
A new bill proposed by Texas Representative Jared Patterson is interested in restricting social media access to those under 18 years of age.
The bill, H.B. No. 896, proposes new verification requirements for Texan social media users interested in accessing various platforms. Patterson suggests that the social media platform must verify the age of the account holder, by the account holder submitting a photo of a driver's license along with a secondary photo to confirm their identity. The bill also demands that a social media platform must offer a workflow that can allow parents to file a request to remove the profile of their child from the platform. The deletion of a child's account must be done within 10 days of a parent filing a removal request.
The bill makes no express mention of any particular social media platforms this law would apply to, and Patterson's office did not immediately respond to Gizmodo's request for comment.
"I would be somewhat surprised if this bill, as written, advances," Scott Babwah Brennen told Gizmodo in an email. Babwah Brennen is the Head of Online Expression Policy at the University of North Carolina's Center on Technology Policy. "While I would anticipate pretty significant pushback from the tech community, the bill also doesn't define 'social media' nor does it offer any limitations on which apps or companies might be included, and so would likely apply very widely."
(Score: 5, Informative) by MrGuy on Monday December 12, @04:35PM (3 children)
...the trojan horse here is that this bill would also require social media companies to track the real name, address, etc., for every user of their platform. And, under the CFAA, any attempt to use a fake ID here would be a felony.
In addition to banning anonymity, it would also be a heck of a boon to advertisers to be able to conclusively tie your social media profile and activity to a firm identity. Not that they have much of a problem with that right now, but every little bit helps.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday December 12, @04:56PM (1 child)
What if all Big Tech companies could get together and agree on a system where everyone could have ID chips implanted at birth in order to access social media? It wouldn't be the government doing it, so it's all okay! It is for the glorious profit of rich people.
While Republicans can get over Trump's sexual assaults, affairs, and vulgarity; they cannot get over Obama being black.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday December 12, @05:32PM
Those ID chips would be so useful though! Implant them on everybody's right hand and maybe their forehead, and maybe we could also have them linked to your bank account so you could use them for commerce and such. And eventually, retailers won't accept those outdated things like debit cards and paper checks or (ugh) cash, because who would need them?
I read about this prospect in a book once. It was called "Revelations", and it seemed to be mostly about a really bad acid trip somebody had, but definitely had some good ideas about capitalism in it too, all propagated by some guy who had set himself up in a temple in Jerusalem and everyone was listening to for some reason.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday December 12, @06:45PM
Right, because Facebook isn't already doing that. Oh, yeah, they are. https://www.supereasy.com/how-to-find-out-someones-real-name-on-facebook/ [supereasy.com]
Seems like TikTok does as well: https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/03/tiktok-just-gave-itself-permission-to-collect-biometric-data-on-u-s-users-including-faceprints-and-voiceprints/ [techcrunch.com]
Twitter seems not to, though: https://www.supereasy.com/find-out-someones-real-name-on-twitter/ [supereasy.com]
Instagram seems not to, either: https://www.supereasy.com/find-out-real-name-instagram/ [supereasy.com]
From a user privacy aspect, I can get the issue with requiring the use of "real names" on social media sites. Still, from a brain has light on aspect, it's not necessarily difficult to find out who someone is. We don't want government targeting individual companies, but we don't want stupid side effects either. Like requiring sites like SoylentNews to gather real names, etc.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"