Mastodon, the decentralized social network, stated it cannot comply with age verification laws like Mississippi’s recent legislation because it lacks the technical capability to do so[1]. While Mastodon’s software allows server administrators to specify a minimum age of 16 for sign-ups, the age-check data is not stored, and the nonprofit has no way to verify users’ ages[1:1].
The organization emphasizes that individual server owners must decide for themselves whether to implement age verification, noting that Mastodon was founded specifically “to allow different jurisdictions to have social media that is independent of the U.S.”[1:2]
This stance follows Bluesky’s decision to block service in Mississippi over similar age verification requirements[1:3]. Mastodon’s position highlights the unique challenges decentralized platforms face with regional compliance, as there is “nobody that can decide for the fediverse to block Mississippi,” according to Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko[1:4].
It’s so funny to me how they always word it as if they’re a corporate entity or some sort of “competitor” on “the market” when in reality it’s just an implementation of a common protocol. I have yet to see other ActivityPub Projects being acknowledged by journalists. Focusing only on Mastodon is like focusing only on Gmail while completely ignoring the existence of E-Mail.
They have moneybrain they can’t understand human activity other the profit-centric attention capture.
I can tell you where this will eventually, they will attack the software dev teams as “facilitators of non-compliance” and then we will have a fit of forking, we’re going to all go “I’m Spartacus” to human shield the devs but the effect will be a delegitimization and going underground of the dev teams.
If that’s a good or bad thing depends of how good or bad custodian they have been of our space.
I don’t think they actually understand that Mastodon is a network in a traditional sense that works the way the internet was meant to operate before the corporate takeover. People have been so conditioned that the internet is just 5 corps in a trench coat, that they don’t have the cognitive tools to engage with something like the fediverse.
I think they would implode if we went back to signing up to multiple different forums. The internet is just a vastly different place than it was 20 years ago. It’s very consolidated now and that sucks.
Also, they dumb it down in order to make it readable for the widest possible audience so they get the highest possible revenue.
IDK if it’s just me growing up but I swear news from when I was a kid was more technically worded than now. We literally used news articles in school to learn technical words. Now they’re so patronizing.
Oh for sure, I find most tech news articles are just painful to read nowadays. I also distinctly remember this was not the case before.
That is an recurrent problem of ancient lawmakers which confuse an remote control with an smartphone and think that all social networks are centralized like Facebook or X, while the only search is made by Google or even use still an FAX.
they have come to represent the fediverse, whatever they think it is. we are thankfully way too small atm to warrant so much attention.
let the journalists have their field day, and enjoy lemmy while we can.