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X Users Find Their Real Names Are Being Googled in Israel After Using X Verification Software "Au10tix" (www.mintpressnews.com)

submitted 18 hours ago by Maeve@kbin.earth to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world

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A wide range of anonymous X (Twitter) users have reported that their real names are suddenly being Googled in Israel shortly after they began criticizing the country for its actions in Palestine. Some connected the phenomenon to Au10tix, the software X requires users (even anonymous ones) to use in order to verify their real identities.
Au10tix is an Israeli company founded and staffed by former Israeli spies from the elite Israeli military intelligence group Unit 8200. MintPress News investigates this disturbing phenomenon.

Crosspost from https://lemmygrad.ml/post/10927965

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[–] korazail@lemmy.myserv.one 13 points 16 hours ago

Anyone still on twitter is a shitty person (or maybe a journalist).... but, this age verification bullshit is a big concern, and we should aim to defend twitter users from this just like the adage from nazi Germany. They came for the twitter users, and I did not speak out--because I was not a twitter user...

This doesn't end at twitter: It's currently being aimed at all open source too. Here are a few laws about making all "operating system providers" responsible for age verification at account creation:

AB-1043 in California, which has been passed and signed into law.

SB26-051 in Colorado, which is still in-flight I think

S8102A In New York, which is in committee.

There's also a law in Brazil that takes effect in like 2 weeks with astronomical fines. And given that these all seem to have popped up at the same time, I'm a little tin-foil-hatty that this is a legal attack on freedom of software and not just the presumed attack on privacy.

These bills are written by people who are clearly or maliciously tech illiterate and don't understand either the terminology or the practical impacts.

They include definitions like (paraphrasing; not quoting a specific bill, but New York, Colorado and California do this):

"Application" is any software application that may be run on a user's device -- so ... EVERYTHING.
"Application Store" is any publicly accessible website or similar service that distributes applications -- so ... also everywhere, such as GitHub or GeoCities.
"Developer" is a person who writes, creates or maintains an application -- so if you have a github repo, or you've posted a binary or perhaps even a script somewhere recently, you're a developer.

And then require both developers and operating system providers to handshake this age verification data or face financial ruin.

I have a github account, and have contributed to "applications". As I read them, these bills pose a serious threat to me if I continue to do so, as that makes me a "developer" and would need to ensure the things I contribute to are doing age verification -- which I don't want to do.

This will likely not be used to go after me. Someone would need to sue me for not requesting the age signal for my stupid apps and games. I absolutely can see this being used to go after something like Signal, Telegram, or other privacy tools, though.

But I'm speaking out.

I've seen a bunch of content around how OS providers are scrambling. I haven't seen enough about how developers of applications are also in the crosshair.