Privacy

But the real kicker is what content is now being gatekept behind invasive age verification systems. Users in the UK now need to submit a selfie or government ID to access:

• Reddit communities about stopping drinking and smoking, periods, craft beers, and sexual assault support, not to mention documentation of war
• Spotify for music videos tagged as 18+
• War footage and protest videos on X
• Wikipedia is threatening to limit access in the UK (while actively challenging the law)

The age verification process itself is a privacy nightmare wrapped in security theater. Users are being asked to upload selfies that get run through facial recognition algorithms, or hand over copies of their government-issued IDs to third-party companies. The facial recognition systems are so poorly implemented that people are easily fooling them with screenshots from video games—literally using images from the video game Death Stranding.

But here’s the thing: even when these systems “work,” they’re creating massive honeypots of personal data.