I hope it doesn't.
Not only is California law not national law, it's clearly a political
movement designed to sew dissent among us. Already people seem to be
making posts that read as if it is a given that all linux distributions
will abide by it. That's setting aside the fact that linux being a
user-first and distributed ecosystem can not possibly be made to comply
-- it's simply not possible. If some implementation were made it would
simply be disabled. If somone was fined, I would hazard a guess that
such a fine would be unenforceable if they aren't already in California
to begin with.
Setting aside the obvious fact that this law was written haphazardly by
imbeciles, it's a clear political statement: politicians in California
want to create a world where everyone on the internet is identifiable:
This is the first step towards that. Their actions are the very
embodiment of the phrase "Ask for a Penney before you ask for a pound".
This is a clear affront to anyone who values their privacy and we should
all unanimously agree: Age verification is a terrible idea that will end
terribly. We've already had numerous examples of doxing that has
occurred as a result of ID verification services -- why are we even
entertaining the possibility of moving in this direction?!?!?!
I'm not a mainatiner of Arch, but I have made some small contributions
and I would hate for this distro to suffer because of weak-spined
individuals who don't know how politicians think. Politicians are the
enemy. This is an attack. They have no legal grounds to do anything,
and if they did I would still argue for resistance. The first step in
any totalitarian regime is identification and it should be resisted at
all costs.
On 3/7/26 1:28 PM, Some Guy called wrote:
Will Arch Linux add age verification to comply with Californian laws?
Looking forward to your answer!
--
Jonathan Whitlock
