Meta Lobbies Government to Implement Broken Age Verification Into App Stores

Meta is pushing the Canadian government into putting age verification on app stores and take heat off of their platforms.

One of the things I keep referring to when it comes to the age verification debate is how it evolved from a system being implemented just for so-called “adult” websites to a surveillance mechanism so government can monitor and track your every movement online. Arguably, one of the biggest lies in this whole debate was this had anything to do with stopping underage people from viewing “pornographic” material.

Naturally, that lie got exposed for what it was when lawmakers went from pushing age verification onto so-called “adult” websites and more broadly targeted, well, everything else. This includes social media websites that could potentially have “harmful content”. Indeed, when you get into the business of slapping censorship and surveillance technology on things that could potentially have something on them you don’t like, then we have well and truly entered a state where anything goes when it comes to what to censor and spy on.

It goes without saying that age verification is a broken technology. There are numerous methods people have used to easily circumvent the technology. What’s more, the technology is notoriously insecure as well. This isn’t even getting into the direct harms it is causing to underage users on the internet or how it is being used as a tool to censor LGBTQ+ content or whatever other kinds of content right wing politicians are pushing to censor.

One of the frustrating factors when it comes to different debates about free speech and the internet is the fact that the largest platforms have built a habit of throwing the open internet under the bus to try and warp the debate in a way that benefits them and them only. One particularly famous example of this is the time Meta threw the open internet under the bus in 2020 during a particularly silly debate about killing Section 230 in the US. At the time, lawmakers were trying to figure out how to smash down this important key pillar to the open internet all because they didn’t like one particular platform or another. Meta, for their part, tried to corrupt the debate by saying that they totally agree that free speech on the internet has got to go, but needs to be done in a way that benefits Meta personally. A particularly infuriating stance where a platform that was able to build themselves up from the ground thanks to the open internet is trying to saw off the rungs they climbed to become successful so that others have no shot at doing the same thing.

The age verification debate is no different. Some platforms have taken to trying to corrupt the debate so that they aren’t the ones handling this age verification technology. The reality has always been that no one should be handling this broken technology, but that’s not what certain platforms are arguing. Instead, they are arguing that implementing broken age verification technology is a great idea, but must be done elsewhere. Specifically, they argue, it should be done at the device level.

While this really bad argument has been made in other jurisdictions, apparently, they are making this argument in Canada as well. From CityNews:

Meta has been lobbying the federal government for new rules to implement age verification at the app store level — which would put the burden on companies like Apple and Google, not individual platforms like Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.

The company has been pitching the idea in meetings with both the federal and provincial governments, said Meta Canada director of public policy Rachel Curran.

Curran said in an interview Meta has been making the case that the Liberal government should include the concept in upcoming legislation that deals with online safety issues.

“We think it’s by far the most effective, privacy-protective, efficient way to determine a user’s age,” Curran said.

Under Meta’s proposal, the app stores themselves — which are operated by Apple on its devices and Google on devices using its Android operating system — would signal to app developers whether users are older or younger than 18.

“That would allow us, along with all of the other apps that kids are using, to make sure users are placed in appropriate experiences for their age,” Curran said.

Let’s call this effort for what it is: a way for Meta to shirk “responsibility” (in the eyes of some foolish politicians) when eyes are on them. They know implementing a sufficient age verification system is a fools errand, but rather than make that case, they decided to weaponize this and use it to target their business rivals in the tech space. Everyone knows that implementing age verification at the device level is never going to work, but for them, if they can sluff this turd of a policy decision onto others, they can dodge this whole debate altogether while still trying to appease the nutjob politicians who think this whole thing is a great idea.

What is particularly outrageous about all of this is Meta continuing to try and throw the internet under the bus along the way. As far as they are concerned, the open internet is merely acceptable collateral damage in their quest to try and do everything to simply benefit themselves – even at the expense of others.

Ultimately, age verification laws should not be a thing at all. It is a tool for censorship and surveillance on the part of the government. Calling for it to be implemented at the device level is an open invitation for the government to have deeper surveillance and censorship powers over what people can and cannot view online. Any sane person who values freedom of expression or privacy of any kind will automatically reject this very idea.

Drew Wilson on Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook.