The UK's war on anonymity has come to America
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
UK NGOs use child safety rhetoric to push digital ID laws in US states.
An investigation finds five foreign NGOs coordinating to pass digital ID laws in 21 US states and Congress, leveraging child safety rhetoric. The UK's Online Safety Act, cited as a model, has been used to surveil and prosecute political dissidents. NGOs include 5Rights, CCDH, and Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which have overlapping leadership and receive government funding. 5Rights lobbied for California's AB 2273, based on the UK Age Appropriate Design Code. Critics warn these laws enable authoritarian censorship.
What commenters are saying
Commenters overwhelmingly view the child safety framing as a pretext for authoritarian surveillance. One camp argues parental controls are too complex, leading parents to demand regulation; another contends tech companies like Meta fund these groups to shift liability. A skeptic notes that laws merely regulating parental controls (e.g., California) are misrepresented as ID mandates. Critics stress that data collection systems inevitably get abused, citing historical surveillance expansions.