Fuck that. The future fucken sucks.
And as soon as that happens, I’m out. I’d rather just opt out of the modern internet. I already have to deal with my information getting leaked from various different services at least once every couple years it seems. I can change a credit card or a password, I can’t change my ID.
We’ll build our own Internet. With black jack and…
We have already done that. It’s called Dreddit and not even major governments can stop it.
Is it filled with the type of people that one might wish major governments could stop, though?
Not much more than the www.
By proportion maybe?
(Just guessing, I’m not on there)
Yeah, it’s all relative. It’s like the www before corporate takeover. Like the old www, you need to have some sense on where to go and where to avoid.
before corporate takeover.
The good old days, yes.
We already have gemini. A text based internet protocol like gopher.
Whats up with gemini lately? Havent seen anything about it since before covid
Them pods are a gigantic rabbit hole. A hare hole if you will.
I believe they updated the FAQ, but it seems to be humming along just fine.
Black jack anddddd…
I’m literally going around trying out old school forum sites this week.
Why do you assume that the old school forums are going to get exempted? They are going to get on the bus or get run over by it just like everywhere else. Government has already proven that they can, and will, regulate those forums.
Great question!
First, that the definition of content that is considered “adult” doesn’t necessarily mean every forum qualifies. Privacyguides.org likely would not. A car forum likely would not. Facebook must comply because links shared can be “harmful” anywhere on the platform. The fractured nature of Web 1.0 is a feature now, not a bug.
Second, that proxy measures can reasonably work for forums with smart admins. If I register with an email I can show has been in use since 2007, some forums are willing to accept that as enough evidence. I saw an article somewhere I can’t find right now that someone was accepting 5 year old tickets to a concert or something that was an 18+ event. Typically age verification laws are focused on large Web 2.0 platforms and can include lower cost, lower threshold options for sites with a very small number of users.
Finally, that it might simply take a longer time for anyone to care or even notice some smaller sites. By the time someone comes calling, policies might have already changed several times and reasonable exemptions now mean no work is needed.
First, that the definition of content that is considered “adult” doesn’t necessarily mean every forum qualifies. Privacyguides.org likely would not. A car forum likely would not. Facebook must comply because links shared can be “harmful” anywhere on the platform. The fractured nature of Web 1.0 is a feature now, not a bug.
if it were so easy. you can post links to the privacyguides forum too. but the bigger problem is that anyone can post anything. if they don’t do age verification, they are liable for any forbidden content that slipped through. that can also be used as a form of blackmailing.
Sure you can post links, but that’s not the topic of the forum, and it’s not specific the a xountrybor market, which is also a factor right now with the UK law, so it doesnt ping as a problem worth dealing with.
where did you read that it’s the topic of the forum that matters?
I’ve read what seems like 30+ articles and explainers about the UK law the last few days - this has some lousy (official) defintions. I think the most recent episode of Power User with Taylor Lorenz might cover some of this enough to get the overall sense.
The topics under scrutiny of the “user-to-user” site is extremely vague beyond obvious porn, but it amounts to if it allows the sharing of links of basic news of any topic, it counts. Because in terms of categorizing “harmful content” for minors, seeing fucking protests happening anywhere, at all is “controversial adult content.” But if the links are limited to a very specific topic, say Honda Ridgeline owners, privacy and cyber nerd shit no one cares about) etc., cooking, and other innocuous things, it’s a grey zone that doesn’t demand compliance. YMMV, but even for a fascist wannabe set of policies can’t justify “harmful” material for kids with a Linux forum or a forum for owners of the Honda Ridgeline (WTF?)
Car forums are still alive and well because they’re a great repository of knowledge. There are plenty of computing forums too still.
Yep, and every one of them already complies with age verification laws so as new laws are added they’re going to comply with those as well. There are very few web admins / sysops / site operators out there who are willing, or even able, to buck these kinds of national laws.
Let us know what you find. I’m ready to go back to the 90s/early 2000s internet. Golden era of the internet.
I am already browsing the “old way”, since the mess with reddit…
I found out there is a forum for everything. It’s not centralized in one website, but it’s not that different than browsing /r/whatever you know.
More often than not, the discussions are more intelligent and on point too.
For my doom-scrolling needs, Lemmy does the job.
Lemmy will be pressured into age verification also and most hosts will crumble. $50M per caught infraction is wild.
We gonna end up going back to libraries. Which actually would be cool as fuck. Like Yentl when all those dudes are hanging out in a big ass room talking philosophy. It’ll re-spark the postal service. Live music will thrive. Coz everyone will be like fuck the internet, we’ll do it live.
Many fediverse hosts will make an effort to stay open by shifting their servers to countries that are out of reach of verification and law enforcement but that will only last so long.
Lemmy will be pressured into age verification also and most hosts will crumble.
Then just self host
ah ha! Guess that’s how we beat the system. People would need to sub to your instance though for you to post content right?
What would the pros and cons be?
People would need to sub to your instance though for you to post content right?
I think there is some way to automatically forward your content but I don’t self host and am not an expert.
Pros are that while you could be “defederated”, you can’t be banned. You make any decisions and could also let others use your system.
Sneakernet is gonna be back with a vengeance
Among us nerds, I’m sure.
Isn’t that how it started
Only once every couple of years! Wow you’ve got it good!!
We’re heading back to the dreams of the 90s with people running websites on non-standard ports and DNS (new rinky dink decentralized DNS?). Take a performance and usability hit for the return of a more decentralized Internet. Probably still more usable than the early internet with all the lessons learned and tools available to modern developers. We can also bring back the term: web master
There are already far more people in raw numbers on various federated/non-commercial/self-hosted/indie web stuff than there ever were on the early web- it just takes a little effort to find it.
Yeah I find that so annoying.
refer my comment on the parent comment
You can start here Marginalia - Indie Web Directory
See you guys in I2P.
Or ZeroNet
Is that project still alive? Their git repo hasn’t been updated in years.
ZeroNet
What’s up on ZeroNet these days?
I don’t know what on there, but I do know that age verification is not on there, so…
What a throwback. I was on there but then it stopped suddenly.
I was hoping it still lived on, and had improved bootstrapping and search.
What’s I2P?
It’s the name of the invisible Internet protocol.
It’s pretty much like tor, but more geared towards services hosted as hidden services. It doesn’t have a proper way to hide you if you want to visit “normal” websites.
But it has its own torrents and stuff :)
Oh neat!
If this happens they should check ID at church too seeing as how children are much more likely to be abused or groomed by someone there.
If it comes to Lemmy, I quit. I’ll go touch grass all day, I don’t mind.
I will move to freenet, i2p and tor
Tor was a U.S. government supported service and guess who pulled the plug on it.
Really? I haven’t really used Tor but I can’t find anything about that. What happened?
Current US administration stopped funding it as part of their slide towards corporate-driven dystopia, I believe. Tor itself is still out there, just a little more strapped for cash than it used to be.
Using it from time to time and hosting a relay. Works and has been improving over the years imo
The Naval Research Laboratory invented onion routing and open sourced the code.
I don’t see how anybody could come for lemmy. I feel this just attacks centralized services
If they threaten server admins with legal action based on the global user count of lemmy rather than their local server user count I’m sure plenty of owners will fold.
Lemmy is probably not complying with UK law already. But if hosted outside the UK you can just ignore them.
Some instances have blocked the UK but you can also just ignore it because wtf are they going to do
Lemmy is still very centralized, sure there are many servers and that takes care of the /u/spez problem but very little else, most topic generally have one big community and it’s on the one big server
You can go elsewhere, if you like speaking into the void and nobody even hearing you.
one big community and it’s on the one big server
Which you can follow from another server, what’s your point?
the one big moderating boot, that you cannot escape
but don’t worry,
the boot loves you,
the boot works for you,
it only wants the best for you
as it pummels your face into the ground
for your own good
Good bye corporate internet. I won’t miss you
Remember guys, they cared about the kids and their online safety as soon as Israel started a genocide in Gaza and they lost control of the narrative. But they didn’t care at all for the past 20 years when Epstein and his buddies were running rampant.
edit: clarity
This is why the Dark-web exists.
- Tor
- I2P
- Yggdrasil
- LokiNet
- FreeNet
- ZeroNet
- GNUnet (In the distant future)
Did I miss anything ?
Freenet is now hyphanet, fyi.
It’s fucking ironic that this article is asking me to register just to read it.
Can was please fucking stop needing accounts to exist online? So fucking dumb
Way Back Machine is your friend. I don’t visit sites directly anymore.
deleted by creator
Dunno why the advice was deleted, but thanks anyways
The real goal is to eliminate anonymity from the internet.
It’s about control. They can grant you access or revoke it based on your id.
The powers at be hate that they can’t control the narrative as well as they used to so this is their solution.
will a headshot from thispersondoesnotexist.com work?
The first picture I got was a boy, so no, I don’t think it’ll work every time.
No it’s not, maybe for some mainstream websites. Saying the “whole internet” is clickbait hyperbole.
For some people “the whole internet” is like half a dozen websites.
I worked in tech support. For some people Facebook is the internet
They mean most of the internet for most people
Only the vast socially relevant parts of the internetelite nerds who use lemmy will be able to circumvent
if the snobs are fine, why care?
those people kvetching about how the endless September ruined everything will have their wish
Well if they enslave everyone else, we are going to feel it too, no matter what cracks of the system we hide in
It’s the Internet. There are internets, but just one Internet.
Australians will soon be subjected to mandatory age checks across the internet landscape, in what has been described as a huge and unprecedented change.
Search engines are next in line for the same controversial age-assurance technology behind the teen social media ban, and other parts of the internet are likely to follow suit.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-11/age-verification-search-engines/105516256
the simulatenous legislaiton from all countries seems very suspicious of a certain foreign adversary backing such motives. this isnt the first things like this happened. just a hunch.
“The horrible things being done to me by my own government must be the fault of evil foreigners.”
“We need to flood the zone, to overwhelm and burn out the activists!” - Steve Bannon
If by “foreign adversary” you mean the US, that might even be true.
I assumed they meant aliens.
Illegal aliens.
Maybe the whole corporate internet. Unless we’re forced into aol style portals by the death of net neutrality i think most of the lemmy user base will be fine. Shout-out to /c/selfhosted for those looking to get ahead of the permission gate.
