Once you realize it’s not “age verification”, but actually “identity verification”, then it’s easy to understand that the real goal is “papers, please” for the entire internet.

@txtx @mhoye

I speak as a somewhat experienced antifascist who started doing infiltrations around 2013-2014, in the start of what was later called the alt-Right; and who has done more than his share of street actions.

There's a myth that these sorts of accounts are mostly bots, and I really don't think that's true. Like yes, some of them are impostors, that is certainly the case. But if you look at the polls, Reform is at 28.6% in the UK and RN is at 35% in France. That means a quarter of Brits and a third of French hold fascist views, and so if you see a quarter to a third of social media accounts being openly fascist, that's about what you'd expect. That's just who Europeans are.

In my infiltration work, one thing I notice is that the hyperonline gommos tend to have anime avatars and stuff like that, but the more scary people, those with jobs and houses and families and blood-and-soil politics, those tend to be the same person online as they are in real life. In antifascist communities we are deeply security-conscious, but these people really tend not to be. If you wear a mask around them they'll get suspicious and, in my experience, will lecture you about how covid is fake. Their security doesn't come from anonymity but from tight social conformity and from knowing that the cops agree with them.

They are the people who try to propel Jordan Bardella and Nigel Farage into office, will queue up to work at Frontex, and who have scary domestic violence records. They are not bots, they are worse than that.

@passenger @mhoye The UK/Brexit are perfect examples of foreign dictators influencing citizens via social media disinformation campaigns, anonymous & bot accounts etc.

This is not something I want to see further replicated anywhere in the EU.

Being an 'anti-facist' on X is a contradiction. It's like hating on Mickey Mouse at Disneyland.

@mhoye
Your papers are not in order.

@brouhaha @mhoye can you explain this gap in your social media posting history?

You seem to have forgotten to inform us of this e-mail you’ve been using since 2015…

Once you realize it’s not “age verification”, but actually “identity verification”, then it’s easy to understand that the real goal is “papers, please” for the entire internet.

@dalias @mhoye Facebook & X are anarchist/anti fascist? I don't agree.

@txtx @passenger @mhoye
People need to understand the harm done to people and society by gafam.

The only account I had was on linkedin, to have professional visibility.
But this too is populated by [boosted] "influencers" and "followers".

My way to connect with ppl makes all this boring to use.

I find mastodon here more convenient to link with ppl having the same interests.

Not following and not leading.
No ads. Perfect for me.

Facebook : fuck off, I have enough friends.

@mhoye Unpopular opinion:

Identity verification isn't so unattractive in 2026 — social media is destroying democracies via anonymous armies of bot people steered by aggressive foreign actors like Putin and Musk.

The libertarian model that the Internet was built on is failing societies.

@txtx some people will accounts there are, and so are people with accounts in other places, because social media it's not just those places, and because the requeriments for id verification are way broader than social media.

@dalias @mhoye

@txtx @mhoye you dont need identity verification to combat bots, proof of human is enough

@europlus @brouhaha @mhoye - with the proposed US visa / visa-waiver requirements, any of these would invalidate your "immigration status" as a visitor, putting you at real risk of indefinite incarceration at an ICE concentration camp.

@txtx @mhoye Rightfully unpopular. This is not a libertarian position but an anarchist and antifascist one. It's not Ayn Rand bros who are harmed by needing to show ID to participate in public life. It's queer youth, undocumented folks, unhoused folks, dissidents, ppl living under regimes that don't want them having international contacts, etc. who this shit harms.

Once you realize it’s not “age verification”, but actually “identity verification”, then it’s easy to understand that the real goal is “papers, please” for the entire internet.

@txtx @mhoye

Where they go, we go. If you want to know what Mickey Mouse is up to, rather than just hate him and want to avoid him, Disneyland is the place to be.

(I don't monitor twitter though, it's just a garbage hellsite, and most of the real fash are elsewhere. British hard fash mostly use Telegram, soft fash mostly use Whatsapp, and it's worth monitoring both.)

@DiogoConstantino

I don't agree with the premise that there is no possibility for a solution that takes various factors into consideration.

@dalias @mhoye

@txtx that's like telling us to nerd harder.

@dalias @mhoye

@mhoye
Your papers are not in order.

@DiogoConstantino So? What's wrong with trying harder? Is laziness an excuse?

I want more fellow tech people to step away from the libertarian ideals of the current Internet, and start coming up with ways to help save democracy from aggressive states and their disinformation campaigns.

@dalias @mhoye

@mhoye
I'm not sure I completely agree. If you use a bank account as proof of age, the service provider should only receive a yes/no, and no other details whatsoever. There's no way I'd use facial recognition or age estimation, but other techniques (which may seem to be more risky at first sight, such as via your bank) may be pretty safe.

Once you realize it’s not “age verification”, but actually “identity verification”, then it’s easy to understand that the real goal is “papers, please” for the entire internet.