Will Lemmy instances be forced to verify users' ~~ages~~ identities?

I can only answer for dbzer0/anarchist.nexus but FUCK NO. We ain't gonna do that shit lol. If we ever have trouble with the law in any country, we can always backup and move.

Ditto. We were contemplating a flash screen warning with links to VPNs and TOR for affected countries.
- That's how you troll them lol
I was wondering if I chose the right instance migrating over from lemm.ee. Nice to see I did
- ❤
👏🙌

Lemmy.zip is UK based and ended up blocking anyone from the UK from visiting the site 🤷

Compliance depends on the instance. Pick an instance where the admin doesn’t give a dingo’s kidney, or an instance located in a country where the local law doesn’t require age verification.

- I'm waiting to see exactly how the UK plans to compel me, someone who lives outside the UK with a Lemmy server hosted outside the UK, to follow their rules.
  If they find me non-compliant, they can block my site.
- We are witnessing the next step along the way to a completely fragmented web. Sort of like the DataKrash, but in slow motion. This time, it’s driven by legislation instead of a single netrunner.
- I struggle to understand, why do those sites block uk users? Are there really any "international regulations" that demand that if you don't want to comply with whatever arbitrary rules some country set, you should stop serving users from that country?
Hmm, do we know which countries will be exempt? I hadn't thought about that...
Also, how will they enforce who can just ignore the requirement? Will they not take noncompliant websites down by nameservers or something?
- I’ve only heard about UK, Australia and certain states in America. If you live in Kazakhstan next to Borat, you should be fine.
  As always, EU is complicated, so we’ll have to wait and see how that works out.
- There isn't a global law about age verification they countries could be exempt of. It's individual countries doing it.
  And on top of that the laws are different from what I've seen, in the UK for example you have to fullfil certain criteria to fall under that law. But frankly it seems to be a mess in my opinion.
  This is what an age verification service says about it:
  https://www.yoti.com/blog/understanding-age-verification-online-safety-act/

Will Lemmy instances be forced to verify users' ~~ages~~ identities?

If they're located in the UK, sure. But given how small Lemmy instances are, I assume they'll fly under the radar.

Non-UK instances won't be forced to do anything. The UK can't do shit outside their borders, so as long as the instance's operator doesn't set foot into the country, all they can do is block the instance in the UK.

Was wondering about this, I'm in UK, I could just make my own instance, I'm the only user so I verify my own age, federate with everyone. All good? ¯(ツ)/¯
- I love that idea.
  If you do, I'd like to know what kind of bandwidth and system usage it demands.
  I've been wondering if a pi could do this for me and my few friends.
Until similar laws hit other countries
Well they can do shit - they can put out arrest warrants and fines, and possibly have the person extradited to the UK depending on the country.
- Right, but realistically this would be far too much work. Like, they would need to do the same for every digital sex worker who has ever spun up their own website. It's just not feasible.
- they can put out arrest warrants and fines
  Of course they can, but they're unenforceable if the instance's operator has no presence nor assets in the UK. That's why I wrote "forced" in bold. They can issue shit, but that's where it stops.
  and possibly have the person extradited to the UK
  According to Wikipedia, extradition requires that the crime is such in BOTH countries. So no, I don't see that being an option here.

I really don't see that happening. The internet and the real people that build it tend to be innovative tinkerers and hackers. Things get built because there's a need and someone tries to say they can't. P2P, darknets, proxies, VPNs, heck the whole concept of the fediverse defies the idea of control by an external entity. So they may try, but the chances are slim it works.

At the end of the day, if two computers can talk to each other there will always be some form of uncontrollable internet.

In the UK the law is largely unenforceable. VPN usage has shot up since it came in and there was a reveal the houses of parliament are exempt from the requirement.

The internet safety law is impacting larger companies that profit from adult content such as red GIFs and pornhub.

Facebook hasn't been called out yet despite the very obvious adult content in their reels.

Smaller sites are flying under the radar for now. Lemmy probably due to it's distributed nature.

the houses of parliament are exempt from the requirement.
Of course, the jerks...
- I've always said the only way to make this fair is for the big sites to publish viewing data

My instance just blocked UK users. Je suis francais maintenant, mate.

Mastodon has nothing they can do to implement digital ID's, which is what age verification is. Lemmy might not have the technology to do it, because it's libre and a protocol.

No, just like they don't give a fuck about your privacy either. If any instance does get big enough then yeah it's fucked.

I don't think I'll block any, but then I only have a few friends using my instance.

I'm in the odd boat that my server in in Australia (for the AU laws), but I call it a NZ instance - where I live