It's unfortunately no longer enough to force websites to check your government-issued ID before you can access certain content, because politicians have now discovered that people are using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to protect their privacy and bypass these invasive laws. Their solution? Entirely ban the use of VPNs.
When it comes to anything technical, lawmakers are typically unqualified to make any assessment on how best to protect the public. They constantly want to introduce back doors, ban encryption, or other nonsense because they think they’ll magically uncover hackers, pedos, and terrorists. In reality they’re just making the technology less secure or flat out breaking how things are supposed to work.
“I consider input from specialists in the field.”
Ok, at least they acknowledge their limits and look for professional input.
“Industry leaders have told me…”
There it is!
Years ago, there was an issue similar to this that came up and at the time the article’s author made a great point about 4 items that should be asked of any politician considering policy regarding the internet.
The question is: “Explain the differences between the internet, the World Wide Web, a browser and a search engine, and can you do so without one of your assistants telling you.”
If any politician can’t correctly identify what each is, they really have no business trying to regulate the technology.
I think your view of it is honestly a little positive. In reality, I think a lot of it is an intentional erosion of privacy to eventually implement a surveillance state and control the population completely.
scumbag US politicians want what China has lol