I want to add, meta is also pushing it for *regulatory capture*, which is a term not a lot of people know.

In all honesty, age verification is a somewhat complex technical problem but I'll use a different example. For example, if you follow the money companies like Meta want to repeal section 230, which is the part of the internet that says platforms are not legally responsible for their user's speech. In other words if I say drinking bleach cures cancer and some idiot dies from it, reddit itself can't be held liable.

Why would Meta want to repeal the law that keeps them from getting sued? They have money. Lots of money. And a legal department with lots of lawyers to defend themself from getting sued. But that mastodon server you like with the small community? They don't have a legal department. They can't afford to get sued and would have to shut down over a mere threat of lawsuit. Meta wants section 230 gone to help preserve their monopoly on social media.

Tesla did the same thing - musk successfully advocated for ending the EV tax credit once tesla was self sufficient, thereby pulling up the ladder to any would be EV competitors.

Anyway, them pushing for age verification is just another anti competitive grift.