Mastodon says it doesn't 'have the means' to comply with age verification laws

Mastodon says it doesn't 'have the means' to comply with age verification laws

Decentralized social network Mastodon says it cannot comply with age verification laws, like in Mississippi and elsewhere, and says it's up to individual server owners to decide.

Mastodon Can’t Comply with US Age Verification Laws Due to Decentralization

In a move that underscores the growing tensions between decentralized tech platforms and emerging regulatory demands, Mastodon, the open-source social network, has publicly declared its inability to comply with new age verification laws sweeping across several U.S. states. The nonprofit behind the platform argues that its federated structure—where users operate on independent servers rather than a centralized system—makes uniform enforcement pra…

TechCrunch: Mastodon says it doesn’t ‘have the means’ to comply with age verification laws | ResearchBuzz: Firehose

TechCrunch: Mastodon says it doesn’t ‘have the means’ to comply with age verification laws. “Decentralized social network Mastodon says it can’t comply with Mississippi’s age verification law — the same law that saw rival Bluesky pull out of the state — because it doesn’t have the means to do so.”The post TechCrunch: Mastodon says it doesn’t ‘have the means’ to comply with age verification laws first appeared on ResearchBuzz: Firehose.

Mastodon Says It Doesn't 'Have the Means' To Comply With Age Verification Laws

Mastodon says it cannot comply with Mississippi's new age verification law because its decentralized software does not support age checks and the nonprofit lacks resources to enforce them. "The social nonprofit explains that Mastodon doesn't track its users, which makes it difficult to enforce such legislation," reports TechCrunch. "Nor does it want to use IP address-based blocks, as those would unfairly impact people who were traveling, it says…