this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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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 social non-profit explains that Mastodon doesn’t track its users, which makes it difficult to enforce such legislation. Nor does it want to use IP address-based blocks, as those would unfairly impact people who were traveling, it says.

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[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 62 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The more interesting question is, who would you arrest? Just ignore the law. It's unenforceable when it comes to the fediverse.

[–] DarkSideOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

I think the instance owner would be responsible, but what if the instance is out of the state?

Unless the instance owner is on a visa, with a criminal record they could get him. But otherwise it’s hard to be enforced.

Maybe they could ask the app stores to ban apps in that states. Something like that

Also states could ask ISP blocking the main instances.

[–] Sprawl@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Those hosting the more popular environments. The posts would live on perhaps but target enough people and it likely becomes too small for them to care anymore, sadly.

[–] Gigasser@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago

Push to decentralize, that is to push users from more popular instances to less popular ones, would be good then I guess.

[–] humanoidchaos@lemmy.cif.su 3 points 23 hours ago

All the more reason to host anonymously.

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[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 68 points 1 day ago (1 children)

We need more federation and P2P in everything.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

P2P! I have been screaming this into every forum at reddit since last piece of shit president was president. See? This is why!

[–] apftwb@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (4 children)

What P2P solutions exist that need more attention? I know PeerTube does some neat P2P stuff to keep server load down (if they ever had the traffic...)

[–] Xttweaponttx@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

Keet, is a messaging app! It's in beta right now, but its already pretty stable and has a ton of promise!!

More info= works kinda like torrents - your client's IP & connectivity info is encrypted, then distributed across their 'hyperDHT'. Users you've connected with can ping the DHT to get your current IP info, then you establish a direct connection to whoever you're chatting! File shares are also accomplished over that DHT, so you can send files of any size, even terabytes!

[–] sexual_tomato@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Nostr solves the centralized hosting problem the current fediverse has. It's still being developed, though, and is mostly used by crypto bros at the moment.

[–] madjo@feddit.nl 2 points 1 hour ago

I am looking into Nostr, but the convos there are heavy on bitcoin and other crypto, not a big fan of that.

[–] humanoidchaos@lemmy.cif.su 3 points 23 hours ago

You can play multiplayer games with LAN support together for free using a program like Hamachi.

Use a free VPN (https://riseup.net/en/vpn) to download the game for free. I usually go for fitgirl repacks if they're available. Then you and your buddies can connect to the same 'server' using Hamachi and play together.

I recommend doing this with the new Halo collection and Baldur's Gate 3 so you can see it's possible, even with new and advanced games.

Brains > wallets, don't be a corporate simp.

veilid is a framework designed for hosting completely anonymous P2P apps. They already have a chat app reference implementation - (think P2P signal) and there are others popping up like vdrop

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 97 points 1 day ago (3 children)
[–] monogram@feddit.nl 1 points 3 hours ago

Huawei was forced to not comply and look what happened to their phones

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Would have been the smart move for business, too. Just don't comply until everyone else caves and then sue the state for favoring some businesses.

[–] rapchee@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

but then they wouldn't get all the user information

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[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 265 points 1 day ago (6 children)

There's going to come a point at which the Feds/States will lean on the ISPs to handle the censorship for them. We've had people all over the Nat Sec system staring at the "Great Firewall of China" and asking themselves "Can we get something like this over here?"

[–] hatsa122@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Its already happening in Spain. Everyday there is a football match from the spanish league (thats from Friday to Monday, both included) LaLiga orders the ISPs to shutdown everything that uses Cloudflare under the pretext that the shady websites that offers pirated football use their services, killing easily 1/3 of the national traffic for like 4-6h.

Why the ISPs comply?

  • The biggest ISP of the country (Movistar) also happens to be the main one that showcase legal football.

How is this legal?

  • The judge that authorised this and the president of LaLiga have been friends since forever.

Eventually this will go the European court where they will rule this was illegal and anti-constitutional all along and give a Spain a fine (the the citizens have to pay), and revoke this bullshit, but untill then we are screwed. Nothing will happens to LaLiga, the judge, or Movistar, fucking privileged and corrupted bastards.

[–] biofaust@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

Whoa whoa whoa! Callate chico!

You copied this from us Italians where we have the friend of Berlusconi providing the State with a censorship system (the Piracy Shield), allegedly exactly for the same reason since 2023.

Let's give the right Fascists what is theirs.

[–] Tuxophil@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
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[–] CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

TBH, ISP blocking is easily circumvented with DOH

[–] mitch@piefed.mitch.science 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)

All my IT and InfoSec friends have called me alarmist for suggesting even the possibility of a GFW of America, but every day that passes, it looks more and more likely to happen, doesn't it?

Start practicing circumvention techniques now, y'all, while it's still legal and cheap to do so. Learn amateur radio. Learn Meshtastic. Learn all the different censorship-resistant VPN technology out there. Host your own websites or services for friends, family, or your community. It doesn't make it impossible, but it does make it hard, and fascism is nothing if not lazy.

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[–] hisao@ani.social 115 points 1 day ago (20 children)

This is why it's perfect time to get some tech literacy regarding tor, i2p, yggdrasil, and shadowsocks. It's not perfect solution to use tech to circumvent restrictions that shouldn't be there in the first place, but sometimes it really comes to that point and it's really nice to have all systems ready!

[–] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 82 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Arguably though, at some point they'll just say "if we can't read your traffic, you can't use the Internet."

Which still isn't a problem, as I'm sure we can come up with a means to encrypt traffic to make it look entirely legitimate. But it's going to take a while.

[–] einlander@lemmy.world 63 points 1 day ago (18 children)

At that point people would probably go to a p2p adhoc wireless meshnet to bypass the ISPs entirely.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 46 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

You mean "at which point, people will just say 'oh, ok'". (Assuming they even notice)

[–] sexy_peach@feddit.org 40 points 1 day ago (12 children)

"People" will just comply. Tech savvy people like us are the only ones that could circumvent it

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[–] Jason2357@lemmy.ca 28 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Sneakernets, my friend. Never underestimate the bandwidth of a pocket full of microsd cards traveling on the subway.

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Flash drives of banned foreign films are the one method of accessing foreign media that north Koreans realistically have. It's extremely hard to prevent people plugging a flash drive into their computer in their home to view some media

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[–] ezyryder@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I'm making a website to aggregate all of this information. Pro net neutrality, anti censorship laymens guide. Still in the works but its called zoracle.life.

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[–] IllNess@infosec.pub 74 points 1 day ago (3 children)

If this really about protecting kids, they could've done opt in blocking at the ISP level. Just a few new fields with ISPs and they have products that can take care of this already.

This is really about tracking every little thing you do online.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 42 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Eventually it will be about restricting what we can access on the web.

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[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

It's never really about the kids.

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[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 36 points 1 day ago (1 children)

staring at the “Great Firewall of China” and asking themselves “Can we get something like this over here?”

I've just been assuming that was the goal all along.

Fifteen years ago, I said on Reddit, "The U.S. is trying to become like China before China can become like the U.S." Of course, I got buried.

[–] StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

I've been saying some combination of China and Russia personally. It's easier to parallel now after China took over Hong Kong. Those poor kids fought so hard.

People need to understand the fascists were watching those instances too and they learned from them. The last 15 years have been like a road map for how to handle dissent and protests in a way that keeps you in power.

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[–] limer@lemmy.ml 149 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I agree with mastodon, even though eventually Texas will enact similar legislation forcing me to use a vpn to read it

[–] lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 44 points 1 day ago (11 children)

Woudn't it be smarter to just leave the hellhole that is Texas? Either to the north or to the south, leaving is a win.

[–] Eldritch@piefed.world 110 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Sometimes there's family or other things you just can't take with you. Support structures you might not have somewhere else. Friends and neighbors. Mutual aid.

There can be circumstances that override that. But honestly, the more that flee. The easier it is to get what the fascists want. And at best you're only helping yourself short term. Because no matter where you go. They will come for you if they can.

[–] Photuris@lemmy.ml 49 points 1 day ago (1 children)

For real. I want me and my family to leave the United States. Bringing the entire family to a whole new life abroad is a very tall order.

[–] Eldritch@piefed.world 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

And even there. There's no guarantee. Going to Europe where fascists in Russia, Hungary, etc loom? Maybe you'll be safe a little longer somewhere on the Asian continent with the currently slower rolling fascist forces there. But it's only temporary. You can't ultimately escape.

The question is. Where well the breaking point be for most people. What event will cause the public to drag these fuckers from their homes and hold them responsible. Because that's what it's going to take. For them to remember that they rely on us. Not only for their wealth. But continued existence. Only when that fear has been driven into them, will things even start to get better.

And it might surprise us. It may just be a red state that does it. One of these Republican sycophants getting dragged from a town hall. Assaulted by a whole community for their rolls in making things worse for everyone. Police are going to have a hard time locking up a whole town. And these elected ghouls that love to ignore their constituents will reel in terror. To be clear, violence isn't the answer. Fear is. The fear of knowing we far outnumber them. That they could be subject to violent accountability at any moment. Dragged from their safe beds even.

[–] Photuris@lemmy.ml 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fear backed by the threat of violence.

Look, I hate violence. But anyone who says “violence isn’t the answer” clearly hasn’t read a history book. It’s nearly always how things are changed (for better or worse).

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[–] Danitos@reddthat.com 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Your answer seems so out of touch with reality. It feels equivalent to suggesting a depressed person to simply don't be sad.

Moving out to a different state is not easy, either because of family, job, money, studies, life or any other situation.

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[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 38 points 1 day ago

Does the law in Mississippi apply to the geographic region and airspace, or only residents?

[–] gravitywell@sh.itjust.works 55 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Last time i checked "states rights" didn't mean the right to impose your laws on people or businesses running out of other states.

If anyone from Mississippi wants to use our services I'm totally ready to ignore any and all laws that don't acknowledge to sovereignty of the net.

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Also states don't have one company to go after. It is nearly impossible to track down and file court orders for if your lucky non-profits in other countries.

Like I don't think there are many people that host Mastodon instances that will listen to a court order out of the goodness of there heart.

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 day ago

What's wrong with your own personal 2M band radio network? Or just bring back CB culture. It's in the name: Citizen's Band...

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