Re: What IS "Social Media"??

s|b <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 6 Feb 2026 12:17:00 GMT, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> 
> >   As mentioned in Carlos' references, the age check facility will be
> > provided by an independent organization (probably government
> > controlled).
> 
> Probably.
> 
> > The social media platform just sends a request to this
> > facility asking whether or not the prospective user has the required
> > minimum age and gets back a yes/no indication.
> > 
> >   The platform does not get a name or the actual age or any other
> > information. They get what they need (yes/no), nothing more.
> 
> Tnx for educating me, because that was not how I thought it worked.

  You're welcome. I'm afraid you'll have to blame the real and free
press for still bothering to try to keep people informed of facts
instead of FUD, etc.! :-)

> >   We - in The Netherlands - already have a similar system for different
> > purposes, so yes it can be done.
> 
> I can imagine not everyone is happy about it. This system could be
> (ab)used to track people, in principle. What if such a system was
> hacked?

  Yes, systems can be abused and hacked, but uptil now, this (Dutch)
system has not been abused or hacked.

  Anyway, currently the users of 'social media' are already being
tracked without them probably even realizing it and thinking that
they're safe. They're 'only' tracked by what they think are their
'friends', until they find out they're not.

> >   Of course  the 'social media' companies - and especially their rabid
> > owners - pretend that such a system is not possible, so they have a
> > 'reason' for continuing spreading their bile, influencing politics,
> > elections, supporting extreme anti-democratic parties, etc., etc..
> 
> So they'll probably be fined with a slap on the wrist, a couple million
> euro, while raking in millions more in the process.

  TikTok just got slapped with a fine of 6% of their turnover (or
profit?). *Quite* a bit more than "a couple million euro".

  The EU DSA is kicking back quite heavily and efficiently. As the
articles mention, that the owners of the 'social media' companies
protest so much and with so many insults, aggression, etc., means that
the counter measures are working, or at least hurting enough to make
them getting all worked up.