this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2026
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It looks like in the future, we’re gonna verify our identities. Social media for the masses will be done with Identity verification. That’ll be the way to tell bots and people apart, stripping anonymity in the process.

Word that Mastodon is talking of age verification, we will definitely see instances adopt it. All is pointless if federating with an instance without age verification, and that makes me wonder if the Fediverse might split apart under that pressure.

It’s pure speculation, but we might see a verification tag, for those who did verify their identity, and those without are left without any tag, same as bot accounts. If the majority of people do eventually verify, that’ll cast doubt onto accounts who lack the tag. Instances could also go full whitelist mode, and all of those instances force you to verify to join. If that is to be the case, we either verify to talk to people, or we don’t and face the overwhelming bots.

But what do you think, how will the Fediverse navigate a dying internet?

all 42 comments
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[–] shaggyb@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

It's a non-issue. They try to verify us, we leave. That's the extent of the conversation.

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

Read about the first person project! It is litterally aiming to solve personhood credentials and privacy. UX/adoption will be a problem, but it solves some hard issues in a privacy preserving way : https://www.firstperson.network/ - the first user will be the Linux Foundation.

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

Are you sure that this project is about trusting people? One of the first news articles that are linked on this site has this to say:

[–] tacosomuch@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Yes - this is about having AI agents that can be traced back to a human, and knowing if a persona is a true persona or an AI agent working on behalf of a person with proof of personhood. I urge you to read the whitepaper. AI is part of the reason why this kind of technology is important right now.

In a way I feel this might give us new freedom. I’ve ditched a lot of online stuff over privacy and the amount of time and freedom in your head you get in return is amazing.

Don’t get me wrong the fediverse is a lifesaver when it comes to staying up to date about the stuff that matters to us (privacy, politics, Linux, ssh,…) so there will have to be some solution.

But in the bigger picture, fuck it. Read a book.

[–] jimmy90@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

P2P will be back back BACK

the original fediverse

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 32 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Lemmy is going to navigate it by being too small to care about.

[–] spicehoarder@lemmy.zip 9 points 3 days ago

Hell yeah 💪

[–] SolarBoy@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Move the fediverse to the gemini protocol?

[–] j4k3@lemmy.world 70 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I will disconnect from anything with age verification. My post history and content are more than adequate to prove who I am. I will leave the internet entirely out of ethical disgust. I despise this world of lazy cowards and exploitive criminals. I want nothing to do with it. I will not shrug my shoulders when people come to steal my citizenship, rights, and liberty. Pathetic slaves that roll over to this shit are no better.

[–] porcoesphino@mander.xyz 7 points 3 days ago

A lot of likes when this part is less and less true and at best more and more intensive to verify on:

My post history and content are more than adequate to prove who I am

[–] callyral@pawb.social 24 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Oh, I won't be verifying my identity, ever. It's basically self-doxxing.

Or I'll host my own server and mark myself as verified. I mean, does one even verify if an ID check was actually conducted? Who would be bothered to check?

[–] Cantaloupe@lemmy.fedioasis.cc 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

To host an instance you basically have to dox yourself anyways. I had to put my information into my domain register because my shit could get nuked otherwise, they do redact that shit in who.is but still, either way you give your info to someone.

[–] roserose56@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yea, but for domain, you can pay and totally hide it as far as I know.

[–] Cantaloupe@lemmy.fedioasis.cc 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yes you can, it varies from domain to even the domain registers. Ensure when registering you enable Whois privacy and leave your organization field blank or Whois sites will show your real contact info and address. I imagine someone powerful enough could get this still if they wanted to.

[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I will never verify my identity for any social platform. Period.

So if the fediverse enforces as a whole such measures its future would be one without me in it.

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Time to start a new dark web social media network that can only be accessed through TOR.

[–] Trilogy3452@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Does Urbit help with that? Heard it's some way to communicate p2p or something

[–] TotallyNotSpezUpload@startrek.website 29 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I quit Reddit years ago and moved on to the Fediverse. I am deleting my Discord account by the end of this week while moving on to Stoat & Fluxer. Social media is not of any interest to me. When ever a platform becomes unbearable for me to use, I leave and do not look back.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I quit Reddit years ago and moved on to the Fediverse...Social media is not of any interest to me.

I mean, the Fediverse is distributed rather than centralized, but being distributed doesn't make something not social media.

[–] jarvis@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

No need to nitpick. We are two humans communicating so obviously this is a social activity. A community theater is social media by the loosest definition, but the term "social media" now commonly means the big centralized commercial product platforms of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

There are worlds of difference between the manipulative ads and algorithms of social media and the activity feeds on Lemmy. It's the difference between a shopping mall and a community yard sale.

[–] emotional_soup_88@programming.dev 16 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Some users will be fine with it, some won't, me included. As for me, I'll just leave any and all instances that will require verification. If all forums start to require verification, I'll just start hosting my own ~~ugly~~ marvelous HTML forum. :D

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 11 points 3 days ago (2 children)

HTML is beautiful. Its web 3.0 that is ugly.

[–] Cantaloupe@lemmy.fedioasis.cc 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Yay crypto! Better buy now because it’ll go boom guys! It’s the next big thing bro invest!

Yeah ignore the rug right underneath, it’s decoration, don’t worry.

Finally a wholesome comment! :)

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 18 points 3 days ago

I have no desire to attach my social media activities to my IRL identity. I've seen people attacked and get fired for having strong political beliefs. I myself will not visit businesses whose owners have been vocally supportive of certain viewpoints. So I will not participate anywhere that requires verifiable identity, and I think it will be stifling to the point of losing any value. Plus, I'll be honest, I've been around long enough that I've given voice to thoughts that were immature or ignorant or enraged and I'm damn glad I don't have to defend myself on a daily basis and even happier that they aren't associated with my IRL identity.

There are ways to establish an identity without personally identifying information, such as how Mastodon verifies that you have control over a domain. That's as far as I'm willing to go.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It is very likely that smaller communities will form, based on the networks of trust. The local feed will begin to mean more, and local-only communities will proliferate.

You could still visit the rest of Fediverse, should you need something specific.

[–] leave_it_blank@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

I guess it's back to good old forums, hosted in Mukibukistan on the other side of the world.

Wouldn't be such a bad thing.

[–] Trilogy3452@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Can instances be hosted abroad instead? Or are host admins liable as long as they're in an age verification required jurisdiction

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The people who create mastodon having a discussion about what to do about age verification laws some instances may legally be required to comply with isn't the end of the world.

[–] redsand 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Time to move servers and restructure ownership

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, I think the meeting is more about what, if anything can the mastodon team do to support them. Can they offer a software solution? Do they want to? Etc...

[–] redsand 3 points 3 days ago

Better Tor and I2P integration. Clients with panic buttons. Possibly integration with lockdown mode. PQC push. All of these would help.

[–] itsathursday@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Probably go to IRC again, but the fediverse will be fine.

[–] neblem@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I wouldn't mind age or "is a person" verification done with privacy protecting means, such as GNU Taler blind signed token solutions that are open source and audited by independent security teams, but that isn't getting implemented. Instead every "verification" service is a literal privacy nightmare simultaneously linking identity to speech and harvesting user data for sale.

Non-EU parts of the world should be encouraged to have better data privacy laws as part of their trade deals with the EU.

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Instances subject to the legal systems of jurisdictions with age verification laws probably need the feature to exist to continue operating legally.

I don't think the current structure of any of those laws would require instances to demand verification from other instances, and any instance operator who did such a thing would be socially unacceptable to the current population of the fediverse.

[–] meow@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 3 days ago

Die with it i suppose

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Isn't that kind of like asking a 6 year old what they're going to do when they retire?