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Goodbye device ownership, and the last vestiges of free speech will die with this bill as well. (www.govtrack.us)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf to c/technology@lemmy.world
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So, OS-level age-gating is going federal, which will effectively kill your rights to device ownership and what's left of free speech and expression.

Enjoy your free speech while you still have it because this is a clear attempt to erase that right.

SOPA never died, it just went into hiding until time to reemerge, and now's that time, this is basically SOPA in a save the kids trenchcoat.

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[-] yardratianSoma@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

still have no idea how they will implement this, with phones that can be rooted or running something like lineageOS or others.

But in any case, I am glad I am not from the US.

[-] JustEnoughDucks@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 month ago

The EU is pushing very similar things...

Literally Meta has been caught paying people through shell orgs all around the world to pass this kind of legislation.

[-] tb_@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

with phones that can be rooted

... for now. Samsung removed the ability to unlock the bootloader in an update.

And yes, there are other options. But Google is also cracking down on the openness of Android. I certainly can't take the ability to root as a given.

[-] DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)
[-] tb_@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Yay :/

[-] DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

So far it's only been implemented successfully on modern Surface devices, but hypothetically any PC could implement it.

[-] quips@slrpnk.net 0 points 1 month ago

Phones like fairphone will always have an unlocked bootloader

[-] tb_@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Unlockable, hopefully. If Google doesn't crack down further on it.

Earlier generations of the Fairphone simply had a root toggle in the settings, but they removed that.

(typing this on a fp6)

[-] quips@slrpnk.net 0 points 1 month ago

Google cannot tell them what to do?

[-] tb_@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

They can if they want Google services.
There may have been concern from banking apps and the likes as well? Though it's been a while since I've looked it up.

Edit:

The Strategy

In general, it is difficult to balance the needs of the average user who benefits from Android’s built-in security mechanisms and the user who wants more freedom. Companies like Google and application developers expect their code to run on a trustworthy device and will only provide their services on such devices.

Fairphone has made the conscious choice not to offer an option to root the device on its Google-services enabled software.

On the Fairphone 2, Jan 2016

this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2026
162 points (98.8% liked)

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