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This week, YouTube rolled out automatic age verification in the US. It forces users who the company's AI system guesstimates might be under 18 to submit their government IDs or full biometric scans just to watch certain videos. YouTube is the first major tech platform to preemptively normalize invasive identity checks for everyday online activity, and it's a disaster.
This new identity verification system creates a dangerous precedent. It is building a surveillance infrastructure that normalizes the tracking of legal and previously anonymous content consumption, all under the guise of child safety.
For this week's Free Speech Friday I dig into why what YouTube and other tech companies like Instagram and Roblox are doing with preemptive AI age and identity verification is so harmful, and how it might change YouTube forever.
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