Digital ID: EU Parliament Plans ID Verification To Use Internet, 'The New Verification System Cannot Be Bypassed Via VPN'

“This is our solution for that, but of course it’s also an important part of [the] next steps also to look at that it shouldn’t be circumvented."

The WinePress | substack.com/@thewinepress

The European Union is moving into its next phase of radically censoring what content can be viewed online, forcing individuals to fork over their digital IDs to access most content, and do so with a verification system that a VPN cannot circumvent.

Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President of the EU Commission, recently went viral for statements she made in April where she revealed that the Parliament’s new digital ID system cannot be bypsassed with a virtual private network (VPN).

When a reporter asked during the press conference, “How are you going to prevent kids to use a simple VPN bypassing the age verification, app?” Virkkunen replied:

“Yes, of course, It’s difficult to have the technological solutions that there’s no any way to circumvent or try to circumvent, of course, the rules, but now when we are setting the rules in place, of course, we have to also.

“We have to also have ways of how we are able to implement this, and now we don’t have that kind of age verification tool at all, which is protecting people’s privacy and at the same time, which is cyber secure and unsecure at all the levels.

“This is our solution for that, but of course it’s also an important part of next steps also to look at that it shouldn’t be circumvented, and of course, we are looking at that kind of high risk services now.

“Just a few weeks ago, we published preliminary findings against 4 porn platforms, and these, for example, are seen as high risk services that they have to have very strong age verification tool[s] in the place that they they can be sure that users under 18 years, they are not having access to these porn platforms, for example, so that’s why that kind of privacy preserving solutions are very much needed.”

Virkkunen explained during her speech, this framework builds upon the EU’s controversially adopted Digital Services Act (DSA) in 2023 that radically implemented laws, effectively in many parts of the world (on paper that is), as to the type of content users can see and post; forcing major platforms and search engines to censor alleged mis- and disinformation.

DSA was then fast-tracked in the wake of the October 7th, 2023, attacks in Israel, The WinePress reported at the time.

Despite this, Virkkunen said that a number of platforms still have not fully complied in the manner that they are supposed to.

Nevertheless, she explained several times how this verification system establishes a “blueprint” to synchronize age checks across the bloc.

“First, we ask Member States to create national age verification solutions which are in line with this blueprint to ensure cross border interoperability. Also, Member States must now establish a system of proof of age attestations so as to determine users’ age in the first place.

“To accelerate the adoption of age verification tools so that people across Europe can count on safe, secure, privacy preserving solutions. And at the same time, we will also set up an age verification scheme, and the scheme sets criteria for those who can provide proof of age and those who can develop age verification solutions.

“Based on these criteria, we will assess potential providers and publish lists of providers that meet our high privacy and security standards, including both public and private services, and platforms can then choose providers from this list.”

“[…] So we think that there will be public solutions but also private solutions which are based on this blueprint and for the same technical approach we have proposed here. And, of course, it’s very important that this is protecting the privacy of the citizens, but of course the security aspect is very important as well, and that’s why this is published as a[n] open source and everybody can hit and hack and test now this model.”

In the meantime, the EU is still trying to get many other platforms to comply with their DSA laws, the latest one being Reddit.

Reclaim the Net reported:

Reddit began forcing many of its European users to prove their age on June 24, and it chose an invasive way to do it. Anyone the platform’s automated systems flag as possibly under 18 now has to hand over a government ID or a live face scan to a third party before opening a single mature community. The rollout covers the European Union and Norway, and Reddit frames the whole thing as compliance with censorship and digital ID EU law.

If you refuse the check and you keep your account, though, the mature side of Reddit vanishes from view. Agree to it, and you feed your identity into Persona, the outside verification firm Reddit leans on to decide whether you are old enough to read what you came to read.

The screening starts before anyone asks for a document. Reddit runs software that monitors your every move and estimates your age from how you behave on the site, reading your posting history, and the words you use.

Reddit had let people self-declare their age at signup, a method the Information Commissioner’s Office said children could get around without effort. “It’s concerning that a company the size of Reddit failed in its legal duty to protect the personal information of UK children,” Information Commissioner John Edwards said.

Steve Huffman, told users a few months ago that the company had no wish to learn who they are. “We are not doing sitewide human verification,” he wrote in a post about confirming people are human rather than bots. “We don’t need or want your identity.”

AUTHOR COMMENTARY

The EU is far from unique in this regard. The WP has documented how in Russia, for example, police are pulling people over in their vehicles and demanding residents hand over their phones and delete VPNs and other unapproved apps, as a way to enforce adoption of their all-in-one surveillance state app MAX.

We also know that many other countries are implementing their own digital ID frameworks… it’s almost as if they are covertly working together on this? No, no, never: that’s conspiracy talk…

Psalm 2:2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, [3] Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

Original Article: https://thewinepress.substack.com/p/digital-id-eu-parliament-plans-id