The real danger isn't the ban itself... it's the precedent that could be built on top of it if governments decide they like controlling digital participation

Texas SB2420 requires age verification to download apps. Now, both the government and corporations have a new lever to identify exactly who you are, where you are, what you're doing, and can selectively cut you off from everything. Government-endorsed technofeudalism with inverted totalitarian features normalizing deviancy to become shameless, traditional totalitarianism.

-> Scenario

Want to use cash for lunch or parking? Sorry, no, you must be banked, and have an app.

Want to use a bank? You must use an app.

How do you get an app? You must have a phone and an ID.

Want to buy a phone? Whoops, conundrum encountered.

(And don't even think of wanting to get an ID.)

-> In summary

This further disenfranchises the extremely poor, and takes power and freedom away from everyone who isn't a billionaire.

If you're in Australia, you never had any of that.

How so?

Since when is slop-producing ad-machine social media the only access to speech, press and association?

Since about 10 years ago, online platforms are a major part of how many people speak, publish, and associate.

> since when is speech I don't like speech?!

The only way to enforce it is basically a very dangerous game and will normalize gov control of the internet down to the individual level.

Just online, which has been a bad idea from day one due to the evertrending centralization of the Internet, the primary catalyst thereof being people's laziness. Offline, it still exists.