Mastodon's founder is criticizing age verification laws by pointing to a linked post showing their downsides. Age verification mandates are a real and growing trend — the UK's Online Safety Act, EU rules, and laws in over 20 US states now require ID checks for adult sites and some social platforms. Privacy advocates including EFF and Mozilla have warned these systems force users to hand over IDs or biometric data to access lawful content, with documented breaches already exposing user data. Digital rights groups and researchers have documented significant harms from many of these mandates, including privacy risks, loss of anonymity, and exclusion of marginalized users — though the overall impact varies depending on how specific implementations are designed. The post is opinion, but the underlying concerns are well-supported by digital rights research.