America’s War on Anonymity: Why Your Privacy Is at Risk

Observing American tech policy in recent years feels like watching a dangerous tide slowly building, with multiple regulatory and political currents moving toward a single, unsettling convergence. Over the past few months, these forces have begun crashing together beneath the surface, heading directly toward the public with little warning and even less protection in place.

In late June, the Supreme Court dismantled a legal precedent that had safeguarded online anonymity for twenty years. The ruling held that age verification mandates for adult websites impose only a minimal burden on free speech, clearing the way for such laws to take effect in nearly half of all U.S. states, including Texas, the nation’s second most populous. While the goal of shielding minors from explicit content may seem reasonable, the decision largely ignored serious concerns about erecting barriers to lawful expression.

By mid-August, the judicial push went further. The court permitted Mississippi, at least temporarily, to expand age verification requirements to social media platforms, effectively encompassing the primary spaces where people communicate online. Other states are pursuing similar measures. South Dakota and Wyoming now enforce laws requiring age confirmation for any service hosting sexual material, a category that extends beyond dedicated adult sites to include general platforms like Bluesky. New York recently proposed rules that could impose age verification on social media within the next two years. Texas and Utah have enacted regulations soon requiring app stores to verify user ages, and a comparable bill in California awaits the governor’s signature.

These developments introduce profound complications. For years, civil liberties organizations have cautioned that age verification cannot be implemented without sacrificing privacy or inhibiting free speech. Lawmakers often dismiss these consequences as minor compared to the imperative of protecting children. Yet early outcomes from the UK’s Online Safety Act, which mandates age-gating for a broad range of content, suggest the trade-offs are far from negligible.

Matters deteriorated further in recent weeks. Multiple U.S. government agencies, including immigration authorities, the military, and the Department of Justice, have begun aggressively identifying and pursuing individuals based on social media posts deemed objectionable. This approach incentivizes a culture of reporting that could easily lead to misuse, especially if sensitive user data is exposed through breaches or intentional leaks.

Simultaneously, the Trump administration has played a central role in transferring one of the largest social media platforms, TikTok, to ownership by administration-aligned tech figures. Oracle and Andreessen Horowitz are among the rumored buyers in a tentative deal to separate the app from its Chinese parent company. This move grants significant influence over the platform to interests already sympathetic to conservative agendas, a trend also reflected in Elon Musk’s ownership of X, where user privacy often takes a back seat to ideological alignment.

Major platforms like these are unlikely to resist government requests for user data, even if age verification laws include nominal privacy safeguards. Figures like Musk may willingly disclose user identities without being compelled. Meanwhile, smaller and independent services such as Bluesky and Mastodon lack the resources to comply easily with complex verification rules, placing them at a legal and operational disadvantage.

The broader picture is alarming. Across many states, governments are pushing for websites to gather unprecedented amounts of personally identifiable user information. At the federal level, authorities are pursuing individuals for offensive speech, all while exerting direct influence over major platforms and imposing disproportionate burdens on smaller ones. The risks to civil liberties are unmistakable.

Surprisingly, bipartisan support has often underpinned these encroachments. While Democrats are frequently targets of online crackdowns, they have also championed policies that undermine digital privacy. New York and California, both Democratic strongholds, have advanced aggressive age verification proposals. Former President Biden signed the TikTok divest-or-ban legislation following a wave of bipartisan concern that has since faded from public discussion. There are exceptions, such as Senator Ron Wyden, who has consistently defended privacy and free expression, but they remain outliers.

Some argue that since social media already compromises privacy, further erosion hardly matters. This perspective overlooks a critical distinction: there’s a vast difference between platforms that discourage anonymity and systems that make it impossible. In regions without age verification, users can still employ privacy-focused email services, Tor, or VPNs to create accounts and engage with reasonable, if not perfect, anonymity. A proposed law in Michigan even seeks to ban VPNs, closing off one of the last avenues for self-protection.

For the average person, these workarounds may seem inconvenient. But for transgender individuals, non-citizens, critics of powerful figures, or anyone expressing dissent, such tools are becoming essential for safe participation online.

Beyond these immediate threats, emerging technologies like augmented reality and artificial intelligence are accelerating the move toward comprehensive physical and psychological surveillance. Congress has shown no ability to pass meaningful privacy legislation that might restrain these advances.

If the United States is to reverse this troubling trajectory, robust privacy protections must become a central public demand. Policies should include stricter penalties for companies that fail to safeguard user data and the closure of legal loopholes that allow administrations, whether under Trump, Obama, or Bush, to justify civil liberties violations in the name of national security.

Contrary to popular belief, anonymity is not some novel byproduct of the digital age. As Jeff Kosseff illustrates in The United States of Anonymous, anonymous speech was instrumental in the nation’s founding, used by advocates of liberty to persuade the public and critique authority without fear. This right, though complex, remains worth defending fiercely, especially now.

(Source: The Verge)