Today we're sharing the first in a series of three posts from our leadership team, starting with @mellifluousbox discussing our mission, and priorities for 2026.

@ariarhythmic @benroyce @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

Your definition may of course vary, but if age-check in itself is fascism, it becomes hard to run any community or society where people don't know a lot about each other by other means.

(Eg. a small town pub where "everybody knows your name".)

The question of fascism comes up when we start talking about how the age-check is made, and what other information gets shared in addition to age. Or how that age-check can be misused, even in theory.

@fluffykittycat @starlily exactly this

@fluffykittycat While you are correct, Ben is unreasonably unkind to anyone who crosses his path, even allies and friends.
I am sure hes an intelligent person, but his attitude sure doesnt reflect it.
Im pretty tired of hatred, especially from people who are supposed to be on the same side, so I muted him.

@benroyce @starlily Have you ever heard of the idea of disobedience?

@benroyce @starlily It's when you don't do as you're told when asked to do something stupid. It's what a person with a conscience does when faced with authoritarian laws.

@iju @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

looking at the emoji in aria's profile, not knowing if they are trans, but if they are i understand why they feel threatened by id checks

if i were trans i would feel intensely threatened, physically, mortally, by id checks

especially in countries like my like stupid fucking country (the usa)

at the same time:

if i *really* cared about id checks, i wouldn't be attacking the wrong entity

aria's heart is in the right place but their brain is AWOL

@benroyce @iju @Mastodon @mellifluousbox my point is when a fascist orders you do a fascist thing and you do as you're told, you're a moral failure.

@ariarhythmic @starlily

so disobey

run a server

do not abide by id checks

then the govt shows up

now you are REALLY identified to the authorities

aria:

if you are trans (just going off the emoji in your profile), i understand why id checks are threatening to you. physically. mortally even

your heart is in the right place

but your brain is completely missing!

go after your government!

@benroyce @starlily Why can't we *both* go after the governments and refuse to obey in advance?

@ariarhythmic @iju @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

aria:

go

run a server

don't comply with id checks

watch what happens

nobody is standing in your way

do it

but might i suggest you vote, organize, and agitate to fight id laws?

if you really cared?

do you think walking up to a fascist and asking to be shot is effective resistance?

@ariarhythmic @starlily

because it's tactically moronic

you're not asking for resistance, you're demanding admins stand up and ask fascists to shoot them

this is not brave, this is not strong, it's fucking stupid

in resistance you think *strategy* and *tactics* because you want to be *effective*

right?

do you think grandstanding on social media with cringe foolish ineffective demands is anything remotely like that?

@benroyce @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

Yeah, I noticed the emoji, and I do understand they're problably really raw about the developments of the past few years. Particularly if they're in the States.

Opposing fascism is really healthy! I'm just concerned that jumping the gun with the GmbH leads to being ignored when sensible applications of age-checks (and what happens if you don't participate) are done.

This seems paramount.

@benroyce @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

Taking the hard-line with fascism is healthy, but pushing others to any course of action without knowing the cost to them seems non-strategic. (In this case: turning GmbH into latter-day Pirate Bay.)

No one battle will defeat fascism, but not fighting isn't the answer either. To push the allegory to the breaking point, we want sabotage and raiding, not cause a Verdun that will consume our future as surely as fascism will..

@ariarhythmic @benroyce @Mastodon @mellifluousbox

True, but have you considered that there are more ways to oppose fascist orders than just not applying them?

It's often much safer and/or profitable to implement a solution that follows the letter of the order and not the spirit.

Particularly in a situation like this where the order of implementation doesn't come from the fascists, or even (I think it's safe to say) collaborators.

@iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox

i have a better idea:

do what valve does

you need a credit card

they run a $0 authorization

*no id docs needed*

the server doesn't deal with sensitive data

even better:

now your cc is attached to your mastodon profile

your cc is right there for donating to the server later

as more people should be doing

snag:

germany doesn't consider a cc legally acceptable

but other jurisdictions do

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/08/steam-uk-users-will-now-need-a-credit-card-to-access-mature-content-due-to-the-online-safety-act/

@Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron

@benroyce @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron i think they are discussing that they may have to perform verification on their own servers: mastodon.social. I don’t think they can enforce verification on other servers.

@Mastodon @mellifluousbox Mastodon could aspire to replace X in Europe (given the current situation in the U.S. and the state of X). It is urgent that it include translation capabilities for this multilingual region

@meowki @benroyce @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron

Just so.

Also worth noting that some countries (at least my own) are enabling age-verification because you can't trust algorithms to show stuff people want/should see. If this is taken into account in the legistlation (which is still being written), then it wouldn't even apply to Mastodon.

Similar use-cases are probably found in other EU-countries, if not in Germany?

@meowki @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron

My understanding is that they will be making the software updates available to other servers that are also forced to comply or get shut down. Is my understanding wrong? It could be

@benroyce @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic

1. Mastodon's code already includes a setting which server admins can enable to set a minimum age for their server, which will ask for a date of birth to be entered during sign-up. The date of birth is not stored, only checked once. This has been part of Mastodon's code since multiple months now: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/34150

2. What they say in the blog is that they will audit the GmbH's own servers, which probably includes an audit of this feature.

3. The interesting stuff is what that "working group" will come up with.