It is not only the British parliament that is clamouring to control their subjects via an identity verification requirement fo social media users. Governments are=round the world are doubling their efforts to end online anonymity by proposing and
introducing new laws that force users to hand over their identity documents (IDs) to use social media and by framing online anonymity as something that needs to be eradicated. While most of these government efforts to end online anonymity have been
widely covered in the media, America's recent proposals have managed to stay out of the spotlight. But despite flying under the radar, these proposals do exist in a discussion draft that was introduced by Congressman John Curtis in May. The
discussion draft aims to require a provider of a social media service to verify the identity of users of the service, and for other purposes and prevent anyone from creating a social media account without verifying their identity. Not only does
this discussion draft intend to make ID verification mandatory for anyone who wants to create a social media account but it also wants to force social media companies to report users to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) whenever they suspect users have
submitted fake IDs. Additionally, it contains a requirement for the FTC to submit these reports to the United States (US) Department of Justice (DOJ). While the discussion draft does include an exception for social media providers that have annual
revenues of less than $1 billion for three consecutive years, the large social media platforms where the vast majority of the more than three billion total social media users are registered will be forced to verify the real identity of their users.
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