The Linux community has won the battle, but the war is just beginning.
In California, both chambers of the state legislature unanimously passed a bill exempting Linux and other open-source operating systems from age verification requirements. Bill 1856 was passed last week by a vote of 39 to 0 in the California Senate and subsequently by a vote of 69 to 0 in the California Assembly.
Linux will therefore not be required to implement age verification functionality. But while this is a win, the Linux community shall not forget that this is just the beginning. Historically speaking, Linux was always independent - developed by countless free and independent software developers from around the world. While some distributions where created and maintained by commercial companies, the core Linux system and most distributions are community-driven projects. There is no single maintainer, no company, no single individual to be hold responsible. Enforcing laws is basically impossible, since anyone from anywhere in the world can take over and continue the development.
With traditional commercial operating systems and software in general - such as Microsoft’s Windows or Google’s Android - the situation has always been different. Over the decades, laws and the influence of powerful third parties have slowly but steadily taken over more and more control, forcing companies to follow rules - at the expense of their users’ freedom and rights. This has led to systems that are full of bloatware, collect telemetry data, and contain advertising integrated directly into the software, often limiting users’ ability to use their own computers.
This is a strong reminder to the entire Linux community to never give in. Not even a little bit. If “outsiders” are allowed to take the first step toward dictating to users of free and open-source software what they can and cannot do, it will lead us all down the same destructive path. Some members of the Linux community were willing to give in. Please don’t. Stand up against it and make your voices heard. Our greatest strength is not open source, encryption, or privacy, but our education, freedom of speech, and political activism.