Comments
This is effectively a duplicate of this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47362528
I would also encourage taking a critical look at the underlying investigation as it seems mostly LLM generated without a huge amount of manual due dilligence
By dang 2026-03-145:43 Ah, sorry, I missed that. Comments moved thither now. Thanks!
I also submitted https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47370954 because it was pointed out to me that a Reddit submission about the same story on r/linux had been taken down. If there was LLM content I suppose that might at least partially explain a moderator decision there... ?
By SilverElfin 2026-03-142:581 reply No, the mods did not make a decision. It got flagged by an auto moderator bot, because of mass flagging. The mass flagging seems to be a brigade that happened on prior posts in that same subreddit discussing this topic of age verification. I don’t have any definite evidence, but it seems odd that a topic that is so relevant to that community would be flagged, so I assume it is a coordinated attack.
I’ve moderated on Reddit before - a mass report bot on r/linux specifically for age verification is too strangely niche. Also automod doesn’t remove flagged posts, unless it has been set up to do it.
It’s also very definitely ai generated, and makes several claims and implication. Users may have reported it as well.
I would hesitate to assume coordinated behavior at this stage.
By SilverElfin 2026-03-149:491 reply Automod literally posted a message saying it removed it due to mass reporting of the post.
By intended 2026-03-1413:22 Thank you! Didn’t know that, and it changed my position
By altairprime 2026-03-142:01 Drop an email to the mods about both points! They can fix the dupe and may have an interest in the LLM point as well.
By SilverElfin 2026-03-142:56 Maybe it’s a dupe but I think it’s an important topic to discuss. And even if it is mostly LLM generated, that doesn’t mean it is completely invalid. Some of the major points around Meta’s lobbying, and Anthropic’s donations, are seemingly valid.
Age verification, while seemingly benign, creates a honeypot of data ripe for abuse. The devil's always in the implementation details, and history suggests these systems rarely remain narrowly focused on their initial purpose. Consider the chilling effect on anonymous speech and access to information, especially for vulnerable youth.
By ranger_danger 2026-03-1423:14 I think this is a classic slippery slope fallacy.
- "allowing all races to vote will result in a collapse of civil liberties and social order" (1800s)
- "banning alcohol will lead to an oppressive government that controls every aspect of private life" (Prohibition)
- "universal healthcare will just create a death spiral of uncaring doctors and a bankrupt nation" (UK NHS in the 40s)
- "putting a TV in every home will cause moral collapse and societal regression" (50s-60s)
- "introducing nuclear weapons will inevitably lead to the destruction of the world" (Cold War)
- "connecting everyone together with this 'Internet' will be the end of privacy and social order" (Al Gore)
- "AI will turn against us and enslave us all"
Url changed from https://lwn.net/Articles/1062779/, which points to this.
By ChrisArchitect 2026-03-144:131 reply Which was previously the submitted url on this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47362528 (Reddit appears to have briefly removed the post, so then the HN submission was updated). So, dupe & merge?
By dang 2026-03-145:44 Merged now. Sorry!
