Post #2433246

2026-03-23 17:20 UTC

@rfc1036@hostux.social Fan of systemd here, albeit one concerned by its direction lately, and yes, I'm aware the DoB field could be interpreted multiple ways. HOWEVER: Nobody in my feeds who is concerned about the DoB field can remotely be described as "fascist". The fact you see some of the people complaining on X does not mean the concerns originated with a fascist group, or even on X itself. The insult doesn't even make any sense. Why would fascists care what systemd is, let alone oppose it being (unintentionally I hope) infrastructure to an age verification system? The systemd devs chose to implement this feature, and announce it, at a time when everyone is very jumpy about the California law. It was inevitable there would be concerns about systemd implementing something that is a prerequisite to implementing the mandate of that law on GNU/Linux based OSs. It may be unfortunate timing, and a coincidence (I hope), but that doesn't mean that civil libertarians and anti-fascists (who are 100% of the group on my feeds opposing this) aren't going to be jumpy about it. And systemd's unpopularity in many circles means it does need to treat particularly carefully and make good decisions, looking at the world at large, not just at whatever tech thing it happens to be trying to solve. Rather than insulting good faith critics, systemd needs to be run by people with a little more awareness of the world at large. You guys messed this up. Stop insulting those who are worried, and fix it.

Replies (2)

@bluca@fosstodon.org 2026-03-23 17:30

@poundquerydotinfo@forum.virctuary.com @rfc1036@hostux.social it's 100% fascist brigading and dogpiling, originating from a certain well-known nazi youtuber. The racist and homophobic abuse (and death threats) I and others have received since he published his attack piece demonstrate it very well, even if one didn't know who these people are until then. You are just being their useful idiot, and Marco is completely right to call it out for what it actually is.

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@poundquerydotinfo@forum.virctuary.com 2026-03-23 18:10

@rfc1036@hostux.social Also, contradicting your entire thesis that this is just adding GECOS fields and not compliance with age verification IS THE MERGE ITSELF: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954 If you genuinely didn't know systemd added the fields for compliance with the two age verification laws (likewise @pid_eins@mastodon.social who boosted your original post), could you PLEASE review the policies here? Because you guys literally added it for age verification law compliance, rejected a PR to remove it because of concerns about age verification compliance, and are now stating publicly you didn't add the field for that reason at all. This suggests a serious breakdown in management and policy making.

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