When Donald Trump won reelection in 2024, many of us thought it might mark the end of lawfare and censorship. After years of selective prosecution, coordinated deplatforming, and Intelligence Community-created information operations, including the Russia Collusion and Hunter Biden conspiracy theories, voters sent a message against elite manipulation of democratic institutions.
Australia’s new digital ID proposal, pitched as a way to protect children online, may be a stalking horse for sweeping state surveillance. By tying age verification to centralized identity credentials, the system threatens to normalize mandatory digital identification for all Internet activity. Once in place, it may be impossible to roll back. (Credit: NSW Government of Australia)
