this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2026
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Goodbye device ownership, and the last vestiges of free speech will die with this bill as well. (www.govtrack.us)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf to c/technology@lemmy.world
312 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

So, OS-level age-gating is going federal, which will effectively kill your rights to device ownership and what's left of free speech and expression.

Enjoy your free speech while you still have it because this is a clear attempt to erase that right.

SOPA never died, it just went into hiding until time to reemerge, and now's that time, this is basically SOPA in a save the kids trenchcoat.

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[–] tb_@lemmy.world 14 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

with phones that can be rooted

... for now. Samsung removed the ability to unlock the bootloader in an update.

And yes, there are other options. But Google is also cracking down on the openness of Android. I certainly can't take the ability to root as a given.

[–] DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf 5 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] tb_@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Yay :/

[–] DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf 3 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

So far it's only been implement successfully on modern Surface devices, but hypothetically any PC could implement it.

[–] lemmyng@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

How far back are they pushing that update? Is it safe to assume that Samsung phones that can't go beyond One UI 7.x.y.z are still able to have unlockable bootloaders?

[–] tb_@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

Likely? I don't know the details. My old S22 which did get updates no longer has the option.

[–] quips@slrpnk.net 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Phones like fairphone will always have an unlocked bootloader

[–] tb_@lemmy.world 6 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Unlockable, hopefully. If Google doesn't crack down further on it.

Earlier generations of the Fairphone simply had a root toggle in the settings, but they removed that.

(typing this on a fp6)

[–] quips@slrpnk.net 4 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Google cannot tell them what to do?

[–] tb_@lemmy.world 5 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

They can if they want Google services.
There may have been concern from banking apps and the likes as well? Though it's been a while since I've looked it up.

Edit:

The Strategy

In general, it is difficult to balance the needs of the average user who benefits from Android’s built-in security mechanisms and the user who wants more freedom. Companies like Google and application developers expect their code to run on a trustworthy device and will only provide their services on such devices.

Fairphone has made the conscious choice not to offer an option to root the device on its Google-services enabled software.

On the Fairphone 2, Jan 2016