This is part of a global push to end anonymity on the internet. And it's not about surveillance by the State or even censorship, it's about surveillance by capital. The State want's to control everyone who's a threat. Capital wants the same thing, just without the last three words.
this post was submitted on 11 May 2026
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They want to control everyone who’s a threat to wealthy peoples’ money and power.
This isn't about spam, it's about expanding the privatized surveillance state.
Engaging with this on any other level is counterproductive as it lends credibility to their blatant lie.
You have to give them credit for creativity, since they can't use the 'think of the children' scare because it is already in use by the ~~forced identification~~ age verification people
using an email address deemed suspicious
Like being on their “Antifa” terrorist lists.
Customers would, according to the proposed rules, have to present a government ID, a physical address, a full legal name, and an existing phone number.
For a country that doesn't like/want to provide government IDs at no cost, the US sure does like to require them.
Also, gotta have a phone (number) to get a phone. Nice closed-loop system you're proposing there.
It's a feature, not a bug.
Not the US the fucking Nazis
No it's definite the US, which was the inspiration for the nazi party's policies.
Yeah, rather than just implementing anti-spoofing technology, let's give the government even more of our private data that won't be used against us ever
POTS (legacy service) is harder to trace but for everything else it shouldn't be hard to have cryptographic signatures per call. No call signature then you should know immediately the caller is trying to hide something.
The Verge's Podcast has a reoccurring segment now called "Brendan Carr is a Dummy" with all these stupid moves on his part.
I'm upvoting you because we should raise visibility of people calling this out. But I hate that we tend to call these people stupid (myself included).
They are calculating and outright authoritarian/fascist in agenda, and find psychological weak points with the gullible masses: "Think of the Children" "Think of the Scammers" " Think of your taxes!" People who either don't have the mental accumen, lack of education, lack of experience, or lack the time to apply those because they are struggling with life tend to give these things a pass or just buy into the messaging outright.
It's manipulative and it's "clever" in it's own way to constantly apply ratcheting pressure rightward. Calling them dummies obfuscates just how insidious and evil it truly is. Mocking them doesn't work if people assume these people are a joke that will never accomplish their goal....
Fucking idiots!! What about all the VoIP phone apps? What about number spoofing apps?
It's illegal and happens anyway right now, so how would this actually stop any of them from happening? You know what would probably REALLY actually help?! Stop these fucking companies from buying and selling consumer data like commodities and there amount of phone calls would likely drop. No access to numbers means no way to know what number is active. It'd be a huge waste of time and deter these bad actors probably better than what's in place now.
For anyone who wants relief: start by switching to a private messaging so like Signal and get your friends/family to switch. Get a new phone number and ONLY share with those who needed it for emergencies. Get a "burner" app # from Burner, Hushed (or hell, even Google voice with a junk account if you must) etc to use for banks, utilities, job applications, etc. Forward those calls through the app to your main number if preferred for calls it send them straight to voicemail.
You can also look into getting a private SIM service from Calyx https://calyx.org/membership/internet if you really don't want carriers tracking and selling your data, too.
I have a referral link, too, for a free month. https://members.calyx.org/r/iarby
You know what would probably REALLY actually help?!
Requiring the phone companies to authenticate the incoming calls. They know perfectly well which numbers should be coming in from where.
Getting a "new" phone number might be a way to disconnect you from that number if you keep it on the down low, but there's a high probability your gonna get someones old number that died or lost it and has LOTS of people/companies that wanna contact this number.
When my son got a phone (and number), the previous owner didn't tell anyone, not her pharmacy, not her friends and family. It took a long time to get all that BS behind us.
Curse you "Darla"!
Yep. Got a new phone number several years ago and inherited multiple automated callers for "Arturo". I got another call today - still can't get rid of them.
2.5 years later my work phone is still getting contacted for the previous owner. Last text was last week and was a tech support call for a blue screen reboot loop, I answered that I saw the issue, windows. so I suggested linux or contacting their actual support
24 years mine and I get spam calls for someone who had my # back in 97
damn
Get a new phone number and ONLY share with those who needed it for emergencies.
Not a bad advice, but depending on where you are that might not do anything. I bought a new SIM recently and it was getting spam calls before I even added a single contact. Slapped SpamBlocker from F-Droid on it immediately.
Yeah. The thing about new phone numbers these days is they are generally reused numbers someone else didn't want. So you'll still get the same spam calls, they just won't necessarily be addressed to you.
Nice! That so actually works? Most carrier blocks will stop the calls from ringing but I still get a voicemail from them.
You can choose to reject it, which is what my Google Phone app does by default when I block a number, or accept it to instantly hang up. I just chose the reject option, most calls stopped completely after a couple of weeks. I do not use voicemail, so not sure how it interacts with that. The app also has an option for a subscription (as in you just insert a link) to an ever updating list of spam numbers, but I just went with not my contact = no business calling me.
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