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Reddit Link Post
Subreddit: r/linux
Link URL: https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings
Title: I traced the lobbying registrations behind 6 state age verification bills. None exempt open-source software. One was written by a Meta lobbyist.
Comment to post underneath:
This is an OSINT investigation into who is behind the age verification bills moving through US state legislatures and what they mean for FOSS. The repo contains 24 analysis files with every source embedded.
The short version: California AB-1043 and five other state bills define "Operating System Provider" as anyone who develops, licenses, or controls an OS on any general-purpose computing device. That includes volunteer-maintained distributions. None contain a FOSS exemption. The EU's equivalent framework has five separate exemptions for open-source projects.
Rep. Kim Carver, the sponsor of Louisiana's HB-570, publicly confirmed a Meta lobbyist brought the bill text directly to her. The bill requires app stores to verify ages but not social media platforms. Meta deployed 12 lobbyists for this bill. It passed 99-0. The lobbyists were there to control the text, not the votes.
Meta's own LD-2 filings with the Senate list the App Store Accountability Act by name as a lobbied bill. In the same filing, Meta lobbies against KOSA and COPPA 2.0, which would regulate Meta directly. It supports legislation burdening competitors and fights legislation burdening itself.
The "grassroots" group pushing these bills nationally (Digital Childhood Alliance) has no EIN in the IRS system, no state incorporation record, and is confirmed funded by Meta per Bloomberg. The same consulting firm (Hilltop Public Solutions) co-leads Meta's $45M super PAC and coordinates DCA's messaging.
Not a repost of u/aaronsb's earlier analysis. I'm not affiliated with them. This builds on their work by tracing the money and lobbying registrations behind the bills they identified. All sources are public records. Claude Code was used as a research tool for bulk data parsing; methodology disclosure is in the repo.