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microsoft-systemd-findings-.../07-timeline.md
hekate 5850d38f9a Public release, findings
2026-03-23 06:01:08 +00:00

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Complete Timeline

Background Events

Date Event
May 2024 Heritage Foundation fellow Dustin Carmack (Project 2025 Intelligence Community chapter author) hired by Meta
Sep 2024 Meta publicly voices support for AB-1043 alongside Google
Oct 13, 2025 Governor Newsom signs AB-1043 (Digital Age Assurance Act) into law; effective Jan 1, 2027
Dec 18, 2024 Digital Childhood Alliance (DCA) domain registered; publicly launches shortly after
Dec 23, 2025 CCIA obtains preliminary injunction blocking Texas age verification statute
Jan 28, 2026 Lennart Poettering, Chris Kuhl, and Christian Brauner announce Amutable (all recently left Microsoft)
Feb 5, 2026 CCIA files First Amendment lawsuit against Utah SB142
Feb 25, 2026 Federal court blocks Utah from enforcing SB142 during litigation

The birthDate PR Campaign (March 2026)

Date Event Actor
~March 4 Age verification API discussion begins on freedesktop xdg mailing list Aaron Rainbolt
~March 10 freedesktop closes controversial age verification API spec proposal freedesktop.org
~Mid-March Dylan Taylor submits PR #40954 to systemd (birthDate field in userdb) Dylan Taylor
~Same week Taylor submits PR #1338/#1339 to ubuntu-desktop-provision (Draft) Dylan Taylor
~Same week Taylor submits PR #4290 to archinstall (required birthDate at install) Dylan Taylor
March 17 Arch Linux 32 blocks access from Brazil and California IPs Arch Linux 32
March 18 Luca Boccassi merges PR #40954 into systemd (37 thumbs-down vs 1 thumbs-up) Boccassi (Microsoft)
March 18 PR generates 945 comments; maintainers lock it systemd maintainers
March 19 Community submits revert PR #41179 paramazo
March 19 Lennart Poettering closes revert PR without merging Poettering (Amutable)
March 19 Poettering locks conversation, restricts to collaborators Poettering
~March 19 Arch Linux maintainer Torxed locks archinstall PR #4290 Torxed
~March 20 Canonical VP Jon Seager distances company from implementation Jon Seager
~March 21 Ageless Linux project launches as protest distribution Community
~March 21 Slashdot, Hacker News, Lemmy discussions explode Community

Key Observation

The entire sequence - from PR submission to permanent merge with locked revert - took approximately 48 hours. A first-time contributor submitted identity infrastructure changes to the most critical Linux subsystem, a Microsoft employee merged it against overwhelming community opposition, and the founder of a commercial Linux startup blocked the revert and locked discussion. All of this happened within two days.

Post-Merge

Date Event
~Late March David Edmundson (KDE) opens xdg-desktop-portal PR #1922 for age range portal
Ongoing EFF building constitutional challenge to AB-1043
May 6, 2026 Utah SB142 compliance deadline (enforcement blocked by court)
Jan 1, 2027 California AB-1043 takes effect

Sources