Article 6 of the law requires all “software application stores” to:

• Assess whether each service provided by each software application enables human-to-human communication
• Verify whether each user is over or under the age of 17
• Prevent users under 17 from installing such communication software

It may seem unbelievable that the authors of the law didn’t think about this but it is not that surprising considering this is just one of the many gigantic consequences of this sloppily thought out and written law.

That law is a big document; would have been helpful if Mullvad’s article directly cited/referenced as for us to verify some of that.

bruh no way this will ever pass

@jakob I wouldn’t say “microsoft has won” just yet. Plenty of legal challenges to open-source have occurred and failed in the past, this is a proposed law in one region, and a lot of these community open-source repositories break the law anyway, by distributing clearly patent encumbered software, because it would be very unprofitable to sue them. (Only corporate-sponsored distros like Fedora and Clear Linux really care about complying with FOSS-hostile laws like software patents, mostly because they ARE profitable to sue.)

Definitely don’t give up on your beliefs just because it seems tough to follow them, there is always something to do. Fight against laws that force centralization like this. Keep developing your software until there’s a direct, credible legal threat, and possibly after if you’re open to civil disobedience.

Tl;dr new EU law adds requirement to software distributors (ie. package managers) to verify your age if the app allows users to contact eachother