Taylor Lorenz’s Power User

Why is online age verification so dangerous? 
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Online age verification laws and mandatory digital ID bills are sweeping across the US, UK, Europe, and Australia under the guise of protecting children online. On this episode of Free Speech Friday, I'm joined by two of my favorite tech policy experts, Jennifer Huddleston and David Inserra from the Cato Institute to break down the massive hidden costs of online age verification, mass surveillance, and the death of internet anonymity.
For most of the internet's history, you could browse websites, watch videos, and join online communities without linking your government ID or biometric face scan to everything you read and post. Today, legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act, Australia's under-16 social media ban, and state-level age verification mandates are changing the free internet forever.
We dive deep into why these youth online safety laws don't just affect kids, they harm adults, cause massive data breaches like the 60,000 leaked Discord IDs and the Tea app breach), crush small independent forums, entrench Big Tech monopolies like Meta, and pave the way for mass censorship. 
Read the full piece from Cato here: https://www.cato.org/briefing-paper/online-age-verification-has-guaranteed-costs-uncertain-benefits

Is "enshittification" real, or are we just refusing to take accountability for our own screen time? 
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In this episode of Power User, I sat down with NYC-based cyber ethnographer, designer, and NYU professor Ruby Thelot to debate his viral and controversial Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) essay, "Enshittification Isn't Real".
While Cory Doctorow's famous theory of enshittification argues that tech platforms inevitably decay as they extract value from users and businesses, Ruby argues that when it comes to social media, the data tells a completely different story. We dive deep into American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) polling, the myth of platform "lock-in," and why he thinks blaming Big Tech algorithms disempowers everyday internet users.
Plus, we get into a heated debate over the rise of "paratechnology" (buying hardware like the Brick or apps like Opal to restrict your own phone use), why people are returning to single-purpose devices like the iPod, why you should stop using Instagram to text your friends, and how the bipartisan push for "Kids Online Safety" laws and age verification is a Trojan horse that helps Meta harvest more data while destroying anonymous free speech online.
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Before you call for more body cameras watch this!! 
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Body cameras were supposed to hold police accountable. So why is police violence still rising? Why are cops almost never convicted using body cam footage? And why are Democrats (the same politicians who just tripled the ICE budget) now demanding that ICE agents wear body cameras?
In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I sit down with Alec Karakatsanis, lawyer and author of the fantastic book Copaganda, to uncover the hidden history of police body cameras. While body cams are presented as a technological fix to deeply rooted institutional problems, they actually have the opposite effect.
We talk about how the multi-billion dollar police surveillance industry originally struggled to get funding for these cameras, how Steven Spielberg donated money to put cameras on cops, how the narrative completely shifted, and how Big Tech is cashing in.
Big Tech interest groups and reactionary non-profits are spending millions to push mass surveillance and censorship laws. My work is 100% self-funded. This series is not backed by any advertisers or tech giants. 
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(This episode originally aired February 2026)

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Some of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest tech elites have a radical new dream, to abandon modern democracy completely and build their own sovereign nations. At the heart of this movement is a millionaire VC named Balaji Srinivasan and his vision for what he calls the "Network State".
In this episode of Power User, I speak with freelance journalist Sam Venis about his firsthand reporting at Balaji's Network School. We expose what really happened inside Balaji’s experimental new government set up inside Forest City, a massive, abandoned ghost city in Malaysia. From aggressive NDAs and toxic black mold to clashes with local governments and authoritarian power trips, Sam breaks down his firsthand investigation into tech’s most bizarre and dangerous exit strategy.

Have you noticed surveillance cameras appearing in your community?
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For decades, the US-Mexico border has served as a proving ground for invasive, next-generation surveillance tech like AI surveillance towers, cameras hidden in traffic cones, license plate readers, drones, and spy balloons. 
Now, those same tools, autonomous AI watchtowers, hidden license plate readers (ALPRs), thermal imaging trucks, and military aerostat blimps, are moving into domestic US cities, suburbs, and neighborhoods. 
On this week's episode of Free Speech Friday, I’m joined by Dave Maass, director of investigations at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, to discuss his reporting on border surveillance and the expanding systems that track people’s movements.
Dave explains what he found during his latest trip along the border, how Anduril’s AI-powered surveillance towers operate, and why people living in border communities are caught in these systems. We also discuss Flock Safety, Axon, automated license plate readers, and the connections between local police surveillance and federal immigration enforcement.
Who can access the data? How is it used? And what happens when technology promoted as a way to catch criminals is used to investigate protesters or monitor ordinary people?
In this conversation, we cover:• AI border surveillance and the “virtual wall”• License plate readers concealed in roadside objects• Surveillance balloons, thermal cameras, and police drones• How military technology moves into domestic policing• Phone location data brokers and social media monitoring• Privacy, free speech, and the “nothing to hide” argument• Public records requests and community efforts to challenge surveillance
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Explore the Atlas of Surveillance:https://atlasofsurveillance.org