systemd
Dylan M. Taylor, a longtime open source contributor, added an optional birthDate field to systemd's user database to help Linux distributions comply with US state age verification laws. The change sparked intense controversy in the Linux community, leading to harassment and death threats against Taylor. In an interview, he defended the addition as simple attestation rather than verification.
Reported by AI
Jeffrey Seathrún Sardina, a machine learning researcher, has created a fork of systemd called Liberated systemd to excise its recently added birthDate field. The field was introduced last week in response to age verification laws in California, Colorado, and Brazil. The fork aims to eliminate what its creator views as surveillance-enabling code while staying in sync with the mainline project.