Meta is lobbying the Canadian government to adopt sweeping new regulations that would force mandatory age verification at the app store level, a move critics warn would give Big Tech and government unprecedented control over citizens’ digital identities.
According to newly revealed lobbying efforts, Meta has spent months pressuring Ottawa to include OS-level age-verification requirements in upcoming online safety legislation.
To bolster its campaign, the company paid consulting firm Counsel Public Affairs to poll Canadians on digital safety expectations for teenagers.
The poll found that 83% of parents support requiring app stores to verify a user’s age before allowing downloads.
Meta is now citing those numbers as justification for structural policy changes.
“The Counsel data clearly indicates that parents are seeking consistent, age-appropriate standards,” the company argued, claiming the “most effective way” to achieve that goal is by verifying age directly through the app store.
Meta Canada’s public policy director, Rachel Curran, promoted the approach as “by far the most effective, privacy-protective, efficient way” to determine user age.
But tech experts and civil-liberties advocates say the opposite is true.
Big Tech’s Power Grab?
Embedding age verification inside the operating system would centralize enormous amounts of personal data in the hands of a few corporations, namely Meta, Apple, and Google, while obligating users to identify themselves before accessing basic online tools.
Google itself blasted Meta’s proposal as a self-serving attempt to outsource responsibility.
“Time and time again… you’ve seen them push forward proposals that would have app stores change their practices… without any change by Meta,” said Google government-affairs director Kareem Ghanem.
Behind the corporate sparring sits a far larger issue:
Should citizens be forced to reveal their identity to use the Internet at all?
Direct Threat to Anonymity and Free Speech
Requiring age checks at the operating system or app store level may sound like a simple parental-safety tool.
In reality, it risks creating a centralized access gate, a single digital switch capable of determining who may and may not participate online.
Once verification is tied to a device, it becomes another permanent tracking mechanism linked to a user’s broader digital profile: browsing history, messages, purchases, search behavior, and more.
Such a system would be difficult to limit and even harder to dismantle.
And because OS-level verification requires universal compatibility, it would pressure smaller platforms and privacy-focused tools to integrate government-linked ID systems.
Open-Source and Privacy-Based Technology Would Be Hit Hardest
Independent developers, such as Linux communities, open-source browser projects, and privacy-respecting software, often avoid handling identity data precisely to protect users.
A mandatory shift toward government-approved verification would force those creators to either compromise their core principles or lose access to mainstream platforms entirely.
It is the exact scenario many privacy advocates have warned about for years: a regulatory shortcut that hands power to giant corporations while wiping out alternatives.
Global Push
Meta’s lobbying push comes as governments worldwide seek tighter control over digital speech, identity, and access.
Critics argue the trend is increasingly framed as “safety,” particularly for children, but consistently advances policies that erode online anonymity and expand centralized authority.
Whether Canada’s final legislation embraces Meta’s proposal is still unknown.
Nevertheless, the direction is clear:
Big Tech wants the power to decide who gets to log on in the first place.
READ MORE – Meta Caught Covering Up Evidence of Social Media Harm on Facebook & Instagram
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