The larger issue here is the fact that access to an account can hold you hostage and impact your life in essential services.

We should really find a way to break the tightly coupling to these platforms, including mobile carriers, and not have to live in fear.

Having a real representative of each platform in a government branch under regular hours that citizens can access with their documents so that any issues with it can be dealt is a good first step.

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killerstorm 5 hours ago | parent [-]

The government haven't noticed that email became as important as regular mail, unfortunately.

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literalAardvark an hour ago | parent | next [-]

It's noticed... selectively.

Ours sends revenue service notifications exclusively via email, a lossy system... and legally assumes you got it.

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verdverm 12 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Perhaps they haven't seen https://jmail.world

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skinfaxi 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The government has a monopoly on regular mail though (at least in the US). Should email be treated as a utility?

	▲	Zigurd 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		That would be one way to do it but the problem isn't confined to email. Losing an online identity means losing, in practical terms, access to a wide range of government services and regulatorily required filings. Total bans are convenient for the big platform providers, but they are big enough to be regulated such that people don't lose access to everything, and that there are timely and responsive ways to challenge their decisions. If the industry can't do that on its own, it's a job for the regulators.
	▲	killerstorm 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Something like that. I think DNS registry system works pretty well under ICANN supervision: user isn't tied to a specific registrar.