Imagine a world with widespread proliferate deep fakes. It seems there would be no compromising material because everyone could just say, “that’s fake,” when damning evidence dropped. It would unravel such chains of control, and that will be disallowed by the ruling regime.
But how will they stop it? Laws and regulations will be difficult to enforce. I see a new trend forming, and once the chaos reaches a fever pitch, a crisis point: people will come to DEMAND the digital ID.
The digital ID will allow everything a user publishes to be cryptographically signed. This means that when some shill puts out a message, it will be signed and verified, meaning that you’ll know the video is true and untampered with (unlike the shill’s message, which is almost certainly false and tampered with). There will be massive problems with it too (what if people lose their keys, for example), but if you want to communicate online without significant disruption, this will be the allowed path. And you know what? If you want to operate online? It will be so easy for troll farms to disrupt you, you’ll be begging for digital ID too.
This is the entertainment trap. By creating entertainment and depending on donations, you also become a part of the circus, and isn’t that what they want for you anyways?
Just an addendum: there’s no technical reason why a digital ID has to be connected to a cryptographic signature, but for the average user, that’s the service I reckon they’ll get. You can still publish anonymously if you know what you’re doing, but that won’t ever be “pushkey.”