> Email addresses are infinite and free, but working phone numbers are limited and usually cost money. In many parts of the world, getting a phone number requi

> Email addresses are infinite and free, but working phone numbers are limited and usually cost money. In many parts of the world, getting a phone number requires recording your government ID with the carrier (and burners are illegal, though usually for the carrier not the consumer), so the calculus then becomes “to prove you’re not a spammer, give up everything about your identity that was or ever will be known”. Which, no. (There’s a reason why Russian democracy activists are divided between a “use Signal, everybody else is dodgy as all get out” camp and a “fuck no, don’t use Signal, doxxing you will be slipping $20 to a random SIM card salesman” camp. But parts of Western Europe are the same, and some are even ahead on e.g. unavailability of anonymous stored-value cards for transport or mandating testimony against yourself wrt encrypted storage.)