This seems to be a result of what people call the uniparty system, but that's not really an accurate term:

This actually embodies what the establishment on both sides of the aisle want: CONTROL

They want this for many different reasons: they have an unbridled lust for power, or perhaps they are willing to burn down fair elections for the good of all mankind, but actually let's be more generous!!

Most likely because they are afraid, unjustly or not:

* of real terrorists that they think, sometimes correctly, are using E2EE

* of children's immature minds having neural pathways being changed by things they're not quite ready for, or perhaps becoming addicted to the very real and powerful nature of porn)

* or, you know, whatever! Maybe they're parents and want to protect their kids and everyone else's kids.

Really, why doesn't actually matter too much.

The fact is that they just don't understand the technology and the FUNDAMENTAL TRADE-OFF BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND FREEDOM, that tension between privacy/human rights/dignity and technological "bad things" that are always in the news.

They get told one simple thing by lobbyists or even well-meaning constituents, and then they form their worldview around it. And THEN they write legislation (or, more likely, get handed ready-made legislation by lobbyists with an axe to grind)

It's super-important that we, the knowledgeable in this area (regardless of our party persuasion -- I'll work on my people, you work on yours!) start to educate our non-technical legislators. We have to be the trusted voice of reason when it comes to tech, because they're hearing a lot of things from a lot of different voices.

How? By getting involved. Get involved at the LOCAL level, because THOSE people are the ones that serve as the feedramp for national or international politics. After 20 years, your education might percolate upwards to the people who are actually writing new laws. You don't need to be a "crazy" sounding activist or conspiracy theorist: in fact, that works against you (usually). Just be an adult, try to understand what they're trying to accomplish, and explain how they can accomplish it or that it can't be done that way for specific and reasonable reasons.

These are all just my opinions as I see increasing amounts of this sort of legislation being pushed by Meta and other actors. This comment also has a very US-centric bias, so please correct me if you're in another country where things work differently.

It gives the adults the option to be apathetic. In reality, anyone who is a kid now will never know any better.

It just means we're the last generations that had the luxury of a world that remembered what privacy was.