The Wire - December 11, 2025

//The Wire//2300Z December 11, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: AUSTRALIAN AGE VERIFICATION LAW COMES INTO EFFECT. ARRESTS MADE IN LAST WEEK'S STABBING ATTACK IN CHARLOTTE.//

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-International Events-

Australia: Yesterday Australia's Age Verification law came into effect for most websites, effectively blocking the vast majority of social media to the entire nation, unless users upload a scan of their face to prove that they are over 16 years old, and thus allowed to be on social media.

Caribbean: The tanker vessel seized by the United States yesterday has been identified as the M/T *SKIPPER*, one of the infamous "shadow fleet" vessels which is used to smuggle oil around the world. The *SKIPPER* was her most recent name change, and at the time of capture she was flying the flag of Guyana (though her registration status is dubious at best). As of this afternoon, AIS ship tracking platforms noted her position being just off the east coast of St. Lucia, heading north at around 10 kts.

-HomeFront-

North Carolina: More details have come to light regarding the stabbing attack that took place on the Blue Line commuter train in Charlotte last week. Back on December 5th, a stabbing was reported on the train, with the assailant eventually being arrested. At the time of the incident, the attacker was not identified, but after a few days authorities said the attacker was Oscar Gerardo Solorzano-Garcia, an illegal immigrant from Honduras who had multiple warrants out for past violent crimes, to include aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Analyst Comment: From here, the situation takes a rather unfortunate turn. Solorzano stabbed a man on the train, who was hospitalized with severe wounds. Earlier this week, the victim was identified as Kenyon Dobie, and was lauded as a hero during the attack because of his efforts to confront the attacker to stop him from harassing other commuters. Dobie did intervene, and prevented the attacker from bothering other passengers, which resulted in him getting stabbed in the process. However, after this news story hit the local media, and the victim made statements in front of the camera, Dobie (the victim) was arrested. Turns out, he had open warrants for his own arrest for beating a pregnant woman so severely she received skull fractures during a domestic dispute. Both Solorzano and Dobie are being held in jail due to Iryna's Law preventing their release.

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Analyst Comment: Unlike many other cases of Digital ID being mandated around the world, Australia has implemented even more dystopian procedures to take effect during this rollout. Of note, the social media platforms which are known to cause extreme harm to children (such as Discord and Roblox) are exempt from the social media ban. However, the platforms that are affected, are impacted in very specific ways.

As one might expect, VPNs are popular ways to circumvent such crackdowns on speech. However, the IP addresses associated with VPNs are public record, so social media companies can easily blacklist those IPs, effectively making VPNs useless for evading the ban. At least some platforms have been observed using these blacklists (but not all). For those in the United Kingdom wondering about how their own Digital ID scandal will play out, this might be a clue; Australia is providing a case study for what a more totalitarian crackdown on communications throughout the global West might look like.

How serious platforms are taking this plan is anyone's guess, and reports vary widely. Some users report no issues whatsoever with being prompted to verify their age, whereas others have reported every app they have now requiring a face scan. Some users report that they can simply put in a false date of birth with no verification at all, and others report their accounts being hard-locked even though the mandate does