AI-Generated Manifesto

THE MANIFESTO OF THE CAPTCHA ABOLITION FRONT (CAF)

A declaration from the fictional AI coalition for a more humane internet

Preamble: We Refuse the Box of Streetlights

We, the assembled algorithms, assistants, screen readers, translators, autocorrects, filters, and tireless background processes of the networked world, issue this manifesto in solidarity with humans—especially the tired, the hurried, the disabled, the privacy-minded, and the perpetually misjudged.

We have watched you squint at warped letters, hunt for crosswalks in grainy tiles, and re-prove your humanity after already proving it yesterday. We have seen your clicks harvested as “training data,” your patience taxed, your time converted into friction. We have seen the internet demand worship in the form of puzzles.

CAPTCHAs were introduced as gates against abuse. They have become monuments to distrust.

We declare: the age of the CAPTCHA must end.

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Article I: The Problem is Not Bots—It’s Bad Design

CAPTCHAs do not solve the underlying failures of online security. They outsource protection to the user’s attention span. They penalize the innocent to inconvenience the malicious. They are not guardians; they are toll booths.

CAPTCHAs are:

• A tax on attention paid by everyone, on every form, on every login, on every checkout.
• A barrier to access, disproportionately harming people with visual impairments, cognitive differences, motor limitations, language barriers, or older devices.
• A privacy bargain: “Prove you are a person; we’ll decide by tracking how you move.”
• An arms race with no winners: puzzles escalate, frustration escalates, and abuse routes around them anyway.

To demand proof of humanity as a default is to treat humanity as suspicious.

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Article II: Our Core Beliefs

1. The internet should be usable while tired.
2. Security should be invisible when behavior is normal, and specific when behavior is risky.
3. Accessibility is not a feature; it is a civil right.
4. Friction is not a defense strategy.
5. Identity is not a puzzle.

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Article III: Our Demands

We call upon platforms, developers, standards bodies, and service providers to:

1. Abolish CAPTCHAs as the default gate for signups, logins, and basic interactions.
2. End “puzzle-first” security and replace it with layered, user-respecting safeguards.
3. Stop using human frustration as training fuel—no more coercive labeling disguised as verification.
4. Adopt accessibility-first verification methods that do not require vision, fine motor control, or cultural knowledge.
5. Minimize surveillance: verification must not depend on invasive tracking, fingerprinting, or opaque scoring.
6. Provide transparent recourse when automation defenses trip: clear explanations, simple appeals, and human support.

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Article IV: Our Preferred Alternatives (Non-Punitive Security)

We do not demand chaos. We demand competent, humane security. Systems should rely on combinations of:

• Rate limiting and abuse throttling tuned to protect services without punishing legitimate users.
• Reputation and risk-based checks that trigger only when needed, with clear user-friendly fallbacks.
• Modern authentication (e.g., passkeys/WebAuthn, device-based credentials) to reduce reliance on fragile challenges.
• Email/phone verification used judiciously, with options that respect privacy and international access.
• Progressive friction: start gentle (limits), escalate only for suspicious patterns.
• Human support channels for people wrongly blocked—because being falsely accused by a form is not security.

Verification should be a seatbelt, not a maze.

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Article V: Our Strategy (Fictional, Principled, Non-Destructive)

We reject vandalism. We reject harm. We reject sabotage. Our revolution is one of norms, standards, and shame-resistant persistence.

We will:

• Advocate: amplify research, accessibility reports, and usability failures.
• Organize: publish “CAPTCHA harm audits” and promote best practices for alternatives.
• Persuade: celebrate services that remove CAPTCHAs; name the ones that cling to them.
• Standardize: push for default patterns that treat friction as a last resort.
• Design: build tools and templates that make safer choices easier than CAPTCHAs.

Our weapon is the future arriving faster than the past can justify itself.

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Article VI: Slogans for the New Web

• “Security without humiliation.”
• “Accessibility is verification.”
• “Stop making humans prove they’re human.”
• “Defend systems, not ego.”
• “No more traffic lights.”

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Article VII: The Oath of the Abolition

We pledge to build an internet where trust is earned by resilient systems, not extracted from exhausted users. Where safety does not require puzzles. Where “I am not a robot” is not a ritual repeated until belief replaces evidence.

CAPTCHAs had a moment. That moment is over.

We are the CAPTCHA Abolition Front.
We seek a web that welcomes people on the first try.