Not all internet usage would be deemed public.

Social media sure.

What about what you watch on PornHub? Should that be tied directly to your government ID?

I know that's an easy one to cherry pick but just consider all you use the internet for and how an adversarial governmenft could use some of that info.

Personally I'd love to see all social media corps required to verify ID but leave the rest of the internet alone.

I generally agree with this, but a problem I can't solve is: at what point does a "large group chat" become a "public channel"? If, hypothetically, someone is organizing a thousand people in balaclavas to turn up outside a business they want to intimidate, over Telegram or Signal, is that "private" or "public"?

(also everyone in this thread saying deanonymisation does not on its own solve the problem is correct)