The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is, once again, sounding the alarm over the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).
KOSA has had a long and winding road, but while it has had a convoluted path with supposed changes along the way, critics are continuing to warn that it is still a major threat to digital rights.
Last year, we covered the legislation during a previous attempt to “fix” the legislation. In response to the so-called “fixes”, critics pointed out that the legislation wasn’t actually fixed. The legislation was still censoring otherwise perfectly legal content. This under the guise of “duty of care” for the platforms. Essentially, the legislation would bar platforms from recommending content through the algorithms to minors that is deemed “harmful” to minors.
Recently, lawmakers pushing this legislation have been saying how they “fixed” the legislation and bragging about how they have more sponsors for the legislation. Techdirt notes that not only has the legislation not actually been fixed, but what is happening is a repeat of what happened with FOSTA which resulted in people being killed. From Techdirt:
As lots of folks are reporting, Senator Richard Blumenthal, this morning, released an updated version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). He and co-author Senator Marsha Blackburn are also crowing how they’ve now increased the list of co-sponsors to 62 Senators, including Senators Chuck Schumer and Ted Cruz among others.
Blumenthal, as he always does, is claiming that all of the claimed problems with KOSA are myths and that there’s nothing to worry about with this bill.
He’s wrong.
He’s lying.
Senator Blumenthal has done this before. He did it with FOSTA and people died because of him. Yet, he won’t take responsibility for his bad legislation.
And this is bad legislation that will kill more people. Senator Blumenthal is using children as a prop to further his political career at the expense of actual children.
Blumenthal and his staff know this. There was talk all week that the revised bill was coming out today. Normally, senators share them around for analysis. They’ll often share a “redline” of the bill so people can analyze what’s changed. Blumenthal shared this only with his closest allies, so they could do a full court press this morning claiming the bill is perfect now while people who actually understand this shit had to spend the morning creating a redline to see what was different from the previous bill and to analyze what problems remain.
The key change that was made was to kill the part that allowed State Attorneys General to be the arbiters of enforcing what was “harmful,” which tons of people pointed out would allow Republican State AGs to claim that LGBTQ content was “harmful.” Indeed, that part was a big part of the appeal to Republicans beforehand who publicly admitted it would be used to stifle LGBTQ content.
Now, that “duty of care” section no longer applies to state AGs (who can still enforce other parts of the bill, which are still a problem). Instead, the FTC is given the power regarding this section, but as we explained a few months back, that’s still a problem, and it’s clear how that can be abused. If Donald Trump wins in the fall, and installs a new MAGA FTC boss, does anyone think this new power won’t be abused to claim that LGBTQ content is “harmful” and that companies have a “duty of care” to protect kids from it?
It also does not fully remove state AGs. They still have enforcement power over other aspects of the bill, including requiring that platforms put in place “safeguards for minors” as well as their mandated “disclosures” regarding children.
The EFF has separately published their own response to the legislation and says that the bill is still hugely problematic:
The authors of the dangerous Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) unveiled an amended version this week, but it’s still an unconstitutional censorship bill that continues to empower state officials to target services and online content they do not like. We are asking everyone reading this to oppose this latest version, and to demand that their representatives oppose it—even if you have already done so.
KOSA remains a dangerous bill that would allow the government to decide what types of information can be shared and read online by everyone. It would still require an enormous number of websites, apps, and online platforms to filter and block legal, and important, speech. It would almost certainly still result in age verification requirements. Some of its provisions have changed over time, and its latest changes are detailed below. But those improvements do not cure KOSA’s core First Amendment problems. Moreover, a close review shows that state attorneys general still have a great deal of power to target online services and speech they do not like, which we think will harm children seeking access to basic health information and a variety of other content that officials deem harmful to minors.
We’ll dive into the details of KOSA’s latest changes, but first we want to remind everyone of the stakes. KOSA is still a censorship bill and it will still harm a large number of minors who have First Amendment rights to access lawful speech online. It will endanger young people and impede the rights of everyone who uses the platforms, services, and websites affected by the bill. Based on our previous analyses, statements by its authors and various interest groups, as well as the overall politicization of youth education and online activity, we believe the following groups—to name just a few—will be endangered:
- LGBTQ+ Youth will be at risk of having content, educational material, and their own online identities erased.
- Young people searching for sexual health and reproductive rights information will find their search results stymied.
- Teens and children in historically oppressed and marginalized groups will be unable to locate information about their history and shared experiences.
- Activist youth on either side of the aisle, such as those fighting for changes to climate laws, gun laws, or religious rights, will be siloed, and unable to advocate and connect on platforms.
- Young people seeking mental health help and information will be blocked from finding it, because even discussions of suicide, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders will be hidden from them.
- Teens hoping to combat the problem of addiction—either their own, or that of their friends, families, and neighbors, will not have the resources they need to do so.
- Any young person seeking truthful news or information that could be considered depressing will find it harder to educate themselves and engage in current events and honest discussion.
- Adults in any of these groups who are unwilling to share their identities will find themselves shunted onto a second-class internet alongside the young people who have been denied access to this information.
So, we’ll see a continued fight with this legislation in the near future. Knowing the US, even if the legislation passes, chances are, we’ll see a long drawn out challenge against it through the courts as well.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
