US internet censorship bill, KOSA, has been shelved after it was seemingly on the verge of becoming law.
Late last month, we reported on US internet censorship bill, KOSA, passing the Senate. While it seemed like it was on the verge of flying through the rest of the legislative process, it has unexpectedly been shelved after unknown concerns were raised surprisingly by Republicans.
The US Internet censorship bill would have ordered websites to block content that is vaguely considered “harmful” to children. The definitions were not only vague in the legislation, but also subject to change without further intervention from Congress. This means that websites would not only have to self-censor or face huge fines, but also have to chase a moving target as well. All of this under the guise of “save the children” of course.
Recently, we learned that the legislation has been shelved for now under… odd circumstances. From TechDirt:
Broken clocks may be accidentally correct twice a day, and sometimes those broken clocks save the internet. The House GOP has killed KOSA over unclear “concerns” about the version of KOSA that was approved earlier this week. There were rumors this might happen, but in a note at the bottom of a Punchbowl News Congressional roundup, there’s a short report that, effectively, KOSA is dead in the House:
Breaking news: The House Republican leadership won’t bring up the children’s online safety bill that the Senate passed with 91 votes on Tuesday.
A House GOP leadership aide told us this about KOSA: “We’ve heard concerns across our Conference and the Senate bill cannot be brought up in its current form.”
This is good news, though things can always change. But it seems the message about the serious problems with KOSA is getting across. It remains disappointing that Democrats broadly supported this bill that would have been used to suppress LGBTQ content. Of course, the worry is always that an even worse version of KOSA may reappear at some point.
While the cause for the delay is seemingly up for speculation, much like Mike Masnick, this feels like a case of “a win is a win”. Additionally, yeah, this is definitely not over. There will be further attempts to move America into a heavily censored internet dystopia. Even if the bill is killed, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the pro censorship movement makes additional attempts to re-table the legislation as well in future Congressional sessions.
For now, though, free speech supporters can breath a sigh of relief for now, at least on this particular file anyway.
