Tell the Senate: KOSA Will Censor the Internet But Won't Help Kids
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The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) would censor the internet and would make government officials the arbiters of what young people can see online. It will likely lead to age verification, handing more power, and private data, to third-party identity verification companies like Clear or ID.me. The government should not have the power to decide what topics are "safe" online for young people, and to force services to remove and block access to anything that might be considered unsafe for children. This isn’t safety—it’s censorship.

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) would censor the internet and would make government officials the arbiters of what young people can see online. It will likely lead to age verification, handing more power, and private data, to third-party identity verification companies like Clear or ID.me. The government should not have the power to decide what topics are “safe” online for young people, and to force services to remove and block access to anything that might be considered unsafe for children. This isn’t safety—it’s censorship.

  • Calcharger
    -4•1 year ago

    “KOSA’s duty of care is an unfixable idea that is impossible to satisfy and a violation of the First Amendment,” Cohn continued. “Minors are not a monolith, and what hurts one may help another. Requiring platforms to protect the vague, nonexistent best interests of minors as a whole will limit minors to only the blandest material safe for the most sensitive individual. This chilling effect is the precise reason courts have consistently held for decades that imposing a duty to protect listeners from harmful reactions to speech is unconstitutional.”

    I think it’s pretty clear what content is unsuitable, it doesn’t seem very vague to me. You can’t realistically specify everything. As an example, 10 years ago I would have never predicted Mukbang, but it’s insanely popular. Watching someone eat themselves into health issues and inspiring other people to do the same? There’s no benefit. It’s gross, it’s wasteful, it’s unhealthy, but it grabs people’s attention. With KOSA, that content can still exist, but they won’t be telling kids “just eat a bunch of crap food and you can be famous like Niko Avocado”. I think I’m OK with that.

    “State attorneys general of all persuasions will find KOSA a useful tool in purging the Internet of content they disfavor,” Cohn concluded. “From hateful speech to LGBTQ content, KOSA’s duty of care provides the kind of ready-made censorship tool that ambitious attorneys general could only dream of. The burden and expense of a state investigation alone may be sufficient to pressure platforms to take down or restrict access to protected expression. Handing a weapon to politically motivated actors who have demonstrated that they will use any tools at their disposal to silence speech they disagree with is grossly irresponsible.”

    The content of this bill says to me that it prevents advertising specific content, not completely removing that content. Is there evidence informed medical information that says LGBTQ content causes any of the listed mental health issues? I don’t think so. Nothing in the sexual exploitation section seems to even give wiggle room to it saying LGBTQ content could be considered. Asshole conservatives in power will twist laws in crazy ways. However, we shouldn’t stop legislating things just because a small potential exists. The internet is a cesspool and it should be made a little bit safer for people who can’t reason out they are being exploited.

    I think the conversation should be preventing abuse of laws in general. The letter of this bill doesn’t seem bad, but I absolutely can see how it could be manipulated, such as a backdoor for Real ID. But the bill couldn’t be used to completely remove content from the internet, only reducing things being recommended. It specifically says on the bill that the bill does not allow the complete removal of content, it’s just to prevent advertising some content to kids.

    I’m happy to continue the dialogue, if you are @MiscreantMouse

    • MiscreantMouseOP
      10•1 year ago

      Again, I think you are being very naive about the language in this bill, and attempting to apply a common use interpretation, rather than a legal interpretation. It doesn’t matter what the bill says to you, it matters what the bill means for the legal system.

      Why do you think that so many legal & tech professionals are up in arms about this bill? Here is more information about the GOP plans to use this bill to censor LGBTQIA+ content.

      I think the conversation should be preventing abuse of laws in general.

      How do you expect this to happen in the real world? The GOP is very open about their plans to abuse this law, how do you expect to stop them?

      • Calcharger
        -1•1 year ago

        I’ll do a little more reading a little later regarding your link, I do want to say however it is incredibly frustrating to try to navigate an article such as the one shared from techdirt that only links to itself and no outside sources. It makes verifying their claims harder than it should be.

          • Calcharger
            -2•1 year ago

            I was referring to the link here:

            Every hyperlink in that article just links back to it’s own website, which makes it hard to verify the claims it is making.

            The letter you provided from the ACLU, et al is a response to an older version of the bill, located here:

            I do not have time to review the older bill and compare it to the newer bill, but I think it’s safe to say that because the previous bill was met with dissatisfaction that it was rewritten to address their concerns.

              • Calcharger
                -1•1 year ago

                The bill’s authors are elected Senators who has a 96% Progressive Lifetime Score, and lawyers misrepresent the truth. It’s their job. Politicians do the same. Which is why it’s important for conversations like these to be talking about the text of the bill, instead of just linking to what other people have to say. I’m not gonna tell you how to conduct yourself but it’s hard to take you seriously when all you’ve contributed is what other people have said. Not to mention the sources of the articles that you’ve shared so far could be problematic.

                TechDirt and TechFreedom are think tanks. These articles are agenda-based reporting. TechFreedom gets money from Google and Meta according to Influence Watch. Take a look at TechDirt’s sponsors, search for their portfolios. Automattic literally owns tumblr. Ask if they have a financial incentive to amplify this. The people who stand to lose the most here are the tech companies. The content is not going away, just the ability to drive the content to people who probably shouldn’t be seeing it anyway.

                I dunno about you, but I think we are at an impasse. I’m not going to convince you to tHiNk CrItIcAlLy (god I sound like a flat earther), and I’m really losing interest in your condescending remarks. So, until we meet again, DubiousRat

                • MiscreantMouseOP
                  4•1 year ago

                  Neat how you blithely ignore that aside from Blumenthal, a 75 year-old who has been trying to eliminate the open internet for ages, the other author is Marsha Blackburn, a racist tea party republican who kept asking for Obama’s birth certificate and doesn’t believe in climate change… yep no issues there.

                  JFC, the tech companies, especially Google and Meta, would love to have a government ID for all their users, they don’t make their money on content, they make their money selling advertising, and tracking their users across the internet is a big part of that.

                  If you’re this lost in the woods, and refuse to believe the overwhelming consensus of legal experts regarding the consequences of this legislation, or even the GOP’s open admission of their intent to misuse the bill, then yes, I guess there’s no getting through to you. Good luck with those critical thinking skills.