The Internet Is About to Get a Lot Worse
buttondown.email
We've all watched in horror as red states have banned books in schools and libraries. We've seen teachers fired merely for reading a book about gender...

Charlie Jane Anders discusses KOSA (the Kids Online Safety Act).

If you’re in the US, https://www.stopkosa.com/ makes it easy to contact your Senators and ask them to oppose KOSA.

"A new bill called the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, is sailing towards passage in the Senate with bipartisa>n support. Among other things, this bill would give the attorney general of every state, including red states, the right to sue Internet platforms if they allow any content that is deemed harmful to minors. This clause is so vaguely defined that attorneys general can absolutely claim that queer content violates it — and they don’t even need to win these lawsuits in order to prevail. They might not even need to file a lawsuit, in fact. The mere threat of an expensive, grueling legal battle will be enough to make almost every Internet platform begin to scrub anything related to queer people.

The right wing Heritage Foundation has already stated publicly that the GOP will use this provision to remove any discussions of trans or queer lives from the Internet. They’re salivating over the prospect.

And yep, I did say this bill has bipartisan support. Many Democrats have already signed on as co-sponsors. And President Joe Biden has urged lawmakers to pass this bill in the strongest possible terms."

  • @Jumper775
    9•10 months ago

    This article focuses on defending queer/trans rights as that is the hot topic that people want to hear about in the left, however this will be far worse than that. Harmful content can be anything they deem it is as it is so vague, so they could claim things like online communications through which cyber bullying happens, or even through which trans/queer topics are discussed could be sued. This means things like discord or instagram could have to put in place strict moderation to the point of censorship where this is just straight up attacking our freedom of speech legally.