The authors of the dangerous Kids Online Safety Act 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.
TAKE ACTION. TELL CONGRESS: OPPOSE THE KIDS ONLINE SAFETY ACT. 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.
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.
LGBTQ+ Youth will be at risk of having content, educational material, and their own online identities erased.
What's Changed in the Latest Version of KOSA. In its impact, the latest version of KOSA is not meaningfully different from those previous versions.
The legal requirements of KOSA are still only possible for sites to safely follow if they restrict access to content based on age, effectively mandating age verification.
KOSA is essentially trying to use features of a service as a proxy to create liability for speech online that the bill's authors do not like.
The list of harmful designs shows that the legislators backing KOSA want to regulate online content, not just design.
If the government tried to limit an online newspaper from using an infinite scroll feature or auto-playing videos, that case would be struck down.
It is true enough that the amendments to KOSA prohibit a state from targeting an online service based on claims that in hosting LGBTQ content that it violated KOSA's duty of care.
We shouldn't kid ourselves that the latest version of KOSA will stop state officials from targeting vulnerable communities.
KOSA leaves all of the bill's censorial powers with the FTC, a five-person commission nominated by the president.
Placing this enforcement power with the FTC is still a First Amendment problem: no government official, state or federal, has the power to dictate by law what people can read online.
KOSA creates liability if an online service fails to perfectly police a variety of content that the bill deems harmful to minors.
The fight against KOSA has amassed an enormous coalition of people of all ages and all walks of life who know that censorship is not the right approach to protecting people online, and that the promise of the internet is one that must apply equally to everyone, regardless of age.
TAKE ACTION. TELL CONGRESS: OPPOSE THE KIDS ONLINE SAFETY ACT. We cannot afford to allow the government to decide what information is available online.
Please contact your representatives today to tell them to stop the Kids Online Safety Act from moving forward.
This Cyber News was published on www.eff.org. Publication date: Thu, 15 Feb 2024 22:43:07 +0000