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submitted 1 year ago by thenexusofprivacy to c/bad_internet_bills

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."

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[-] thenexusofprivacy 6 points 1 year ago

Quite true. EFF's article at https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/kids-online-safety-act-still-huge-danger-our-rights-online discusses some of the other problems with the bill.

this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
38 points (95.2% liked)

KOSA and other Bad Internet Bills (US-specific for now)

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Red alert! For the last six months, EFF, Fight for the Future, ACLU, Woodhull Foundation, and dozens of other groups have been sounding the alarm about several #BadInternetBills that have been put forward in Congress. We’ve made it clear that these bills are terrible ideas, but Congress is now considering packaging them together—possibly into must-pass legislation. We're organizing to keep them from sneaking these bad internet bills through.

This community is for news stories, opinion pieces, and action links about these bad internet bills. Please help get the word out!

And if you use microblogging software like Mastodon, please also check out the #BadInternetBills hashtag.

Icon originally from Why we need to openly protest KOSA on Five Nights at Freddy's Wiki, used by permission.

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