WASHINGTON — An activist coalition of over 90-some civil society groups sent a joint letter to Senate leadership on November 28, 2022, opposing the Kids Online Safety Act (“KOSA”), which was proposed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). This coalition includes digital rights organizations, tech freedom groups, civil liberties organizations and many others.
The joint letter was addressed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), and Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), urging the senators to oppose KOSA. Many of the signed activist groups — including the American Civil Liberties Union, Fight for the Future, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, sex worker rights groups like SWOP Behind Bars, and the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, along others — call KOSA “a burdensome, vague ‘duty of care’ to prevent harms to minors for a broad range of online services that are reasonably likely to be used by a person under the age of 17.”
“In short, while KOSA has laudable goals, it also presents significant unintended consequences that threaten the privacy, safety, and access to information rights of young people and adults alike,” this letter proclaims. “We [do] urge members of Congress not to move KOSA forward this session, either as a standalone bill or attached to other urgent legislation, and encourage members to work toward solutions that protect young people’s rights to privacy and access to information and their ability to seek safe and trusted spaces to communicate online.”
Adult industry trade group Free Speech Coalition also announced its opposition to KOSA, tweeting out an article by Axios reporting on the joint letter featuring SWOP Behind Bars and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Free Speech Coalition is glad to join this group in opposing the lame duck passage of KOSA, the badly flawed and surveillance-heavy Kids Online Safety Act. https://t.co/lhA2BFwLHB
— Free Speech Coalition (@FSCArmy) November 28, 2022
According to Sen. Blumenthal, KOSA is intended to put in place “comprehensive bipartisan legislation to enhance children’s safety online.”
“The Kids Online Safety Act would finally give kids and their parents the tools and safeguards they need to protect against toxic content—and hold Big Tech accountable for deeply dangerous algorithms. Algorithms driven by eyeballs and dollars will no longer hold sway,” he said
“In hearings over the last year, Senator Blumenthal and I have heard countless stories of physical and emotional damage affecting young users, and Big Tech’s unwillingness to change,” Blackburn said, with Sen. Blumenthal. “The Kids Online Safety Act will address those harms by setting necessary safety guide rails for online platforms to follow that will require transparency and give parents more peace of mind.”
