Gizmodo: 'Our Kids’ Lives Are at Stake:' 100 Parents of Trans Kids Beg Lawmakers to Kill Kids Online Safety Act https://gizmodo.com/100-parents-trans-kids-say-kill-kids-online-safety-act-1850827173 #kidsonlinesafetyact #richardblumenthal #marshablackburn #internetprivacy #socialissues #instagram #biden #kosa #mary

There are two groups of people in Congress who want to stifle Internet freedom with #KOSA: the Democrats and the Republicans. Passing it is one of #Biden 's priorities. https://www.techdirt.com/2023/07/26/pass-it-pass-it-pass-it-pass-it-pass-it-the-president-says-about-a-bill-the-gop-says-will-be-useful-to-silence-lgbtq-voices/

#KOSA https://beige.party/@geekysteven/111014024790567062

@charliejane I wrote to my senator, Mazie Hirono, about #KOSA and got back a bullshit reply that talked about child online safety in general and said nothing about the bill. People in Hawaii need to keep after her.

Perhaps the only silver lining about the article about #KOSA today is that it's a complete MASK OFF moment. Blackburn told everyone today what she's really after. Lean on your Senators and remind them that she's about eradicating queer communities. It starts with online speech. Ask them why they're okay with that. it's never been about protecting kids. Never. Don't just think it's over, this will pass. Yell loudly. #StopKOSA

Wow, even Dreamwidth is getting in on the attempt to fight the trainwreck that is KOSA:

https://dw-news.dreamwidth.org/42748.html

#dreamwidth #kosa #uspol #politics

Let's see what tactic one "won't anyone please think of the children?" person is using in support of #KOSA.

None at all. He's shouting "Big Tech!" at the top of his lungs and hoping that is sufficient. This is a tactic which has... been invoked a number of times over the past few years to push for all kinds of human rights incursions.

Facebook has gotten too big. Too powerful. The executives are (or were) also a bit shifty. So, we got to do something about them. Something. Anything.

Then, the something ignores any human rights, such as privacy, free expression, or anything else. It also leaves the way Facebook does business completely intact (or close enough so).

Instead of the bad guy being Zuckerberg even, now the bad guy can be someone in the government. There is still a boot on your throat. The centralized power remains. Is everything all tidy and solved?

With KOSA, it has it's own particular brand of awfulness.

It has a number of vague terms which gives figures who have historically been known to over-reach and panic over all kinds of things, a license to panic over more things, then to find a legal text to try to intimidate platforms over that.

Moral panics are not uncommon. In fact, they cannot be any less common. We've seen plenty (in fact, if you look back thousands of years, you can find figures worried about things which would now look silly). There will likely be more to come.

You have to consider whether you really want to live in a sterile Disneyland. Someone could make any number of arguments about this or that potentially being bad. And even if something might be bad to a few people, it's questionable whether that would be proportionate.

This is all assuming that officials are not acting with ill intent. If they're acting with malicious or ideological intent (as a number of people have considered with this bill), it can only get worse.

#Congress Amended #KOSA, But It's Still A #Censorship Bill https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/08/congress-amended-kosa-its-still-censorship-bill

If the Republicans get their way, we would soon need to give our government identification to register on social networks.

The government can't legally enforce this, so instead #KOSA makes companies liable for minors on their platform, and gives private individuals the power to sue.

It also allows state attorney generals to sue for content harmful to minors—a sly way of deplatforming #transgender people (as the Right considers it "child grooming"). https://www.platformer.news/p/how-the-kids-online-safety-act-puts

May I introduce you to this week's #TheProgressiveCafe over on my #Substack? This week we talk about #KOSA, why it's a terrible bill, and how we can fight it.

https://theprogressivecafe.substack.com/p/kosa-and-migraines?sd=pf

It's getting a bit wild to see the "protect the kids from social media" angle gain a lot of support from democratic and left-wing politicians.

I thought this latest round of "think of the children" began with the bizarre pizzagate and Q-anon stuff, but now some democratic politicians have wrapped it in a veneer of legitimacy (accomplished by quoting specific figures out of context) and are using it to sell some extremely vague laws.

#sb680 #kosa

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/07/28/california-senator-nancy-skinner-falls-for-junk-science-moral-panic-makes-blatantly-false-claims-in-support-of-social-media-addiction-bill/

Everyone making a big deal over #KOSA potentially affecting #ao3...

Two facts that show it actually WON'T:
1) The bill would only COMMERCIAL sites, something AO3 is NOT

And 2) Nobody but a select few care. Fanfiction sites are VERY LOW on priority lists.

Sick of the fearmongering over something that doesn't actually apply.

#Senate panel advances bills to #childproof the internet - The Verge

Critics say there are still problems to work out before they’re ever made law.
#kosa #coppa #privacy #socialmedia

https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/27/23809876/kosa-coppa-2-child-safety-privacy-protection-social-media

Help to stop the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA):

https://act.eff.org/action/tell-congress-kosa-will-censor-the-internet-but-won-t-help-kids

“We don’t live in a country where there is a consensus about what is harmful to children, so how could the government determine what’s appropriate for every kid?”

—

Hat tip:
@parkermolloy

Op-ed:
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/kids-online-safety-act-lgbtq-youth

#KOSA #Activism #Congress #Legislation #Privacy #Censorship #KidsOnlineSafetyAct #LGBTQ

So the Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to advance #KOSA, which is a #internet #censorship bill in disguise and will do irreparable damage to everyone. https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/27/23809876/kosa-coppa-2-child-safety-privacy-protection-social-media

The @eff has a great look at the impact of this bill: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/kids-online-safety-act-still-huge-danger-our-rights-online

Also @mmasnick with this saying that Congress hasn't fixed the many issues with this bill called out by many civil liberties, civil rights, and human rights groups despite saying it publicly that it has been fixed. https://www.techdirt.com/2023/07/27/congress-pretends-its-fixed-all-the-problems-with-kosa-it-hasnt/

I wrote about #KOSA, the very bad internet censorship bill making its way through the Senate, and what you can do to help stop it. Please share/subscribe/etc. https://www.readtpa.com/p/congress-is-about-to-pass-a-very

If you've only got a short time, you can text "SIGN PHJDYH" to 50409 (Resistor) to contact your US legislators and urge them to vote no on #KOSA

#KOSA
I just sent a message to
My Senators, E Warren and E Markey, and to Schumer and Whitehouse, asking them to oppose this bill

you can do the same; it only takes a few minutes and I do believe that while the senators don't actually read the messages, they do pay great attn if an issue generates a lot of people writing

Write !! it only takes, literally, a few minutes !!

thanks !!

#lgbtq

When US politicians say they're trying to protect children, the most important thing you can do is figure out who they're actually trying to harm. It's never about protecting children.

https://act.eff.org/action/tell-congress-kosa-will-censor-the-internet-but-won-t-help-kids

#kosa #uspol #eff

@eff

I contacted my reps through this form, but wasn't happy that the prefix fields didn't offer a gender-neutral title like "Mx". I was forced to choose something in order to submit so I reluctantly chose "Mr."

ETA: I understand the menu choices are likely auto-populating from each rep's website, as the options were different for each of my reps. Sen. Feinstein didn't have a prefix menu at all though. So maybe better to have a fill-in-the-blank option?

#KOSA