1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

I'm asking you to oppose S. 1748, the Kids Online Safety Act, also known as KOSA. While it looks promising to start, this broad legislation does not protect anyone in reality, and instead will be used to block any speech that the Trump administration’s partisan FTC disagrees with. KOSA requires online platforms to take steps to mitigate harm to children, but while lawmakers claim it would prevent kids from seeing inappropriate content online, KOSA would instead be weaponized by both the government and tech companies to police legal speech online. The law would be interpreted and enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which the Trump administration has stacked with partisan commissioners. Those commissioners already have a history of political investigations into media organizations who cover the current administration unfavorably and has signaled interest in helping conservative advocates block content about abortion rights, gender-affirming care, and more conservative priorities. Tech companies in turn would simply move to comply in advance and censor content themselves to avoid FTC action. Using the guise of “protecting children”,” KOSA would undoubtedly be abused by the Trump administration and his cronies to silence speech and get around the first amendment. If you want to protect children online, be specific so that this administration cannot abuse the law and bypass the first amendment rights.