Oh No, Not KOSA Again!

KOSA, the Kids’ Online Safety Act, is back, and still fundamentally bad. The latest version of the bill mandates a nebulous “duty of care” for online platforms, which can mean whatever the government or someone with lawyers and an axe to grind thinks it means. It can mean information about reproductive healthcare, supportive content for LGBTQ teens, discussions of controversial topics, etc. Platforms will attempt to meet this standard by self-censoring. Large platforms may or may not be able to manage it. Small platforms not owned by the Musks or Zuckerbergs of the world will have to close up shop entirely. This has all the censorship abuse potential of previous versions of KOSA plus some new problems! I hope you will not be fooled by the pretext that it’s “for the children” and reject this latest incarnation of the bill too.