Red hot actionable news: the website StopKOSA.com will send a letter from you about this godawful bill to your legislators. Zero effort. You literally just give them your e and mailing address.
You can see the text they’re going to use, and it’s editable, so you have the option (and it’s much easier than writing from scratch) to add a few words up front or tinker and paraphrase if you like, but you very much don’t have to. They will also offer you your legislators’ phone numbers — WITH handy talking points notes — for optional follow-up after the letter is taken care of.
(Hat tip to Julia Serano for alerting me to it. She has more to say about the potential of this bill to effectively eradicate LGBTQ+ content from the internet. If you thought FOSTA/SESTA was bad…)
—
KOSA is a censorship bill that won’t make kids safe. Instead, it’ll put all internet users at risk, especially LGBTQ+ youth. If you believe in a free and open internet, tell your lawmakers to reject #KOSA! https://stopkosa.com/
So I went to read the Kids Online Safety Act, thinking that it couldn’t possibly be as bad as what people are making it out to be, I mean I’m a lawyer and expert in statutory interpretation, it can’t be that bad, right?
Oh no. KOSA IS that bad. It will literally eradicate queer people online.
The bill says that a “covered platform” – broadly defined as “anything on the internet a minor might use” which is literally the entire fucking internet- has a “duty” to protect minors from anything that might harm them, including “sexual exploitation” and other undefined terms
It also gives state attorneys general the ability to sue to enforce it.
So here’s exactly what’s gonna happen:
Wacko republicans, as they’ve been doing with increasing force this year and last, are going to sue any and every website in existence, saying that the mere existence of LGBT people online constitutes sexual abuse of minors. And websites are gonna be so afraid of not doing the most that they’ll just axe all LGBT everything.
This bill is BAD bad. I’m appalled that democrats are lining up behind what is clearly a republican Trojan horse to eradicate LGBT people from the entire internet.
So I went to read the Kids Online Safety Act, thinking that it couldn’t possibly be as bad as what people are making it out to be, I mean I’m a lawyer and expert in statutory interpretation, it can’t be that bad, right?
Oh no. KOSA IS that bad. It will literally eradicate queer people online.
The bill says that a “covered platform” – broadly defined as “anything on the internet a minor might use” which is literally the entire fucking internet- has a “duty” to protect minors from anything that might harm them, including “sexual exploitation” and other undefined terms
It also gives state attorneys general the ability to sue to enforce it.
So here’s exactly what’s gonna happen:
Wacko republicans, as they’ve been doing with increasing force this year and last, are going to sue any and every website in existence, saying that the mere existence of LGBT people online constitutes sexual abuse of minors. And websites are gonna be so afraid of not doing the most that they’ll just axe all LGBT everything.
This bill is BAD bad. I’m appalled that democrats are lining up behind what is clearly a republican Trojan horse to eradicate LGBT people from the entire internet.
