#Kids Online Safety Bill

[chaotickit]

As of now, Florida and Kansas have passed bills that align with KOSA.

So many people have held back on speaking out against KOSA or signing petitions because "it probably won't pass." But we have proof that it very well can and will.

So what can we do right now?

The same thing we've been doing: bring awareness and protest.

Here are a few websites you can visit to sign petitions:

https://www.badinternetbills.com/

https://www.stopkosa.com/

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/dont-fall-latest-changes-dangerous-kids-online-safety-act

You can also call your state reps. This post explains how you can do that.

Good luck, everyone! Don't give up yet.

[audristarzz]

KOSA PASSES SENATE 7/30/24

Kosa has unfortunately passed the Senate on a 91-3 vote. I want this to be clear, It’s not going into effect, it still has to get to the House but I believe there will be a break for the month of August which gives us A WHOLE MONTH!! to call your HOUSE representatives and tell them to vote NO on Kosa. It’s not over yet so many people told their senators and representatives that they didn’t want KOSA. We can do it again, PLEASE do not panic and give up!! I know it’s scary I’m very scared right now myself but if we go silent that’s how it’s going to pass the House and get signed to the president. Let’s try to stop that from happening!!!

Call your house representatives!!!!there is more opposition in the House, we can stop it. BLOW UP THEIR PHONES!! edit: hi everyone!! I’ve made a change to the way I worded this post, I would like to apologize about the confusion I may have caused. When I had meant by “barley passed the Senate” i meant it as a way of saying how so many people voiced their concerns for so long (I first ever found out about Kosa on 7/19/23) which lead it just now getting to the Senate floor for a vote due to the pushback and feedback they had gotten. I apologize if 1. I had confused anyone and 2. If I did not word this right lmao :,) keep calling you’re all doing great!! - audri⭐️

[certainunkownlove2]

we have done it!! We have fucking done it!! We killed kosa!!

im so proud of everyone for coming together and defending that horrid bill. Thank you for your help

Edit: we won the battle big the war but a win is still a win

[sxturn-to-mxrs]

PLEASE SIGN AS MANY PEITIONS AS YOU CAN AGAINST THE KOSA BILL

IT. MUSN'T. PASS

USE THE TAGS. GET THEM TRENDING. SPREAD THESE LINKS AROUND.

[hamadisthings]

URGENT

KOSA is now being discussed to go into the FAA Reauthorization Bill so I BEG you guys to MAKE A LOT OF NOISE ABOUT KOSA TO SHOW THAT WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN ABOUT HOW BAD THESE BILLS ARE. THE CHANCES ARE NOT 0 SO BE LOUD USE www.stopkosa.com

[charliejaneanders]

This is legit scary. Marsha Blackburn is openly admitting that her bill KOSA will be used to drive trans people off the internet.

But Democrats are lining up to support it, and LGBTQIA+ orgs have dropped their opposition. WTF WTF WTF

[eziojensenthe3rd]

Republicans nuked KOSA. Its considered DOA and wont be showing up at the house. This is good news certanly but its not entirely over. This bill got bipartisan support back in the senate, dickheads from both sides thought the idea behind kosa was worth doing, its just that the republican party decided to nuke it for reasons im trying to figure out? To try to deny a win for democrats similar to how they stopped a cancer research bill?

Something like kosa will pop up again, kosa itself may just rise from the grave and we'll have to go through this same song and dance so all i can say is stay informed on this type of shit. Inform your senators and reps not to support this shit and if they dont oppose it, vote them out in the next election they're running in.

There are bills that do in fact regulate the internet in a way that helps but also doesnt violate free speech by targeting how data is harvested. Thise bills should be pushed while censorship should die. For now, celebrate this day. KOSA atm is dead, done so in a manner so anticlimatic yet deserving. But be vigilant.

[fullhalalalchemist]

URGENT: Congress about to pass a mass censorship and surveillance bill under the guise of "protecting children"

May 13 2023

The Senate has been in a "do something!" mode regarding children's online safety. They're using this as an excuse to push for widespread internet censorship and surveillance. The EARN IT Act, has a slimmer chance of passing with widespread opposition and some senators saying they won't vote for it. TLDR;The real threat is actually KOSA (s.1409), the Kid's Online Safety Act, which will mass censor and surveill the entire internet by giving all 50 state attorney generals the power to remove content that is "harmful" for kids, and force you to upload your govt ID online to access the internet. I'll explain how it works below the action items but it's absolutely urgent that anyone who likes having a free and open internet fights back. It's all hands on deck, because this has so much public support it's insane:

HOW TO FIGHT KOSA

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES & THE COMMERCE COMMITTEE

This is a link to the Senate Commerce Committee phone numbers and a call script to read off of. (202) 224-3121 connects you to the congressional hotline

Opposition is getting drowned, and these upcoming weeks will be heavy for lobbying and they're using young people to do it. We NEED to show these senators that young people are actually opposed to this and don't want it.

2. Sign these petitions

Open Letter Against KOSA

Petition 1

Petition 2

Petition 3

Petition 4

Resistbot: Text PHJDYH to 50409

3. Spread the word.

The opposition is getting absolutely drowned online. Dove has nearly 100k signatures to push for KOSA. Influencers on tiktok are pushing for this without ever having read the bill. Fucking Lizzo is sponsoring it. If you have twitter, reddit, tiktok, are in any community, SPREAD THE WORD, PLEASE.

Here is a linktree with all the above petitions for easy shargin: Link to linktree

HOW KOSA WORKS

First, KOSA pressures platforms to install filters that would wipe the net of anything deemed “inappropriate” for minors. This means instructing platforms to censor. We saw how these filters impacted websites firsthand with tumblr in 2018, with not only blocking all adult content but also sfw queer content such as suicide hotlines, art archives, wiping out entire blogs because they had queer fandom related posts, etc. Places that already use content filters have restricted important information about suicide prevention and LGBTQ+ support groups. KOSA would spread this kind of censorship to every corner of the internet. And who gets to decide what is and isn't harmful for minors? Oh don't worry, just every single state attorney general and the FTC, which is appointed by the president. You know, the same attorney generals that just banned gender-affirming healthcare under the guise that it "ruins mental health" of minors. This is why the Heritage Foundation was one of the first to sponsor the bill because they can use it to censor trans content, and Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee is it's co-author.

Second, KOSA would ramp up the online surveillance of all internet users by forcing websites to use age verification and parental monitoring tools. Yup, that's right. Now every single person who wants to access the internet has to upload their govt ID online to third party apps that get hacked all the time. You queer in a red state? You undocumented? You an activist? Have fun getting all your online activity and metadata attached to your govt ID.  

Over 90+ human and LGBT rights groups agree that KOSA is dangerous and updates to the 2023 version won’t and can’t address the big problems with the bill. This bill has MASSIVE bipartisan support, and the authors Blumenthal and Blackburn (yes, that Blumenthal that's pushing the EARN IT Act, and who also sponsored the RESTRICT Act and SOPA/PIPA if you remember) are using the tragedy of mothers who lost their kids to online harassment and young adults who've been traumatized online to lobby for it, and got Dove the company to use a bunch of influencers to push for this under the guise it prevents eating disorders...I wish I was lying. There are already 30 co-sponsors.

It is all hands on deck. I'm dead serious when I say if this bill is passed it is the beginning if not end of the open and free internet.

[spiritmander13]

THE KIDS ONLINE SAFETY ACT IS DEAD.

It has been confirmed that Republicans have spiked KOSA and now KOSA is "dead-on-arrival' at the House, at least in its current state.

But this is not the end.

There are so many more bills that can do the same thing KOSA was planned to do. And also- KOSA will be back, probably by next year.

Nonetheless, I congratulate all of your efforts in this fight to protect fandom from being heavily censored and for things like mental help and sex education to be hidden from people in need. Take a moment to step back and breathe, but remember to continue fighting, ESPECIALLY when KOSA comes back.

[silverstarssart]

STOP KOSA

The thing about KOSA that makes me feel the worst is that I am helpless. I am not an American. I have no power to change the votes or reps. But the internet and social media are used by everyone.

Please. If you have the power. Email your representatives, vote against this bill.

Because so many of us don't have that power

If we lose the internet as it is now. We lose some of the most important resources we have in our modern day. Widespread information, online communities, connections to others that are different than us, online safety, understanding.

Movements like Free Palestine will be censored, LGBTQ topics and protection online will be exposed, we will lose millions of posts on these subjects.

Please, please, we don't have much time.

LINKS:

badinternetbills.com

https://x.com/lykoico_/status/1759459803691102549?s=46

https://x.com/lykoico_/status/1759459803691102549?s=46

stop KOSA

EFF

[audristarzz]

KOSA 7/25/24

GOOD NEWS! Rep Alexandria Ocasio Cortez does not support KOSA!! keep calling and respectfully blowing up their phone ❤️

regarding my last post, Kosa did NOT pass the Senate fully, we have some time so PLEASE call and spread and tell your reps and senators to vote NO on Kosa and I urge you to bring up the government ID which can easily be a danger hazard for hackers and doxxing.

Sen Marsha Blackburn ADMITTING the reason for KOSA is to “save” and “protect” children from the transgender. And I believe we have some lgbtq groups supporting this bill.

[bump-inthe-night]

Since the KOSA bill passed the senate in a 91-3 vote, it's time to put pressure on the House of Representatives to stop it. Now, the House will be in recess until September 9th, which gives us six weeks.

If this bill pass, abusive parents will have full control over their children's internet activity and prevent them from using the internet to get help. Children, who are being sexually abused will be prevented from learning what's happening to them is wrong. They'll also be blocked from learning about queer identities to understand themselves and important information about real-world events.

Please use these links to put pressure on the House of Representatives to stop KOSA from passing:

[lordoftablecloths]

stopkosa.com

change.org petition

more helpful links

[august 2024 update]

KOSA or the Kids Online Safety Act is an Internet bill being pushed by the American government. It claims its purpose is to "protect" kids, but really its methods of enforcing this is mass censorship and control of the Internet. The passing of this bill would lead to LGBTQ+ related information, reproductive healthcare, and other topics that government officials may find "dangerous" to children be restricted or censored.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

In the website linked above, there is a petition you can sign as well as a pre-filled message you can send. You can also write to your representatives, and if you don't want to come up with an entire message, I've attached sample scripts. Also, go to badinternetbills.com for another petition that references similar bills. For more information about KOSA, you can see this article: eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/don… .

Spread information about this, and do what you can. This bill being passed would mean an era of censorship for the Internet.

[hamadisthings]

The FAA package got voted on without KOSA (yay) but the fight is far from over

I BEG you guys to: KEEP THE OPPOSITION UP.

We need to show congress that we are still strongly opposed to KOSA

Still massive thanks to everyone who helped in this fight your support is greatly appreciated!

[charliejaneanders]

Today I managed to reach a real live human being at Senator Butler's office to register my concerns about KOSA. I went through my concerns that this bill would be used by red state AGs to silence queer people online. But then I did something that seemed to make an impression.

I got a bit more personal, and said that as a transgender person I am actually scared that this will drive me off the internet and cut me off from my community.

I also said that my friends have trans kids, who depend on the internet for support. And I'm legit worried what'll happen to them.

I think that talking about my personal worries for this bill really helped drive my message home. I got a somewhat warmer response than in the past when I've called.

I've said this before, but my guess is that if this bill passes, it will be similar to what happened with sesta-fosta.

Platforms will either ban content that might be challenged, or merely shadowban it.

There is a lot of fear-mongering right now about algorithms recommending harmful content to kids. In response, platforms may do the opposite: set up algorithms to ensure that nobody sees content that Republicans don't like.

[certainunkownlove2]

They are voting on Thursday, don't let it pass

I am not the original designer of this picture but the original designer asks that they not be credited