#kosa info

[txtstotheworld]

any news on KOSA?

UPDATE KOSA 4/10/24

KOSA has unfortunately been introduced to the house of representatives. However, we have not heard if it has passed senate yet.

Please keep fighting. If KOSA becomes law, I will not be able to run this account anymore.

[alienssstufff]

Hey so, tomorrow (or today depending on where you live.) is the end of the strike and well hate to be bearer of bad news but rest and doodles isn't assured when you return to regular posting. In literally TWO days from now, a new bill will pass called the KOSA bill, and it will cause MASS CENSIRSHIP across the media! Now this bill claims to "protect kids" but in actually it will cause more harm than good to everyone since kids won't have readily availible acess (or even at all) to content that can actually help them, people would not be able to educate themselves as access to some information or topics would be deemed "innapropriate", freedom of expression would be revoked especially lgbtqia people, a lot, privacy wouldn't be respected because you would have to verify yourself, and most importantly fandoms would cease to exist (or at least have trouble existing).

Now what can you do to help? Research on the topic, inform your government, friends, and family, and sign petitions against KOSA. Now some of these are optional only if you can't do them, but's what important is that YOU SPREAD INFORMATION AGAINST KOSA.

Yes AND passing this bill would greatly affect protests and spreading awareness such as this now. Time and time again the US has made it clear they are not with Palestine. Like if the US was allowed to post pro-isreal ads in the superbowl WHILE isreal was bombing Rafah, imagine how much worse the propaganda will get if this bill is passed.

I’m leaving a link that explains it pretty well. Source has a copypaste form +number you can fill out to send to your lawmakers.

If you are able to call said lawmakers, here is also a script in suggestions on what to say on call - written in target of democratic lawmakers (left image) and republican lawmakers (right image) respectively [ credit : swopusa (twt) ]

[ CONTACT SENATE 202-224-3121 ]

While KOSA is a bill specifically introduced to the United States, knowing how much influence the US has on the internet - passing this bill would by proxy impacts EVERYONE

2 Days. It is crucial that this bill does not pass.

[embervoices]

Hello hello! You seem super educated about fighting shitty bills, so how/where can I send things to combat KOSA?

I wouldn't say I'm super educated on this topic. I just passed along a more-useful-than-average chunk of info I happened across because some of my politically active friends shared it elseweb.

That said, a bit of searching goes a long way if you know what to look for.

For KOSA in general, there's actually a designated website for why and how to fight it:

And groups like the EFF are also on the job:

In general, if you have an address in the USA, you can find who represents you and how to contact them in several places.

There are several US government official sites:

https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

http://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

Each state government also has similar sites for the next layer of government down, and counties often do as well. (Local laws have a big impact, too, and set precedents for larger movements!)

There are various non-profit orgs as well, such as Common Cause, who help streamline the process:

Hopefully others can share more resources in comments or reblogs!

[asterionscat]

VERY VERY IMPORTANT (PLEASE READ & REBLOG)

This is the last day before the senate votes if they approve or not KOSA, COPPA 2.0, EARN IT ACT and similiar bills; so here are some links and basically what the site they are linked to do and how they help.

bad internet bills - You can email senators to oppose bills like KOSA and the EARN IT act

Fax zero - It faxes them without you needing to know their numbers

EFF - it offers various ways to contact your lawmakers and take action.

I hope everything goes well, and even if it doesn't, I hope the best outcome for each of you. Please stay safe.

[awkwardbunnyarts]

We have to prevent this bill from going through! This is another way that they are trying to censor us. This is another way for the government to control what we share and do on the internet.

[mercifullymad]

Interesting update to my previous posts urging people to call their senators and oppose the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA): KOSA is "essentially copied" directly from legislation created by a British Baroness and film director who directed, among other things, the second Bridget Jones movie.

Baroness Beeban Kidron, who has been successful at pushing various online restriction bills through British Parliament, is partnering with U.S. politicians championing similar causes. I very much agree with her stance that it is the responsibility of platforms, rather than parents or kids, to ensure their product is safe for users of all ages. However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation opposes the too-vague language used in one of the U.S. bills copied off of Kidron's bills, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (CAADCA), which has already been signed into law and will go into effect in 2024. CAADCA, "the first [law] of its kind anywhere in the U.S.," says it will "protect children from seeing posts about self-harm or from predatory digital advertisers."

The same problem occurs over and over again with these children's digital "protection" bills — the language is simply too vague, and vague enough to be implemented dangerously by either social media companies or Republicans using these bills to block children from seeing queer or race-conscious content. Aside from those more obvious problems, we also must think seriously and deeply about what good it does to stop everyone under 18 (as CAADCA defines a "child," with no differing restrictions for different ages under this cut-off) from seeing any content about self harm, suicide, eating disorders, and other forms of "self-destructive" conduct that are imagined to be highly transmissible by the sane public. Why do these bills prevent children from seeing content about "self-destructive" behavior but not "other-destructive" behavior? Why do they focus more on preventing access to content about suicide rather than content glorifying gun culture, or content about eating disorders rather than content about white supremacy, sexism, transphobia, and fatphobia (some of the biggest forces causing/encouraging eating disorders)?

These bills want children to self-manage their reactions to living in a dangerous and unjust world in "proper" ways, without actually moving the conditions of the world closer toward safety and justice. And per usual, the target audience of these bills are children who are imagined to be not-mad, children who are not already contemplating suicide or hurting themselves, but who could be "corrupted" into doing so by nefarious forces on the internet. Meanwhile, already-mad children get psych-warded or locked out of the care need.

There's a fine line to thread here, because I am extremely pro-regulating Big Tech and pro-digital privacy/rights, and I don't want to come off as if I'm not. But much of the motivation for these bills comes not so much for genuine concern for digital privacy but overextended paternalism of (mad) children and even more generally, an unexamined discomfort with changing norms for social interaction in a digital world. Kidron recounts that she initially got into this sphere of activism because she once walked into a room to find a bunch of teens "all just looking at their screens," prompting her to make a documentary about teens' digital behaviors. More than looking at how much time children are spending on screens and what they're doing on screens, we must first look at why they're using this technology in these ways. The why of it surely has more answers to what we can do to make the world more livable for them.

[rosetheocto]

I’ve only called 2 senators in the past 4 months I’ve known about KOSA/Earn It/The Other Copycat Bills and I want to call more people about how those laws are harmful but even if I have a script calling people is Big Anxiety this is pain

I’d sign the petitions too but I don’t wanna give out my full name and where I live :/

[thefandom-casserole]

Heyyy so not fully sure how kosa works (I’ve been told if it passes it’ll be put into action in 18 months but I cannot. Take that risk)

if it passes I’m deleting my account. My Ao3 was already deleted. my mutuals, I love you all so so much and I’m so sorry this has happened. (Fingers crossed it doesn’t pass. Any information about it will be helpful)

Uhhh anyways. Fully panicked. Best of luck to you all!! I will actually die if my family finds my stuff ✌️

Tagging my tumblr friends

@strawbearri-frog @mcleavemealone @fletcher-bit-me @monkey-simp-2 @berryblonde11

[txtstotheworld]

Do you think kosa is actually going to pass?

Cause I keep on hearing rumors that it is going to…

While I do attempt to keep my opinions off of this blog, I will answer this question.

I feel like yes, there is a high probability of KOSA passing. Especially with bills akin to those in Florida and Kansas being passed.

I personally am against KOSA. I need you all to realize that if this passes, my blog is being deleted. I am a minor, and my parents do not know about my social medias. Nor do they need to know.

However, we must realize that

A: KOSA has not left senate as of April 5th (senate will not return until the 8th)

B: Many bills are being produced to provide better solutions to the problem KOSA claims to solve

C: It has to pass every other step in the law making process

D: The bill will not be enforced until 18 months after it is instated.

I highly encourage you all to research and protest. Do not take rumors at face value. Research. Look up what is true. If we don't look into things, misinformation can be spread. We do not know anything for sure until it happens.

RESOURCES:

STOP INTERNET CENSORSHIP DISCORD

BAD INTERNET BILLS

SENATE SCHEDULE

ANTI KOSA PETITION

FIND YOUR REPRESENTATIVE (SENATE)

FIND YOUR REPRESENTATIVE (HOUSE)

CALL SCRIPTS:

Use left if your rep is republican, use right if democratic.

[g-g-gh00st]

Just learnt about the Kosa bill… wtf how is America actually like banning gay people and mental health support all over the world like keep your issues in check you don’t need to bring everyone else into that mess

[taikeero-lecoredier]

(BAD) UPDATE ON KOSA !

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

This may seem grim but we Can still stop this bill if we focus on contacting senators /the House and keep spreading the word.

PLEASE REBLOG !

Join our Discord server to organize against it :

https://discord.gg/pwTSXZMxnH

TAKE ACTION HERE

https://www.badinternetbills.com/

MORE INFO HERE

https://www.tumblr.com/taikeero-lecoredier/709890130733826048/these-twos-bills-are-very-bad-for-the-future-of

SPREAD THE WORD !

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Everybody’s talking about KOSA but no one is talking about the nonsense bill S-210 that even the NDP is supporting, and will have far-reaching implications for privacy for all Canadians. Imagine having to scan your face every time you want to access websites that MAY contain adult material? And what will the government consider adult material? So many websites, including this one, may decide to just outright ban access to Canadians. Btw, the unelected senator who proposed the bill is herself a fan of KOSA.

Here's some more info:

[titleknown]

So, Dove soap and Lizzo are endorsing KOSA, in the name of "social media is bad for teens' self-esteem" (even though that's bullshit) and I am mad.

If you don't know, long story short KOSA is a bill that's ostensibly one of those "Protect the Children" bills, but what it's actually going to do is more or less require you to scan your fucking face every time you want to go on a website; or give away similarly privacy-violating information like your drivers' license or credit card info.

Either that or force them to censor anything that could even remotely be considered not "kid friendly." Not to mention fundies are openly saying they're gonna use this to hurt trans kids. Which is, uh, real fucking bad.

Given that in terms of their actual products they don't have a direct stake in it, it might be possible to get Dove to rescind this (can't find contact info for Lizzo sadly), if you want to contact Dove about this, here's their contact page.

And, as per usual, I urge you to contact your congresscritters, especially given that as of now (Thursday, 4/13/2023) they plan to re-introduce the bill this Monday, and we're going to need a flood of people saying this is awful to kill it.

[mollyjimbly]

🚨🚨I MUST ASK ONCE AGAIN FOR THE FUTURE OF A FREE AND EQUAL INTERNET I AM BEGGING YOU TO SIGN THESE PETITIONS, DONATE, SHARE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW, THIS IS SERIOUSLY THE VERY LAST CHANCE!!!🚨🚨

I do not care how busy you are right now, I implore you to take 15 minutes and sign all of these petitions and spread awareness. Share these links absolutely everywhere, Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Ao3. everywhere!!

Because if these bills pass:..

Say goodbye to fandoms...

Say goodbye to fanfiction/fanart...

Say goodbye to LGBTQIA+ safe spaces...

Say goodbye to private messaging...

Say goodbye to proper sexual health education (including info about safe and healthy abortions)...

I am not exaggerating...

DM me for more questions.

[herhimthem]

KOSA ISNT BEING VOTED TODAY I REPEAT KOSA ISNT BEING VOTED TODAY!!!!

https://www.senate.gov/committees/hearings_meetings.htm

THERE ISNT ANY SENATE MEETING OR HEARING TODAY. PLEASE DO NOT PANIC. WE HAVE UNTIL AFTER MARCH 13TH.

KEEP CALLING YOUR GOVERNORS AND START ORGANIZING!!! START PROTESTING OUTSIDE BUILDINGS, START MARCHING, START FIGHTING IF YOU CAN!!!!!!! AND IF YOU CANT, START SPREADING THE WORD ABIUT THESE THINGS!!!

OH MY GOD WAIT WHAT

IS THIS TRUE?? SOMEONE PLEASE COMMENT OR REBLOG AND LET ME KNOW

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Update #2 - 2/26/2024

edit in case folks don't see the reblog:

Update on this.

I looked at the website and yes, there *is* no mention of any voting on KOSA happening before or past March 13th, March 13th is where the schedule ends. I'm still not sure, so keep digging for more info.

putting the link again so others can examine

U.S. Senate: Hearings & Meetings

────────────

Update #3 - 2/27/2024

ANOTHER another update, somebody relogged this with extra info

I'm gonna start putting dates on these updates so people know what's happening when

────────────

Update #4 - 3/2/2024

So, today I was on Reddit reading about KOSA, and I found this on r/AO3

Here's the Invest in Child Safety Act, it only has five cosponsors compared to KOSA's sixty-three.. wonder why..

Anyways, I was wondering, could steering reps away from KOSA while leading them towards other and SAFER bills help? :P

If these bills really ARE safer, wouldn't it give us a better chance of KOSA not being passed if we gave our Senators and Reps examples of alternative bills they could support?

Like, instead of just saying "DON'T DO THIS!!!" We could say "DON'T DO THIS, but THIS is a better alternative that will keep everyone safe AND actually be helpful."

I have a feeling most of the Democrats supporting this bill have fallen for the "We're protecting the children!!" farse. So, let's not just tell them the problem, but offer a solution! An alternative that will ACTUALLY protect children.

I posted this as it's own thing, but I wanted to add it to this update thread so people are more likely to see it.

Please post this on other sites, on Twitter, TikTok, other Reddit pages, etc. I only ask that you cover-up my username :]

(link to the actual post)