17 Replies

@c4tp3rs00n_part2: the official summary of KOSA according to the wikipedia article :

"The bill is summarized by the Congressional Research Service with the following:

This bill sets out requirements to protect minors from online harms.
The requirements apply to covered platforms, which are applications or services (e.g., social networks) that connect to the internet and are likely to be used by minors. However, the bill exempts internet service providers, email services, educational institutions, and other specified entities from the requirements.
Additionally, covered platforms must provide (1) minors (or their parents or guardians) with certain safeguards, such as settings that restrict access to minors' personal data; and (2) parents or guardians with tools to supervise minors' use of a platform, such as control of privacy and account settings.
Covered platforms must also;

• disclose specified information, including details regarding the use of personalized recommendation systems and targeted advertising;
• allow parents, guardians, minors, and schools to report certain harms;
• refrain from facilitating advertising of age-restricted products or services (e.g., tobacco and gambling) to minors; and
• annually report on foreseeable risks of harm to minors from using the platform.

—?Congressional Research Service summary, 118th Congress S. 1409"

This is a lot of official gibberish, but essentially, this means (in terms of bad important stuff):

• Websites will need to either provide age verification methods (such as uploading ID, which is bad for Obvious Reasons) and/or ban minors from using their site entirely.
• While parental monitoring isn't inherently bad, there's a line between MONITORING your kids and STALKING your kids, and this part of the bill could put margnalized groups of kids (kids who are being abused, LGBT+ kids, kids who are currently in the middle of a custody battle, etc) in danger.
• This bill is basically also a giant censorship bill, as "certain harms" could be interpreted as censoring content such as LGBT+ content or POC content. This could result in this type of content getting censored for EVERYONE under the guise of "protecting minors."

The last item isn't as far fetched as it sounds. Also directly quoted from the article: "Senator Blackburn, co-author of the bill, has argued that some education about racism and the civil rights movement overlaps with critical race theory, which she labels a "dangerous ideology" that can inflict "mental and emotional damage" upon children." The Heratige Foundation, a conservative group, also wants the phrase "consistent with evidence-informed medical information" included because Transgender Information Bad™. (despite the fact transgender healthcare IS evidence informed medical information!)

The only good part of the bill is the part about targeted advertising. (essentially websites cannot collect information to advertise to you, which is good.) Aside from that, this bill is dangerous.

TLDR: This bill is a mass censorship bill specifically targeting margnalized youth, but will have effects on the entire internet.

nother boost!!!

@c4tp3rs00n_part2: i have some more threads, i recommend looking at those

boosssttt

(Also, I looked up the KOSA bill but i cant find out why its bad?? can someone tell me pls?? /g)

https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-kosa?source_location=search

Petition link!

Please sign with real information, otherwise it may not think you are a real person.

Also to StarZ, thank you so much for all of the updates