this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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Charlie Jane Anders discusses KOSA (the Kids Online Safety Act).

If you're in the US, https://www.stopkosa.com/ makes it easy to contact your Senators and ask them to oppose KOSA.

"A new bill called the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, is sailing towards passage in the Senate with bipartisa>n support. Among other things, this bill would give the attorney general of every state, including red states, the right to sue Internet platforms if they allow any content that is deemed harmful to minors. This clause is so vaguely defined that attorneys general can absolutely claim that queer content violates it — and they don't even need to win these lawsuits in order to prevail. They might not even need to file a lawsuit, in fact. The mere threat of an expensive, grueling legal battle will be enough to make almost every Internet platform begin to scrub anything related to queer people.

The right wing Heritage Foundation has already stated publicly that the GOP will use this provision to remove any discussions of trans or queer lives from the Internet. They're salivating over the prospect.

And yep, I did say this bill has bipartisan support. Many Democrats have already signed on as co-sponsors. And President Joe Biden has urged lawmakers to pass this bill in the strongest possible terms."

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[–] millionsofplayers@lemmy.one 24 points 1 year ago (14 children)

How do I check if my senator has signed? Or is that not public information

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[–] argv_minus_one@beehaw.org 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Horrifying to see Biden and the Dems unite with the Republicans on an anti-LGBT+ bill.

[–] thoro@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago

It is incredibly typical.

My reaction to the sponsor list would be the shocked Pikachu meme.

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[–] obinice@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thank you for noting the US focus in the title <3

So often I see sweeping headlines like this that are actually only about a single country, and the country is always named (as it's a key piece of information about the story) unless it's the USA, at which point they just assume you must be in the USA too and so being up front about what country they're talking about isn't a priority xD

[–] BangersAndMash@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Unfortunately this is about the first time, I'd (almost) disagree with you. If the US bans something on, or makes a law about, the internet it almost always affects the rest of the world. The only difference is the rest of the world has no say in the matter :(

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[–] mihor@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lol, kosa means scythe in slovenian.

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[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Screw both parties and Joe Biden in particular. I'll be asking my senators to oppose this, though I highly doubt it'll matter.

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[–] mayo@lemmy.today 15 points 1 year ago

How is this line up with 'liberty'? The US gov can't stop intruding into the private sphere.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago

If you live in CT contact Blumenthal and Murphy, this is Blumenthals bill... try to get Murph to put pressure on Blumenthal, at least Murph isn't a politcal fox.

[–] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago
[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's always worth trying, but this is something I don't see us changing. And although it's helpful to have a prewritten letter to send, when they get 363826283636 identical messages it makes it that much easier to ignore because "they're just bots." I edited the message to add my own feelings about government overreach and corporations reaction to censor everything to protect themselves.

[–] thenexusofprivacy@lemmy.sdf.org 13 points 1 year ago

Great point about editing the letter -- and calling is even better!

In terms of whether or not we'll be able to change it ... last year the broad pushback succeeded in stopping KOSA, and there's certainly a decent chance to do the same this year. Who knows, but as you say, it's always worth trying!

[–] wild_dog@hexbear.net 11 points 1 year ago

you might be able to sway some corporate democrats by pointing out how this will destroy a lot of internet businesses. who knows? they might have invested in tech

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