KOSA and other Bad Internet Bills (US-specific for now)

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Red alert! For the last six months, EFF, Fight for the Future, ACLU, Woodhull Foundation, and dozens of other groups have been sounding the alarm about several #BadInternetBills that have been put forward in Congress. We’ve made it clear that these bills are terrible ideas, but Congress is now considering packaging them together—possibly into must-pass legislation. We're organizing to keep them from sneaking these bad internet bills through.

This community is for news stories, opinion pieces, and action links about these bad internet bills. Please help get the word out!

And if you use microblogging software like Mastodon, please also check out the #BadInternetBills hashtag.

Icon originally from Why we need to openly protest KOSA on Five Nights at Freddy's Wiki, used by permission.

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Young People Should Oppose the Kids Online Safety Act (US-specific) (www.eff.org)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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EFF writes:

KOSA has laudable goals, but it also presents significant unintended consequences that threaten the privacy, safety, and access to information rights of young people and adults alike. Teenagers already understand that this sweeping legislation is more about censorship than safety. Now we just need to make sure Congress does, as well.

Take action! If you're in the US, Use EFF's page to Tell Congress: KOSA Will Censor the Internet But Won't Help Kids

And please help get the word out! Four ways to hep:

Cross-post this link to communities and magazines where it's on-topic
Upvote and share the other links in [email protected]
If you're on Mastodon, check out the #KOSA hashtag and boost the posts you see there
Tell your friends on other social networks as well.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

unintended

Suree

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah really. They're being polite.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

What the hell happened to EFF? They used to be reputable, but in this article they said that this bill would increase suicides and cited this link as the source ( proxitok mirror of the video).

Edit: They said this is the common sentiment, but it's one video with 2200 likes. A viral video on tiktok usually receives millions of likes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah I have no idea why they linked to that video. The reason KOSA is likely to increase suicides is that if it passes, platforms are likely to preemptively block conversations about suicide (as well as substance use, eating disorders, and other topics that the bill specifically enumerates) to avoid liability. Here's an article from EFF in May, and here's a letter from 90+ human rights and LGBTQ organizations, going into more detail.

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