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Because, god knows when it rains it pours, there’s yet another horrible internet bill on the table, and it is a doozy! 

It’s called the Kids Online Safety Act and it’s basically designed to force internet companies to mandate ID for website logins, destroy websites with any hint of a kid looking at things they aren’t supposed to (With an extremely broad definition of “what they aren’t supposed to”), force companies to send data “for study” to the government (IE, spy on kids) force them to use an age-verification system that will likely include mandatory government ID checks, and put on mandatory parental controls cranked up to high by default for parents to spy on their kids!

Now, this is a nightmare for several reasons. The mandated ID checks are horrifying and intrusive violation of privacy for adults and the young alike, in a way that screws over queer sex workers especially, and the increased liability for websites will lead to truly biblical purges of NSFW content, but there’s another big one:

This bill will lead to kids getting abused and killed.

Like, imagine that parental spying being used on queer or mentally ill teens. Imagine the definition of “not okay for minors” being expanded by, like say, the transphobic push in Texas or Florida’s Don’t Say Gay bill. You see where this goes.

Now, this is before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, who’s members are:

• Maria Cantwell, Washington, Chair
• Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota
• Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut
• Brian Schatz, Hawaii
• Ed Markey, Massachusetts
• Gary Peters, Michigan
• Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin
• Tammy Duckworth, Illinois
• Jon Tester, Montana
• Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona (Unfortunately)
  
• Jacky Rosen, Nevada
• Ben Ray Luján, New Mexico
• John Hickenlooper, Colorado
• Raphael Warnock, Georgia
• Roger Wicker, Mississippi, Ranking Member
• John Thune, South Dakota 
• Roy Blunt, Missouri 
• Ted Cruz, Texas (Ugh)
• Deb Fischer, Nebraska 
• Jerry Moran, Kansas 
• Dan Sullivan, Alaska 
• Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee 
• Mike Lee, Utah 
• Ron Johnson, Wisconsin 
• Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia 
• Todd Young, Indiana 
• Rick Scott, Florida 
• Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming
  

You can find their contact info here, and if they’re a part of your state, contact them and tell them this bill is a spying bill that will kill children, it needs to die.

But, even in other state, contact your sentators any way you can, and tell them this is a bad bill, and if it gets out of committee, it needs to die.

Tell your friends IRL to do it too either way, because they measure this shit in terms of how many messages they get, and so we need to flood their offices, and this goes for the other bad internet bills I’ve talked about too.

Again, deeply fatigued by all the godawful internet bills, but this is a goddamn war, and nobody ever won a war by giving up…

Reblogging because the bill just left committee and is now in the full Senate.

And it passed committee fucking unanimously, which is terrifying.

Call your Senators and tell them this bill needs to be destroyed, make it controversial, make it legislative poison.

Blogging this again because it got worse, in that they are trying to push it through the “lame duck” session of Congress.

Which, for those who don’t know what that means, basically they’re going to try and sneak it into a big “must-pass” bill or just try and push it out while everyone’s asleep at the wheel.

Which has happened very recently with another bill, the awful streaming act by Thom Tills!

And, there’s a lot of people who want this shit passed, including fucking Frances Haugen who; if this passes; I guarantee will go down in history as the Frederick Werthan of the internet.

So, we can’t afford to do nothing on this. Again, here’s where you can find your representatives and senators and their contact information via your address or zip code.

Again, it only works if we do it in volume, so call them and tell them you want it dead!

Friendly reminder, there’s organized fucking parents groups pushing for this to indeed be added to those undemocraftic “Christmas Tree” must-pass bills, and we need to come out in enough numbers if we’re to put this in the grave.

Also, “shout out” to the Washington Post article that uncritically praises the bill without bringing up any of the shit I’ve mentioned here, by which I mean you should shout at its author on Twitter about how he’s uncritically advancing dangerous legislation in the same way the media did to FOSTA-SESTA when it was in committee…

@readytobakebread @gritsandbrits

@littlemisstfp @quiznak-ofgrayskull @storygirl000 @askwenjing y’all do me a favor and spread this like a wild fire please?

Reblogging to add that they’ve tried to change it to address those concerns, but; as this excellent Twitter thread points out; those changes are pretty surface level, and the bill could lead to some really bad shit.

Remember, the bastards are still trying to ram this through, so keep calling and contacting! Time is running out!

Here’s an example letter where I rebutted some the changes in my own words, since it sums up a lot of the changes

As a constituent and U.s Citizen, I am writing in response to the December 13 changes made to Online Safety Act, S. 3663. I once again urge Senator Duckworth to oppose this act and keep it out of the final spending bill.

The December 13 updates in response to criticism are insufficient.

Mandating data collection for minors puts them at greater risk in events of a data breach.

The bill still poorly defines “harmful content”, incentivizing the censorship of helpful resources to kids in abusive or harmful situations, including eating disorders.

KOSA’s unclear wording also puts video game creators at risk for rewarding playing the game and encouraging further play: which can apply to anything that gives players a sense of accomplishment.

And Section 5 requires services to have parental permission for minors using services, which again, if applied broadly, makes it harder for minors to escape harmful and abusive environments.

This bill is still a mess and is not suitable for the spending bill when so many key assumptions are unexamined and poorly thought out