The US is trying to pass “KOSA” (Kids Online Safety Act), a bill that would supposedly allow state attorneys and the Federal Trade Commission to regulate and ban content that they deem ‘harmful to minors’— people think that this is going to be used as an excuse to ban content which attorneys / FTC doesn’t like: LGBTQIA+ content / resources, stuff about current social movements, etc. There’s fears that most sites are going to make age verification a widespread thing because the law regulates actual minors and people that sites ‘suspect’ are minors (and there’s a few claims going around that the law will require people use ID to access sites). One of the co-sponsors of the bill has said that her purpose in getting it passed is to ban trans content because she deems it harmful to kids. While AO3 isn’t exactly a social media site, people are unsure where AO3 falls due to the content on here and are wary of it getting caught up in the possible bans soon.
Actually, we have good news for you here! The House of Representatives has said that they won't hear the bill, which means that KOSA won't progress further this year. You can see the article announcing this on Punch Bowl News. You can also read more about this in our Update on KOSA.
The version of KOSA that passed the Senate was stripped of the provisions allowing states to enforce it, which was the most obvious way that it would have caused harm. However, even the revised KOSA could have been used by a future administration to do the same thing.
While there is always a possibility that KOSA may come back again, the current bill has been defeated for now. For further updates and in case KOSA returns, we recommend that you follow groups like Bad Internet Bills and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, both of whom worked to oppose KOSA.
Noted, thank you! I was unaware of the KOSA Update released here. Fight for the Future is also a good organization to follow-- as much as I'm aware? Thanks again!
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