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

Fight for the Future writes:

"The controversial and unconstitutional Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is officially dead in the House of Representatives. Reporting indicates that there was significant opposition to the bill within the Republican caucus, and it faced vocal opposition from prominent progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rep Maxwell Frost (D-FL)."

Evan Greer:

"KOSA was a poorly written bill that would have made kids less safe. I am so proud of the LGBTQ youth and frontlines advocates who have led the opposition to this dangerous and misguided legislation. It’s good that this unconstitutional censorship bill is dead for now, but I am not breathing a sigh of relief. It’s infuriating that Congress wasted so much time and energy on a deeply flawed and controversial bill while failing to advance real measures to address the harms of Big Tech like privacy, antitrust and algorithmic justice legislation. "

Thanks to everybody who took action ove the last year to stop this bill!

Pushover consumers accepted “Know Your Customer” abuses to their 4th Amendment rights in the banking sector, so why wouldn’t the same work when it comes to internet service? I have no doubt that the privacy apathetic masses will accept this in a heartbeat.

Detailed reporting on the sleazy tactics suveillance hawks in Congress used to sabotage this week's vote on FISA Section 702 reform. It really is a bipartisan issue: the the House Intelligence Committee's Chair Mike Turner (a Republican) and Ranking Member Jim Himes (a Democrat) worked together on this, although Himes is now trying to distance himself.

EFF's take on the amended version of KOSA. TL;DR summary:

We are asking everyone reading this to oppose this latest version, and to demand that their representatives oppose it—even if you have already done so.

They've unveiled a new version, with some improvements. Fight for the Future's statement (not quoted in the Washington Post, of course, which is a mouthpiece for tech) says "we are glad to see the attorney general enforcement narrowed" but also notes that "As we have said for months, the fundamental problem with KOSA is that its duty of care covers content specific aspects of content recommendation systems, and the new changes fail to address that." So it's still a bad bill.

But just because they're claiming they have the votes in the Senate, it's not a done deal yet -- and it still has to go through the House. So, if you're in the US, call your legislators! https://www.stopkosa.com/

If you're in the US, https://stopkosa.com and EFF's page make it easy to contact your Senators and ask them to oppose #KOSA.