Senate Committee Rushes to Pass “Kids Safety” Bill Supported By Big Tech, Online ID Checks That Could Restrict Necessary VPN Tools
Fight for the Future has been leading the coalition of human rights, reproductive justice, and LGBTQ+ groups that have been fighting to stop KOSA and online ID check mandates. Fight has pushed hundreds of thousands of calls and emails to Congress against efforts to implement invasive online ID checks or “age verification”, widespread online censorship laws, and efforts to repeal or sunset Section 230 through badinternetbills.com.
On August 5, the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a markup hearing to rush out a collection of bad internet bills before the August recess. Included in this package is the Kids Online Safety Act, a bill marketed as an anti-Big Tech bill, but is supported by most of the Big Tech companies and the SCREEN Act, which would implement an internet-wide online ID check mandate that would be a censorship and surveillance nightmare for users of all ages. This latest version of the SCREEN Act would also incentivize social media companies to restrict VPN usage, which is important for marginalized communities of all kinds, and anyone who uses necessary privacy tools like journalists and activists.
Despite the continued narrative on the Hill that KOSA is about holding Big Tech accountable, KOSA is a dangerous censorship bill that would give the Trump government unprecedented control over the Internet and would put smaller tech companies at risk because they have don’t have the money or the connections to fend off the Trump administration interfering with their business. This is the same administration that intervened in the Big Tech CEO hearing to keep Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai from having to testify. It is unreasonable to believe they will use these dangerous new powers to target Trump’s allies in Big Tech.
As it currently stands, the bill that Congress continually lauds as the opportunity to get at Big Tech has actually been supported by no shortage of said Big Tech companies, including some of the most egregious actors at play right now, including Meta, OpenAI, Microsoft, X, and Apple.
“The Kids Online Safety Act is yet another bill that supposedly targets Big Tech that Big Tech is simultaneously totally happy with passing, “ said Sarah Philips, Campaign Director at Fight for the Future. “Silicon Valley giants want legislation like KOSA because it lets them continue to harvest our data while leaving their predatory business model untouched. Even better, the bill relies on FTC enforcement when we’ve already seen a historically corrupt administration rig the system for their allies and donors while going after their enemies. The Trump administration has already intervened in the now cancelled Big Tech CEO hearing to keep his buddies out of the hot seat. We expect that same intervention to protect CEO donors, while using the new powers granted by KOSA to police speech and try to erase marginalized people from the internet. Over the last few months, we’ve also seen back and forth about even combining this legislation with federal preemption of state AI regulations. The willingness to even entertain these efforts points to the hypocrisy of how these bills are being pushed overall.
Big Tech can live with this bill, but LGBTQ+ people, those seeking abortion and other marginalized people being targeted by the Trump administration can’t. We are especially disappointed in Democrats that claim to stand up to Trump and Big Tech and yet keep getting fooled into voting in their interests. If Senator Richard Blumenthal gets this bill across the finish line, he will have Big Tech CEOs to thank. And Trump will reap the reward as the donations continue to pour in from Big Tech.”