URGENT: Congress About To Pass A Mass Censorship And Surveillance Bill Under The Guise Of "protecting

URGENT: Congress about to pass a mass censorship and surveillance bill under the guise of "protecting children"

May 13 2023

The Senate has been in a "do something!" mode regarding children's online safety. They're using this as an excuse to push for widespread internet censorship and surveillance. The EARN IT Act, has a slimmer chance of passing with widespread opposition and some senators saying they won't vote for it. TLDR;The real threat is actually KOSA (s.1409), the Kid's Online Safety Act, which will mass censor and surveill the entire internet by giving all 50 state attorney generals the power to remove content that is "harmful" for kids, and force you to upload your govt ID online to access the internet. I'll explain how it works below the action items but it's absolutely urgent that anyone who likes having a free and open internet fights back. It's all hands on deck, because this has so much public support it's insane:

HOW TO FIGHT KOSA

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES & THE COMMERCE COMMITTEE

This is a link to the Senate Commerce Committee phone numbers and a call script to read off of. (202) 224-3121 connects you to the congressional hotline

Opposition is getting drowned, and these upcoming weeks will be heavy for lobbying and they're using young people to do it. We NEED to show these senators that young people are actually opposed to this and don't want it.

2. Sign these petitions

Open Letter Against KOSA

Petition 1

Petition 2

Petition 3

Petition 4

Resistbot: Text PHJDYH to 50409

3. Spread the word.

The opposition is getting absolutely drowned online. Dove has nearly 100k signatures to push for KOSA. Influencers on tiktok are pushing for this without ever having read the bill. Fucking Lizzo is sponsoring it. If you have twitter, reddit, tiktok, are in any community, SPREAD THE WORD, PLEASE.

Here is a linktree with all the above petitions for easy shargin: Link to linktree

HOW KOSA WORKS

First, KOSA pressures platforms to install filters that would wipe the net of anything deemed “inappropriate” for minors. This means instructing platforms to censor. We saw how these filters impacted websites firsthand with tumblr in 2018, with not only blocking all adult content but also sfw queer content such as suicide hotlines, art archives, wiping out entire blogs because they had queer fandom related posts, etc. Places that already use content filters have restricted important information about suicide prevention and LGBTQ+ support groups. KOSA would spread this kind of censorship to every corner of the internet. And who gets to decide what is and isn't harmful for minors? Oh don't worry, just every single state attorney general and the FTC, which is appointed by the president. You know, the same attorney generals that just banned gender-affirming healthcare under the guise that it "ruins mental health" of minors. This is why the Heritage Foundation was one of the first to sponsor the bill because they can use it to censor trans content, and Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee is it's co-author.

Second, KOSA would ramp up the online surveillance of all internet users by forcing websites to use age verification and parental monitoring tools. Yup, that's right. Now every single person who wants to access the internet has to upload their govt ID online to third party apps that get hacked all the time. You queer in a red state? You undocumented? You an activist? Have fun getting all your online activity and metadata attached to your govt ID.  

Over 90+ human and LGBT rights groups agree that KOSA is dangerous and updates to the 2023 version won’t and can’t address the big problems with the bill. This bill has MASSIVE bipartisan support, and the authors Blumenthal and Blackburn (yes, that Blumenthal that's pushing the EARN IT Act, and who also sponsored the RESTRICT Act and SOPA/PIPA if you remember) are using the tragedy of mothers who lost their kids to online harassment and young adults who've been traumatized online to lobby for it, and got Dove the company to use a bunch of influencers to push for this under the guise it prevents eating disorders...I wish I was lying. There are already 30 co-sponsors.

It is all hands on deck. I'm dead serious when I say if this bill is passed it is the beginning if not end of the open and free internet.

i doubt kosa will pass. im 100 percent sure it wont pass. we still have time.

...that being said. PLEASE spread awareness about it. even if u cant sign a petition or anything like that, please spread awareness about it.

theres still a chance it CAN pass. and i dont want that to happen.

i have so many ppl that i talk to through the internet. i dont want to lose that.

PLEASE research. PLEASE spread. PLEASE sign and email your represenetives. we still have time.

‼️Call/Write your Senators to STOP BILL S.1409 (KOSA)‼️

This is not my normal content but the word needs to spread

‼️KOSA IS A MASSIVE ONLINE CENSORSHIP BILL‼️

This bill is proposed by, Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn, who is very vocal about being against LGBT ppl!

It will force everyone online who wants to use a website to UPLOAD THEIR GOVERNMENT ID AND AGE TO THE PUBLIC!

Yes they did change the language of the bill but the sentiment is still the same. It will be used for censorship no matter what they say.

THIS BILL COULD PASS THE SENATE AS SOON AS NEXT WEEK AND THEN THE HOUSE THE SAME DAY

Omarsbigsister on TikTok is going into more detail.

This is so serious and will change the internet as we know it. People need to spread the word and call/write their senators.

Omarsbigsister on TikTok has videos and recourses on their page to help.

KOSA is gross, but AO3 will likely go unharmed

I've seen a LOT of people talking about how if KOSA passes, it would forced AO3 to either scramble to find somewhere to operate outside of the United States, or would force them to take down most of (if not all) of the content uploaded to the site.

KOSA primarily focuses on commercial platforms, like Twitter and Tumblr. The OTW, a nonprofit organization, is mostly out of the bills jurisdiction, though we don't know which exact laws proposed in the bill could end up affecting OTW and other nonprofits.

In fact, AO3 News published this all the way back in September of last year:

The tl;dr is that the OTW and AO3 are not currently implicated by KOSA and many of the other bills because of our nonprofit status (most of the proposed laws only apply to for-profit institutions). This means the operations of the OTW and the AO3 wouldn’t be directly impacted by these bills.

I am fully against KOSA passing, as with everyone else on this website with at least some sense of intelligence, but some of the things I've seen people posting are ill informed. We need to keep fighting this disgusting censorship garbage, but we can at least breathe a slight sigh of relief knowing that at least one beloved website is unlikely to get caught in the fire.

People need to focus on making #stop kosa and tags like that trend. There isn't enough traction. If this bill passes, it will censor the LGBTQIA+ community. It will remove privacy. it will remove many peoples safe spaces and safety nets. Mine included. It wouldn't stop teenagers and children from committing suicide, it's more likely to cause them to, because they wouldnt have access to the places they need, the places that support them. KOSA cannot pass. It will not just affect America, it will affect the world. Not for the better, but for the worse.

(TW SUICIDE MENTION))

STOP SCROLLING!

If kosa passes many trans and queer kids will be exposed to their parents. Many who use this internet as an escape will be exposed. Some may be driven to end it. To commit suicide. And it will all be all kosa’s fault.

We must end kosa before it ends us.