KOSA is advancing in the Senate. It still makes kids less safe.

The controversial Kids Online Safety Act passed out of the Senate today by a vote of 91-3. As the vote was taking place, a group of human rights, LGBTQ+, and civil liberties experts held a virtual press conference to discuss the longstanding issues with the bill, how passing it would be a major handout to Big Tech, and why the House must reject it.

You can watch the press conference in full at this link or below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwufHSTjdgE

Here a sampling of important quotes given during the press conference:

“The fact of the matter is, young people are naturally curious and taking away potentially educational resources limits their learning and can actually endanger them.” –Jenna Leventoff, Senior Policy Counsel at American Civil Liberties Union

“I think some of this is just based on hoping or believing that the enforcement of a speech law will be done by the good guys. And that’s we’ve just never seen that be the case. And that’s why it’s better to stick by our First Amendment values.” –Joe Mullin, Senior Policy Analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation

“I’m really particularly concerned about the impact on youth in states that are already living under abortion bans or living in the 25 States that have bans on gender and care. I think you’re just gonna see that kind of censorship get much worse.” –Mandy Salley, Chief Operating Officer at Woodhull Freedom Foundation

“I’ve literally had legislators tell me to my face that they would love to see our website taken off the Internet because they don’t want people to have the kinds of vital community resources that we provide.” –Dara Adkison, Executive Director of TransOhio

“We need legislation that addresses the harm of big tech. And still lets young people fight for the type of world that they actually want to grow up in.” –Evan Greer, Director at Fight for the Future

Senator Ron Wyden (OR) also sent in this quote to be read during the press conference:

“Everyone agrees tech companies need to be held accountable, and Congress needs to do more to keep kids safe online. But that shouldn’t mean making some kids safer while putting others in harms’ way. I appreciate the intent of KOSA, and support restrictions on harmful design elements, along with new privacy protections for teenagers. At the same time, I implore my colleagues in the House to listen to the LGBTQ+ teens and the folks on the call today. It is not too late to do more to ensure that KOSA can’t be misused by MAGA politicians who are waging a dangerous and retrograde culture war. It’s not too late to make commonsense changes that ensure KOSA can’t be used to scare platforms away from responsible use of privacy protecting technologies like encryption or anonymous accounts. I hope Congress can work together to pass legislation to make ALL kids safer online.”

The grassroots human rights coalition opposing KOSA will redouble our efforts to stop it in the House, where younger progressives like Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep Maxwell Frost have already come out against it.

Additional resources about the opposition to KOSA:

• See Fight for the Future’s statement on KOSA advancing HERE.
  
• View our Tuesday, July 30 12 pm ET press conference on KOSA advancing HERE. More info on speakers, including bios, below.
  
• See a letter from hundreds of parents of trans kids opposing KOSA here: TransParentsLetter.com
  
• And read this in-depth piece lifting up the voices of LGBTQ youth who have led the opposition to KOSA.
  
• See photos of LGBTQ youth opposing KOSA at Pride Events here.
  
• See a full list of organizations opposing KOSA at StopKOSA.com, a tool that hundreds of thousands of people have used to contact their legislators opposing the bill.

PRESS CONFERENCE: Experts just explained KOSA’s current status and why people concerned with human rights should oppose its passage.

Speakers:
Evan Greer, Director at Fight for the Future
Mandy Salley, Chief Operating Officer at Woodhull Freedom Foundation
Dara Adkison, Executive Director of TransOhio
Jenna Leventoff, Senior Policy Counsel at American Civil Liberties Union
Joe Mullin, Senior Policy Analyst, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Speaker bios:

• Evan Greer (she/her) is the Director of Fight for the Future, a queer trans activist, and writer who has been on the front lines of some of the highest profile grassroots victories of the last decade with Fight for the Future. Evan develops strategy and messaging to inform all Fight’s campaigns, interfaces with legislators and press, and steers crisis response. She is a leading expert on the intersection of LGBTQ rights issues and tech policy, particularly concerning content regulation, data privacy, commercial surveillance, and algorithmic harms, and sits on GLAAD’s Social Media Safety Index advisory board. Evan’s op-eds and adept framing of the issues are regular features in numerous publications, including The Guardian, Newsweek, CNN, Newsweek, and Time. Called “a heck of a guitarist” by Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, she is also a professional musician and continues to create music, tour and organize live music events.
• Mandy Salley, (she/her) is the Chief Operating Officer of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit human rights organization dedicated to defending the autonomy of all individuals in the areas of free speech, privacy, and sexual freedom. In this role, she oversees the foundation’s programmatic and policy work.
• Dara Adkison, (they/them) is the Executive Director of TransOhio. Dara is a parent and a non-binary genderqueer trans-masculine person. Dara spent over a decade as an engineer focusing primarily in database and data security. They are the former President of the Cleveland Stonewall Democrats, founder of the Rural Lorain Precinct Association, and a former candidate for the Ohio House of Representatives, running in 2020 as the first LGBTQIA+ candidate at any level in either Huron or Lorain counties. They have been involved with local, state, and national organizations through their legislative advocacy, public speaking, testimony, educational efforts, and efforts to provide community resources for the past decade. 
• Jenna Leventoff (she/her) is a Senior Policy Counsel at the ACLU, where she develops and advocates for policies related to protecting free speech and promoting robust access to communications tools. Prior to joining the ACLU, Jenna served as a Senior Policy Counsel at Public Knowledge where she advocated for universal access to affordable, reliable, broadband. Jenna also served as a Senior Policy Analyst for the Workforce Data Quality Campaign (WDQC) at the National Skills Coalition, where she led WDQC’s state policy advocacy and technical assistance efforts on state data system development and use.
• Joe Mullin is a senior policy analyst at EFF, where he works on patents, encryption, platform liability, and free expression online. Before joining EFF, Joe worked as a journalist covering legal affairs for the technology website Ars Technica, and American Lawyer’s magazine group.