The US’s latest attempt to chill speech online, KOSA-a bill to effectively force everyone to identify themselves to online platforms-is picking up steam and looking like it will pass the Senate.
The US’s latest attempt to chill speech online, KOSA-a bill to effectively force everyone to identify themselves to online platforms-is picking up steam and looking like it will pass the Senate.
That part has (maybe-ish?) changed with these most recent amendments. Per the EFF:
So in a best-case interpretation under the new text, a site whose ToS does not allow minors to use it would not be required to check everyone’s ages to verify no one is a minor, in order not to be liable if a minor accessed adult content on it. The problem is, the bill isn’t actually explicit about what qualifies as the site having knowledge of children using it means:
No site is going to want to be the ones that an AG tests out their new lawsuit hammer on, so it’s likely to end in 1 of 2 ways: either verifying the ages of all users of the platform, or prohibiting all user-generated content to prevent adult content being posted. Republicans are fine with either of those outcomes. The sad thing is the Democrats who either also are, or who don’t understand the impacts but are voting on it anyways.