Statement: The Kids Online Safety Act gives government ‘dangerous powers’ over Americans’ expression

The Senate is gearing up to vote on the Kids Online Safety Act as early as tomorrow. FIRE urges opposition to both the Senate (S. 1409) and House (H.R. 7891) versions of the bill because they treat Americans’ speech not as a fundamental right and an indispensable ingredient of human progress, but as a hazardous product. 

This opens the door to insidious government regulation of speech of both minors and adults, which the bill enables by empowering the Federal Trade Commission to define how social media platforms can operate.

KOSA also threatens everyone’s right to speak anonymously, a time-honored tradition in the United States. Because the bill requires treating minors’ accounts differently, and websites cannot discern users’ ages without confirming their identity, platforms will inevitably face pressure to avoid regulatory risk by verifying each account holder. This would force all Americans, including adults, to reveal their identity in order to express themselves online.

 The First Amendment should be a guard against regulatory schemes that treat speech as a dangerous product — like cigarettes or faulty brakes — instead of a fundamental human right. 

The bill separately allows not only the FTC, but every state’s attorney general to enforce vaguely defined requirements for social media accounts that may belong to users under 17. The requirements threaten the First Amendment rights of minors, which the Supreme Court has firmly established, and the vagueness of the requirements empowers states to target platforms that host speech the government wishes to suppress.

Government officials of both parties at the state and federal level have already pressured social media companies to censor speech on their platforms and change their policies on the government’s behalf. Multiple states have passed laws to usurp control over content moderation. Dozens of state attorneys general sued a platform and alleged legal violations for offering minors basic options like livestreaming and tailored recommendations. Federal officials successfully pushed companies to change their content policies and remove particular posts.

“KOSA hands government bureaucrats a powerful weapon to wield over social media websites — one that threatens every American’s ability to express themselves online,” said FIRE Chief Counsel Robert Corn-Revere. “The First Amendment should be a guard against regulatory schemes that treat speech as a dangerous product — like cigarettes or faulty brakes — instead of a fundamental human right. Protecting minors online does not require putting anyone’s First Amendment rights in jeopardy.”

We urge Congress to reject this legislation.