cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/20332183

Fight for the Future writes:

“The controversial and unconstitutional Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is officially dead in the House of Representatives. Reporting indicates that there was significant opposition to the bill within the Republican caucus, and it faced vocal opposition from prominent progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rep Maxwell Frost (D-FL).”

Evan Greer:

"KOSA was a poorly written bill that would have made kids less safe. I am so proud of the LGBTQ youth and frontlines advocates who have led the opposition to this dangerous and misguided legislation. It’s good that this unconstitutional censorship bill is dead for now, but I am not breathing a sigh of relief. It’s infuriating that Congress wasted so much time and energy on a deeply flawed and controversial bill while failing to advance real measures to address the harms of Big Tech like privacy, antitrust and algorithmic justice legislation. "

Thanks to everybody who took action ove the last year to stop this bill!

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
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    5 months ago

    Article doesn’t say why republicans opposed it, but I guess this is one of those “broken clock” moments where they were accidentally right but for the wrong reasons.

    • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      They probably opposed the idea of safe kids, given the rest of the platform. That, or there was lobbying money.

      • IllNess@infosec.pub
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        5 months ago

        Considering the tech industry would need to use more money to enforce the law, it would be cheaper to just buy out politicians.

      • Crikeste@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        Their official line is based in fears of surveillance and government overreach. My state senator Mike Lee was one of them, must have been a cold day in Hell or something.

        • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I’m not, it’s the name. The joke was that they saw the concept of safe kids in the Kids Online Safety Act and never read further.

          • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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            5 months ago

            And you making fun of that is just perpetuating the problem of bullshit law names like “protect the children” or “patriot act” or “freedom blah blah safety blah blah.”

            • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              I don’t think it does in this context. Not a single person reading this thinks that this was a good bill, whereas in a Facebook comment section, that might be different.

    • Snot Flickerman
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      5 months ago

      I’m gonna go out on a limb and go with “Can’t give Democrats anything that looks like a conservative win” for $500 Alex.

    • eestileib@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      Senators don’t give a fuck about their constituents.

      Maybe this is different in Rhode Island and Wyoming, but in Cali the Senators don’t even have offices to take your calls if you’re a pleb. It’s like trying to get customer service from Google.

      My US rep actually does constituent services and horror meets with non-rich constituents in person sometimes!

      • ikidd@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Our Alberta MLA, who was also the Minister of Transportation, would sit in his agricultural equipment dealership about 2 days a week and take meetings all day with anyone that wanted to come in and talk.

        He fixed a lot of people’s problems with a few phone calls from there.

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        You want hard mode?

        Try to get customer service from Steam, I’m almost convinced Valve doesn’t actually have a head quarters and Gabe Newell might be an ancient secret government AI hiding on various reels of magnetic tape in some dank basement at Area 51 that not even the President is allowed to apply to be the janitor of.

      • roofuskit@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Thank goodness the GOP in the house cares not about the children. They definitely voted against it based purely on the majority of Democrats that voted on favor.

        • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          The Republicans definitely care about the children, but only in contexts that are deplorable and disgusting. Just ask Epstein’s buddy Trump.

  • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.gg
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    5 months ago

    It’s a weird day when I’m happy the Republicans teamed up with progressives to stopped a bipartisan bill.

    I’m pretty irritated with Sherrod Brown on this one for voting for it in the senate.

  • Noxy@yiffit.net
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    5 months ago

    I’m having a hard time finding any other sources that it’s dead in the house. And congress.gov is infuriatingly awful to navigate.

    I want to know if my house rep voted for it.

    This seems like the most relevant search result but the tracker implies it’s passed the house? https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/2073?q={“search”%3A"kids+online+safety"}&s=3&r=3

    Edit: apparently it’s this “amendment”: https://www.congress.gov/amendment/118th-congress/senate-amendment/3021/actions?s=a&r=33 but still no house actions

  • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
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    5 months ago

    Reminder to always keep up the fight. Even when things seem inevitable, fights can be won. That goes both ways: don’t get complacent and don’t get despaired

    Get active, and get involved

  • themurphy@lemmy.ml
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    5 months ago

    Great news!

    But honestly, when something is voted down, there should be a cooldown period, where you couldn’t vote for it again.

    It both stops these people making a new bill every year, and at the same time, actually have the people writing the bill doing a good job.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Really? I heard the exact opposite, that it passed the Senate and is expected to breeze through the house.

    • Uriel238 [all pronouns]
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      5 months ago

      According to Techdirt , the version that passed the Senate cannot be brought up in it’s current form by some of the House Republicans needed to pass it. So it’s dead for now.

      It does mean it’ll have to go through both houses again, and yes, they’ll try.

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        Thank God, ya know after SOPA was defeated I thought they’d never try to ban the internet again…

        I was wrong

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]
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    5 months ago

    We thought SESTA was dead, and then they ambushed us with FOSTA, the Senate version which has fucked the internet ever since for sex workers, LGBT+ folk and people who like porn. So I expect they’re going to pull the same kind of thing, distracting opposition groups while passing it in secret.

    Ultimately, both parties want to kill the internet, or turn it into Cable TV, because the public dialoging in forums is dangerous to the ownership class.