X Discusses Amendments to Kids Online Safety Act in Response to Censorship Worries
The updated text makes it clear that the legislation ‘would not censor, limit, or remove any content from the internet.’
Negotiations for recent modifications to the proposed Kids Online Safety Act were spearheaded by Elon Musk’s social media platform X, addressing censorship concerns within the U.S. House of Representatives.
A prior version of the bill received strong bipartisan support in the Senate in July. However, the legislation has since faced delays in the House, where Republican leaders have expressed concerns that it could lead to government censorship of online speech.
The senators sponsoring the bill, Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), stated that the revised version is designed to alleviate those concerns.
In a joint statement on Dec. 7, they remarked, “With the leadership of X, the new amendments made to the Kids Online Safety Act enhance the bill while protecting free speech online, ensuring that it is not utilized to suppress expression. These changes should dispel the inaccurate narrative that the bill could be misused by unaccountable bureaucrats to censor Americans.”
X CEO Linda Yaccarino emphasized that free speech and safety “can and must coexist,” asserting that the revised bill achieves this balance.
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Their critiques focused on the provision that assigns the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the responsibility of enforcing a legal “duty of care,” obligating social media providers to address specific health and safety risks pertaining to minors.
Despite being an independent federal agency, the FTC’s commissioners are appointed by the president.
A report released by the House Oversight and Accountability Committee in October accused FTC Chair Lina Khan of steering the agency towards a progressive agenda, aligned with the Biden administration’s influence.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce proposed its own modified version of the Kids Online Safety Act in September, which would restrict the application of the “duty of care” requirement to only high-impact platforms, rather than all platforms. Additionally, this version introduced varying knowledge standards depending on platform size and excluded certain mental health issues from its list of harms.
When asked if the bill would be brought to a vote before the next Congress, Scalise informed reporters on Dec. 4 that the House was still working to amend the aspects that would grant authority to “an unelected bureaucrat” to oversee online speech.
The updated Senate measure seeks to allay that concern by including a provision that explicitly states that nothing in the bill permits enforcement based on users’ constitutionally protected speech.
According to the offices of Blackburn and Blumenthal, the revised text clarifies that the legislation “would not censor, limit, or remove any content from the internet,” nor would it empower the FTC or state attorneys general “to file lawsuits concerning content or speech, regardless of its source.”
The bill has garnered support from 32 state attorneys general and over 240 organizations, including the Heritage Foundation and the America First Policy Institute.
Contributions to this report were made by Tom Ozimek and Terri Wu.
