Benjamin Franklin claimed, “nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” I’d like to add one more thing to that list: politicians fear-mongering over the nation’s kids in order to get massive power grabs passed.
The tired trope has been playing out yet again as Congress continues to debate the passage of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) — legislation Democrats, and unfortunately some Republicans, claim is necessary to protect kids online. In reality, the bill would do nothing of the sort. It’s a trojan horse that would empower unelected bureaucrats at the FTC (which is currently under the rule of socialist, Lina Khan) with the power to censor speech online.
The bill passed the Senate 91-3 earlier this year, and as of last week it also advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Whether or not leadership will bring KOSA to the floor for a full House vote remains somewhat unclear, but either way, this poison pill of a bill has gotten far too close to the finish line for comfort.
But while far too many representatives have played a part in advancing KOSA, a new study seems to make it clear that they are not acting in alignment with the views of their constituents. Populace, a Massachusetts think tank, and YouGov recently polled Americans to gauge their public and private views on topics like trust in government, gun control, free speech, and the border. As they note in their findings, there are “stark gaps between what Americans say they think and what they really think about hot-button political issues.”
The study found that 61% of Americans admit to "self-silencing" — keeping their true opinions on sensitive topics to themselves. In order to overcome this barrier to understanding the true views of Americans on pressing subjects, the pollsters used a mix of traditional polling questions and other questions using a list experiment method to provide respondents with a greater sense of anonymity. The results on free speech and trust in institutions were particularly illuminating.
As we all know by now, trust in public institutions is low. But the study found that trust is even lower in private vs. public declarations. 36% of Democrats and 14% of Republicans say they trust the government to tell the truth, but just 5% and 2% agree with this statement privately. And while 42% of Democrats and 16% of Republicans say they trust the media to tell the truth, in reality only 9% and 3% really believe this.
The study also found that most Americans support free speech and are against banning “views deemed discriminatory or offensive” online. Interestingly, this is exactly what politicians are seeking to do with KOSA.
It’s not only anti-free speech to censor speech online, it’s also a laughable premise to suggest that the government would be a good entity to do so. Of all parties seated at the table, the government has proven the most likely to spread disinformation and it has a long track record of working to silence speech that is very much true, but that exposes government corruption and power grabs.
The broad language within KOSA would allow regulators to censor any speech online that might be deemed disturbing to kids. It isn’t hard to see how political speech in particular could quickly be labeled by opportunists within the FTC as disturbing and thus censored online. Topics like climate change, gun control, abortion, and even basic medical decisions would be easy targets.
KOSA flies in the face of the will of the American people and of the constitution. It’s very, very easy to see how its powers would be misused and the harm it would cause to free speech and open debate. But it’s also an extremely anti-capitalist bill. It’s demands would make it very difficult and expensive for social media companies to operate, which would lead to less competition and lower quality products overtime.
What’s interesting is that while many of our politicians have been plotting a takeover of social media companies with KOSA, those same social media companies have been hard at work actually increasing safety tools for kids online. Just this month, Instagram announced new teen accounts with a host of security features. YouTube and Instagram also unrolled software that helps detect, hide, or otherwise prevent bullying in the comment sections. Other platforms have turned off auto-play features for kids, implemented warnings when suspicious adults attempt to engage with their accounts, and blocks on accounts with more than two year age gaps from sending direct messages. That’s all on top of a host of other features offered by phone providers and the apps themselves that allow parental content controls, alerts, and other time management tools.
Per usual, the market is addressing these issues more effectively, efficiently, and in line with constitutional principles than any heavy-handed government intervention. It’s parents—not politicians—who are best equipped to guide and protect their children online. Innovations in technology are already empowering families with more tools than ever before. Instead of empowering bureaucrats to infringe on free speech and stifle competition, Congress should leave the job of parenting to parents and let the market continue to improve safety. KOSA would do nothing to protect kids, but it would harm all Americans by undermining our fundamental rights.
Hannah Cox is the President and Co-Founder of BASEDPolitics and a prominent political writer, commentator and activist.
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