A bipartisan group of 45 attorneys general from 42 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, and the US Virgin Islands have asked Congress to pass the Senate’s Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) censorship law, and make sure the bill’s duty of care provision is included.
The letter, sent on November 3 and announced by Hawaii on November 4, was signed by the attorneys general of these 45 US jurisdictions, led by Hawaii’s Anne Lopez, Ohio’s Andy Wilson, Tennessee’s Jonathan Skrmetti, and Connecticut’s William Tong.
The same group, although smaller by five at the time, sent a similar letter to Congress in February, when 40 attorneys general urged Congress to pass the Senate version of KOSA, again, with its duty of care in place.
We have been tracking the progress of KOSA, and explained that the duty of care makes social media platforms responsible for shielding minors from content that a regulator decides is harmful, which in reality pressures sites to censor lawful speech to avoid legal action.
As for the House version, it makes everyone, regardless of age, prove it to social media companies.
The letter now makes the case for the bill, S. 1748, as a way to protect children from online harm by imposing “minimum safety standards on all social media and gaming platforms.”
In addition, the attorneys general are promoting KOSA as a way to future-proof these standards, as they say the bill’s duty of care provision would “establish a lasting standard that extends beyond the term of the settlement and adapts as technologies and design features evolve.”
The letter also reveals that the attorneys general view the bill as a way to cement the impact of a huge settlement reached with Meta earlier this year.
