John,
Urgent: there is a major push for a vote on the dangerous and misguided censorship bill known as the “Kids Online Safety Act” (KOSA) as soon as the Senate returns in January.
They’re hoping to sneak this terrible bill through while everyone is still recovering from the holidays. We can’t let that happen. But we have another problem: we’re dangerously behind on our year-end fundraising, partly because we’ve been more focused on fighting bills like KOSA than on asking people for money.
But here’s the deal: even though we have a big impact, we’re a small nonprofit with a modest budget. We can’t operate unless we meet our goals. If we start the year behind, we’ll have to stay in fundraising mode and will have less capacity to beat back legislation like KOSA.
Right now we’re about $47,000 short of our grassroots fundraising goal. That really worries me, because the moment we look away they are going to try to ram KOSA through the Senate.
Will you rush a donation today to make sure we meet our goal so that we can stop KOSA and hit the ground running in the new year? Whether you can give $3 or $300 it really helps. And we currently have a generous match, so if you donate now you double your impact.
Donate Now
NBC News reports that more than 200 organizations have sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calling for a vote on KOSA as soon as lawmakers return from the holiday break.1
What’s alarming is that group includes real heavy hitters that lawmakers are likely to listen to, like the American Academy of Pediatrics, lining up with right wing hate groups, like NCOSE, formerly known as “Morality in Media” who have made outrageous statements like claiming gay marriage causes mass shootings.2
Dozens of human rights groups, civil liberties organizations, press freedom advocates, and child protection experts have explained that KOSA would make kids less safe, not more safe, by expanding censorship and surveillance rather than cracking down on Big Tech’s harmful business practices.3 But lawmakers have been afraid to oppose it, basically because it’s being sold as a bill to “protect the kids.”
Still, our campaign has been working. Last month there was an attempt to rush KOSA through the Senate using “unanimous consent,” but it failed thanks to our vocal opposition. We’ve gotten several Senators to speak up about the ongoing concerns with the bill, and that makes all the difference. We’ve even heard that several Senators are demanding significant changes to the bill to address the concerns or they will oppose it. That’s huge.
We CAN stop KOSA. And more importantly, we can push lawmakers to take up privacy and antitrust legislation that would ACTUALLY address the harms of Big Tech without throwing human rights and free expression under the bus.
But we can’t do it without your help. Will you donate today to help us close our fundraising gap so we can stay focused on the crucial fights ahead?
Lots of us here at FFTF have kids of our own. We want our kids to grow up in a world where they have basic human rights, the ability to express themselves, and access to a free and open Internet. That’s the future we’re fighting for.
Will you fight with us?
Thank you,
Evan at Fight for the Future
P.S. The absolute best way you can support our work is by becoming a monthly donor. Chip in $5 or $10 / month and then forget about it. Those recurring donations make it possible for us to plan ahead, so we can stay focused on organizing instead of fundraising. If you donate $10/month or more, you’ll also get a Resist Surveillance shirt as a thank you.
1. 200 groups push Congress to pass Kids Online Safety Act in 2024 | NBC News
2. Gay Marriage Leads To Mass Murder? | Mother Jones
3. Learn more about KOSA and take action | Fight for the Future
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