Oh snap! Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, is the first social media company to break from the Big Tech lobby group, NetChoice, to support the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) to bolster protections for children online. [1]

Snap’s endorsement of KOSA is a welcomed step towards protecting children from the on and offline harms caused by social media. However, this endorsement comes just before Snap CEO Evan Spiegel's scheduled testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow on how platforms fail to protect kids online. [2] So, if Snap truly wants to keep kids safe, they shouldn’t just endorse KOSA, they should stop funding Big Tech’s lobbying efforts to block it.

If Snapchat wants to protect children and teens online, they’ll snap out of it and stop funding NetChoice. Add your name: Tell Snap to stop funding NetChoice.

Companies – like Snap, Google, Apple, and Meta – hide behind their membership in trade associations like NetChoice, which lobbies against legislation like KOSA, so companies don’t have to. Since KOSA was first introduced, Big Tech lobbying group NetChoice, of which Snap is a dues-paying member, has spent over $1 million directly lobbying members of Congress to block KOSA and other critical online safety reforms at the state and federal levels. [3] At the same time, NetChoice is using Snap’s funding to sue states like California and block the state from passing legislation that protects teens and kids. If their radical legal attempts to block regulation are accepted, laws like KOSA would be rendered unenforceable. [4]

Snap needs to prove this is more than an attempt at positive PR ahead of the hearing and pull funding from NetChoice immediately. Add your name to call on Snap to stand up for kids’ and teens’ safety online by withdrawing from the Big Tech lobby group, NetChoice, fighting against kids’ safety.

Together, we can help take down trade associations from within, and make kids safety legislation a reality for once and for all.

Onward,

1. The Hill: Snap endorses Kids Online Safety Act ahead of tech CEO hearing

2. U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary: Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis

3. Open Secrets: NetChoice