Hi John,

Have you been paying attention to the debate about the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, which passed the Senate earlier this month?

It’s one of those Internet bills that sounds really good in theory. I mean, who could be against protecting kids from the harms of Big Tech giants?! We certainly aren’t. But unfortunately, KOSA is so poorly written that it’s actually a dangerous and misguided censorship bill in disguise.

The good news is that over the last year, we’ve built a massive coalition of human rights groups who vocally oppose KOSA, and hundreds of thousands of people just like you have spoken up against it by calling and emailing their legislators¹.

All of the controversy and opposition means that even though KOSA passed through the Senate, it’s currently stalled out in the House of Representatives.

But here’s the thing: KOSA is just the tip of the iceberg. There are more than a dozen similarly dangerous bills that have been proposed by this Congress that would make the Internet less safe for everyone by invading our privacy and restricting our freedom to find information and express ourselves online.

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Just to give you a sense of the threat, here’s a list of just SOME of the dangerous bills we’re gearing up to fight in the coming year. You may wanna sit down for this.

• EARN IT Act² - threatens fundamental security and privacy tools like encryption

• Age Verification Bills³ - require users hand over government ID, credit card information, and other sensitive documents in order to access websites arbitrarily deemed inappropriate for children

• Draft legislation sunsetting Section 230⁴- sunsets Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects free expression and prevents Internet censorship, in 2025.

Worried yet? Don’t stress. If there’s one thing Fight for the Future is really really good at, it's stopping dangerous legislation. We did it with SOPA/PIPA⁵. We’ve done it so far with the EARN IT Act and KOSA.

But we can only do it with your help. These campaigns are not backed by big foundations or billionaires. They’re people powered. Can we count on you? Become a monthly donor today, and we’ll fight like heck for your rights with your support.

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Thanks for all you do,

Evan at Fight for the Future

P.S. You may be wondering if there are good internet bills. And the answer is yes! We'd like to see federal data privacy and antitrust bills passed⁶, because we know these measures will go way further to protect everyone, including kids. Your support helps make advocacy for these bills possible.

Footnotes:

1. KOSA is dead. Now it’s time to unite to take on Big Tech for real: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2024-08-01-kosa-is-dead-now-its-time-to-unite-to-take-on-big-tech-for-real/

2. EFF: https://www.eff.org/pl/deeplinks/2022/02/its-back-senators-want-earn-it-bill-scan-all-online-messages

3. Free Speech Coalition: https://action.freespeechcoalition.com/age-verification-bills/

4. Engadget: https://www.engadget.com/a-bipartisan-bill-is-looking-to-end-section-230-protections-for-tech-companies-055356915.html

5. SOPA Strike: https://sopastrike.com/

6. State of the Fight: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2024-03-07-state-of-the-fight-for-the-future/