Why the Senate needs to abandon the Kids Online Safety Act

CEI’s Jessica Melugin was cited in the Washington Examiner in response to the Kids Online Safety Act.

Blackburn is not alone in harboring censorial intent. As noted by the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Jessica Melugin, KOSA has, throughout its history, almost eerily reflected the recommendations of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an outfit whose quest for a “safe” internet seems closer to advocating censorship than prudent regulation. “Kill Musk’s Twitter” was one of CCDH’s prime objectives.

“The group has already successfully used that framework to influence policy, shaping the UK’s Online Harms Act and the EU’s Digital Services Act,” Melugin reported. “Those laws have since been used, among other things, to target Elon Musk’s social media platform X for hosting ‘hate speech’ and ‘misinformation.’” The streams that flow from poisoned headwaters are rarely untainted, and lawmakers in a nation whose speech is guarded by the First Amendment ought not imbibe the principles of European technology policy. 

Read the full article at the Washington Examiner.