Democrats are up in arms after House Republicans eliminated anti-free speech language from the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), but can House free speech advocates once again hold the line?
Democrats came out swinging against Rep. Gus Bilirakis’s (R-FL) version of KOSA during a Dec. 2 House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, complaining that he had excised disastrous, vague language from the bill.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) led the charge, claiming Bilirakis’s bill would not protect kids. Two other representatives, Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) and Rep. Kim Schrier (D-WA), claimed the bill had been “gutted.” Schrier also argued that Republicans had turned the law “toothless.” Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) blasted KOSA as “weak” and ended the hearing by grandstanding in favor of her party’s version of KOSA.
What riled all these Democrats? The Republican version of KOSA removes a “duty of care” provision that could have compelled social media companies to preemptively censor legal speech to avoid liability. However, following one Democrat politician’s tirade, Bilirakis let members know that his version of KOSA was only a “discussion draft.”
In response, MRC Free Speech America VP Dan Schneider reiterated comments he has previously made concerning KOSA:
“We can protect kids from voracious tech oligarchs while also protecting free speech rights. The Senate Democrat version of the bill, as House Speaker Mike Johnson correctly pointed out back in October 2024, is ‘very problematic’ given that its ‘duty of care’ provision would incentivize Big Tech to censor content critical of the left. The House GOP version rightly strips out the ‘duty of care’ provision, eliminating the left’s censorship loopholes.”
Several witnesses during the hearing, in agreement with Schneider’s free speech concerns, praised Republicans for removing the “duty of care” provision. The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) Free Expression Project Kate Ruane and Software & Information Industry Association Executive VP Paul Lekas celebrated the change.
Lekas slammed the prior anti-free speech version of KOSA, saying that “vague duty of care models like the Senate version of KOSA that require filtering content based on subjective harm will invite and fail constitutional scrutiny.” Ruane said that CDT was “encouraged that today’s [KOSA] narrows the overly-broad duty of care in an attempt to grapple with the tension between ensuring safety and protecting free expression.” She later praised the Republican version of KOSA for only requiring companies to act against content that is already illegal, so that they won’t be “guessing” how much to censor to avoid penalties.
However, Organization for Social Media Safety CEO Marc Berkman, who minimized the issue of social media censorship in a prior hearing, repeatedly dodged questions from Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-OR) about KOSA’s duty of care.
Bilirakis addressed this debate during his opening statement, saying, “I made precise changes to ensure KOSA is durable. Don’t mistake durability for weakness, folks. This bill has teeth. By focusing on design features rather than protecting speech, we will ensure it can withstand legal challenge while delivering real protections for kids online.”
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