Kids Online Safety Act Hotline Vote Delayed After Backlash

WASHINGTON—After backlash from civil liberties groups and LGBTQ+ rights organizations, the controversial Kids Online Safety Act is delayed once again.  According to Politico Pro, Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., indicated that she is going to postpone the hotlining of KOSA after the backlash led by dozens of organizations.  Hotlining is a legislative tactic where lawmakers can expedite the passage of a bill through unanimous consent of the members of the Senate. Cantwell said she wanted to hotline the bill earlier in November 2023. A single senator can block a hotline process, but the objections are made public since these objections would have to be voiced on the Senate floor during a second reading phase. A second reading is when a bill is officially read on the Senate floor, allowing for floor amendments and debates. A third reading is the formal final vote before sending the bill to the House of Representatives for a similar process. Evan Greer, the head of the digital rights group Fight for the Future, posted to X that the news of Sen. Cantwell delaying the hotline vote is "an important win for human rights." "But we have so much more to do," said Greer. Due to backlash from organizations like Greer's, the soonest vote on the Kids Online Safety Act could likely come early in the 2024 session. After a markup session in July, the Senate Commerce Committee advanced KOSA to the Senate floor. The bill has been on hold since then.  AVN has reported extensively on KOSA and its potential impacts on the internet. The American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and 74 local and regional LGBTQ+ rights groups oppose KOSA.  Adult entertainment industry advocacy group the Free Speech Coalition came out against KOSA in a letter jointly signed with the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, tech industry advocates, and civil society groups in November 2022. Cantwell explained that she will have to work with the sponsors of the legislation, Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., to further amend the proposal in response to mounting criticism. KOSA is backed by a bipartisan slate of senators and the White House, with President Joe Biden vocally pushing for the bill's adoption over the summer. But Blackburn has brought on consistent controversy, having gone on record with a far-right religious group telling them that KOSA can be used to block transgender content from youth on the internet.   Blumenthal has worked aggressively to walk back Blackburn's statements, but most organizations still opposed to the legislation aren't buying it.