Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren Signs on as KOSA Co-Sponsor

WASHINGTON — Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) has signed up as co-sponsor of the controversial Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bill to limit online free speech which has been endorsed by homophobic religious conservative groups.

As reported by Evan Greer — director of digital rights group Fight the Future — in a Motherboard article Friday, Sen. Warren is now advocating for passage of the bill. Greer, who is transgender, noted that right-wing senator Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) was recently caught on camera saying the goal of KOSA is to “protect minor children from the transgender in this culture.”

“That’s not that surprising,” Greer wrote. “Senator Blackburn is one of the most anti-LGBTQ members of the Senate, and has said many terrible and offensive things about transgender people. What is surprising, is that Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, long seen as an LGBTQ ally, apparently wants to help Blackburn advance her legislative attack on our community.”

As XBIZ reported, KOSA has had bipartisan support, with Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) helping Blackburn selling it to their colleagues as a “protect the children” measure. 2023 marks the second time the bills have gone through this process; the first attempt to pass them was in 2022.

In a scathing March 2022 editorial, Jason Kelley of leading digital rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation argued that behind its kid-friendly name and supposed mission, KOSA hides “a plan to require surveillance and censorship of anyone 16 and under.”

The bill, Kelley noted, would actually “greatly endanger the rights, and safety, of young people online” while also chilling controversial speech — including sexual expression — across the internet.

In July, President Joe Biden urged lawmakers to take action regarding online speech that he considers harmful to children. Politico’s Rebecca Kern described Biden repetitively “chanting” the words “Pass it” after referencing KOSA and COPPA during a public appearance about expanding access to mental health care.

Despite objections of several free speech, digital rights and LGBTQ advocates, and of key Senate members with expertise in online regulations like Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), Sen. Warren “has decided to sign on as a cosponsor of KOSA,” Greer writes. “Worse, she has done so without securing a single change to the bill. Human rights and civil liberties groups are trying to hold the line to demand meaningful changes to protect LGBTQ and other marginalized groups that are being attacked in states, Senator Warren is breaking that line to help pass a deeply flawed bill.”