A House panel advanced the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) on Wednesday, pushing forward legislation intended to boost online privacy and safety for children.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s advancement of KOSA hands advocacy groups a temporary win following weeks of uncertainty about the bill’s future amid GOP pushback. Some lawmakers could be heard opposing in the voice vote, though the roll was not called.
Wednesday’s markup suggested the uncertainty, however, is far from over after lawmakers from both sides of the aisle expressed concerns with the House version, introduced by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), that made it out of the committee.
The Kids Online Safety Act, known as KOSA, overwhelmingly passed the Senate in a 91-3 vote in late July. The bill would create regulations for the kinds of features tech and social media companies offer kids online and aims to reduce the addictive nature and mental health impact of these platforms.
Some Democrats on the committee said they could not vote for the bill due to its differences with the Senate version.
Many took issue with Bilirakis’s amendments, which changed the language over KOSA’s “duty of care” provision. As written in the Senate version, the provision would require platforms to design and implement features for minors to prevent and reduce harms such as those caused by content promoting suicide and eating disorders.
Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) said she chose to vote against the bill because some key sections were “hastily introduced,” pointing to the duty of care changes.
“I do think that in some very important areas, that this bill needs to be strengthened,” she said Wednesday, adding, “So I opt for leverage at a conference and that’s why I’m going to vote against the bill, not because it’s a bad one, it’s a good one.”
Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), the Democratic co-lead on Bilirakis’s House version, acknowledged the version is a “weakened version” from what passed in the Senate, but urged her colleagues to advance the bill with hopes the language will be changed before going to the full House.
“We can’t allow unintended consequences to creep in, because there were politics played with KOSA here at the eleventh hour,” she said. “I think it’s important today to move it forward with the promise and acknowledgment that we…I don’t know that I could support this version if it comes to the House floor in this manner, but I trust Chair [Cathy] McMorris Rodgers [R-Wash.] and her leadership.”
“I know where their hearts are. I know how hard they have worked to get us to this point, and I think in the spirit of what we need to do as responsible legislators, we should go ahead and move this forward today with the understanding that we probably need to move towards the Senate version of this bill,” she added.
Some Republicans, meanwhile, are concerned with the bill giving the Federal Trade Commission “sweeping authority,” and the potential censorship of conservative views, a House leadership source told The Hill this week.
Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw (Texas) said he supported the bill’s advancement but did not stop short of criticizing some of its elements.
“It has some good provisions. [It] gives parents tools that give them more control over their children’s social media use. That’s a great thing,” he said. “But the rest of it, not so much.”
“This bill hands over authority to the FTC to regulate design features on social media platforms,” he said. “According to the bill, it means things like scrolling, time, use of badges, personalized recommendation systems etcetera. This is all very much geared towards regulating the algorithms of these platforms.”
The Hill reached out to House leadership offices Wednesday for comment on the bill’s advancement.
The markup follows increasing pressure from Senate lawmakers, namely Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), the co-author of the upper chamber’s version of the bill, on the House to take up the bill. Efforts by Blackburn and various advocacy groups began Monday in the form of member meetings and ad campaigns, just hours before the committee announced Wednesday’s markup.
“While we still have more work to do on KOSA, we are pleased that we are one step closer to having this legislation signed into law before the end of the 118th Congress,” Blackburn and KOSA co-author Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in a statement following Wednesday’s markup.