July, 30 2024, 03:36pm EDT
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ACLU Slams Senate Passage of Kids Online Safety Act, Urges House to Protect Free Speech
The Senate today passed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which would violate the First Amendment by enabling the federal government to dictate what information people can access online and encourage social media platforms to censor protected speech. The House of Representatives must vote no on this dangerous legislation.
“KOSA compounds nationwide attacks on young peoples’ right to learn and access information, on and offline,” said Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the ACLU. “As state legislatures and school boards across the country impose book bans and classroom censorship laws, the last thing students and parents need is another act of government censorship deciding which educational resources are appropriate for their families. The House must block this dangerous bill before it’s too late.”
As the ACLU and a wide array of civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy organizations have repeatedly explained, this bill would not keep kids safe, but instead threaten young people’s privacy, limit minors’ access to vital resources, and silence important online conversations for all ages. The ACLU has also raised concerns about how this bill could be used to limit adults' ability to express themselves freely online or access diverse viewpoints.
The ACLU is also worried that the government’s attempts to regulate select design features will implicate First Amendment-protected speech. If passed, this legislation would require online platforms that minors are likely to use to take steps to prevent harm. While the revised duty of care requirement supposedly regulates “design features” instead of speech, the list of “design features” are defined so broadly that platforms are likely to censor content that could prove objectionable to the government, which could include anything from sexual health resources to information about gender identity, or how to get help for an eating disorder.
This vote comes just days after the ACLU led more than 300 students in a lobbying day on Capitol Hill in opposition to the bill.
“It’s called the Kids Online Safety Act, but they have to consider kids’ voices, and some of us don’t think it will make us safer,” said Anjali Verma, a 17-year-old rising high school senior. “We live on the internet, and we are afraid that important information we’ve accessed all our lives will no longer be available. We need lawmakers to listen to young people when making decisions that affect us."
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Rights Groups Warn Senate-Passed Online Safety Bill 'Makes Kids Less Safe'
Sen. Ron Wyden echoed their concerns that "a future MAGA administration could still use this bill to pressure companies to censor gay, trans, and reproductive health information."
Jul 30, 2024
As the U.S. Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed legislation intended to better protect children on the internet, rights groups renewed their intense criticism of parts of the package.
The Senate voted 91-3 on the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA), which includes the Children's and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) as well as the controversial Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which opponents say "makes kids less safe."
KOSA requires online platforms to enable the strongest privacy settings for children by default as well as prevent and mitigate specific dangers to them. It also requires independent audits and research. Critics argue some provisions would "threaten young people's privacy, limit minors' access to vital resources, and silence important online conversations for all ages."
The trio who voted against the bill on Tuesday was Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a longtime privacy advocate who said on social media last week that "the final version of this bill is improved" but he would still vote no.
"The changes that I, LGBTQ+ advocates, parents, student activists, civil rights orgs, and others have fought for over the last two years have made it less likely that the bill can be used as a tool for MAGA extremists to wage war on legal and essential information to teens," Wyden said.
"While constructive, these improvements remain insufficient," he continued. "I fear KOSA could be used to sue services that offer privacy technologies like encryption or anonymity features that kids rely on to communicate securely and privately without being spied on by predators online."
Wyden added that "I also take very seriously concerns voiced by the American Civil Liberties Union, Fight for the Future, and LGBTQ+ teens and advocates that a future MAGA administration could still use this bill to pressure companies to censor gay, trans, and reproductive health information."
The ACLU and Fight for the Future reiterated those concerns on Tuesday, joined at a press conference by leaders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, TransOhio, and Woodhull Freedom Foundation.
"We need legislation that addresses the harm of Big Tech. And still lets young people fight for the type of world that they actually want to grow up in," declared Evan Greer, director at Fight for the Future.
Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the ACLU, said that "as state legislatures and school boards across the country impose book bans and classroom censorship laws, the last thing students and parents need is another act of government censorship deciding which educational resources are appropriate for their families."
The bill still needs to get through the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives. Already, two of the chamber's leading progressives, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) have come out against it. Leventoff declared that "the House must block this dangerous bill before it's too late."
Last week, the ACLU led over 300 students in a lobbying day on Capitol Hill to oppose the package.
"It's called the Kids Online Safety Act, but they have to consider kids' voices, and some of us don't think it will make us safer," Anjali Verma, a 17-year-old high school senior, said Tuesday. "We live on the internet, and we are afraid that important information we've accessed all our lives will no longer be available. We need lawmakers to listen to young people when making decisions that affect us."
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) celebrated the package's passage, joined by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Ed Markey (D-Mass.).
Cassidy and Markey spearheaded COPPA 2.0, which has not elicited criticism from rights groups the way KOSA has. They said in a joint statement that their bill's passage "is an overdue and much-needed victory" for young people and with the vote, "the Senate has sent a clear message that Big Tech's days of targeting and tracking kids and teenagers online are over."
"Enough with harmful targeted advertising," the senators said. "Enough with collecting deeply personal information on young people. Enough with ignoring the health and well-being [of] millions of young people. Enough with leaving teens and parents powerless to delete a mistaken social media post. Enough with lining Big Tech's pockets at the expense of our young people."
"To the parents, advocates, and young people who have been heroically fighting for these privacy protections for more than a decade, we thank you. We would not be here without your passion, commitment, and bravery," they added. "This vote is a breakthrough moment for tech regulation in the United States with Congress finally stepping up to the plate and putting real guardrails on Big Tech's pernicious business model."
Josh Golin, executive director of Fairplay and co-founder of ParentsSOS, said that "today's historic vote is a testament to the tireless efforts of parents who have lost their children to Big Tech's greed and an incredible coalition that believes a better internet for young people is possible. We thank Sens. Blackburn, Blumenthal, Cassidy, and Markey for introducing this game-changing legislation and call on the House to follow the Senate's lead."
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Nearly Two-Thirds of All Campaign Funds for Cori Bush Challenger Came From AIPAC
"Wesley Bell is now the No. 1 recipient of AIPAC cash this cycle—receiving $3 million and counting," Justice Democrats noted.
Jul 30, 2024
Almost two-thirds of all campaign donations to St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell—who is seeking to oust Congresswoman Cori Bush in next week's Democratic primary for Missouri's 1st Congressional District—came from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's super PAC, according to reporting on Tuesday.
Sludgereported that Bell enjoys a 5:1 cash-on-hand advantage over Bush, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Overall, Bell's campaign outraised Bush's $4.8 million to $2.9 million as of July 17 in what AdImpacts Politics says is already the fifth-most expensive House primary race in U.S. history.
The most expensive House primary took place earlier this year, when AIPAC's super PAC, United Democracy Project (UDP), spent $14.5 million on Westchester County, New York Executive George Latimer's successful bid to unseat Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.).
Like Bowman, Bush has been a vocal critic of Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 140,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case. Bush co-led a House cease-fire resolution introduced less than two weeks after Israel began bombarding Gaza. She has accused Israel of genocide.
Bell, meanwhile, has vowed to "fight to make sure the United States remains Israel's strongest ally."
UDP has spent heavily against candidates critical of Israel, and Bell is now the top recipient of AIPAC money this election cycle. St. Louis
NBC affiliate KSDKreported Monday that UDP and other pro-Israel PACs have spent $7.6 million boosting Bell.
Bell launched his primary bid in October after the Hamas-led attacks on Israel that left more than 1,100 Israelis and others dead and around 240 people kidnapped. At the time, he was already running for Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley's seat. His House bid came despite a promise to Bush that he would not run against her. On Tuesday, Drop Site's Ryan Grim published an audio recording of Bell's promise.
According to Drop Site, AIPAC recruited Bell from a list of Black politicians with a chance of unseating Bush. AIPAC called this assertion "false and absurd."
Bell portrays himself as a progressive. However, he formerly managed the 2006 House campaign of Republican Mark Byrne, an anti-abortion and gun control candidate. More recently, he reneged on a promise to the family of Michael Brown—the 18-year-old who was fatally shot by Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson—to pursue justice in the case by declining to criminally charge Wilson. Bell has also overseen a steady increase in the St. Louis County Jail's population at a time when the overall U.S. prison and jail population declined.
Bell's campaign is funded by Republicans including billionaire hedge fund founder and prolific GOP donor Daniel Loeb, billionaire tech CEO David Steward, and former Missouri House Speaker Steven Tilley. An analysis published last month by Politicorevealed that 46% of donors who have given to Democratic candidates via AIPAC this election cycle have also funded Republicans since the 2020 cycle.
Such support doesn't always buy results, as Congresswoman Summer Lee (D-Pa.) showed when she defeated her Democratic primary opponent Bhavini Patel, who took money from Republican megadonors including billionaire businessman Jeffrey Yass. UDP spent $5 million trying—and failing—to unseat Lee, who crushed Patel by over 20 percentage points in the April primary.
AIPAC's largesse has sparked a #RejectAIPAC campaign urging Democrats to refuse to take money from the group.
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Trump's Repeated Efforts to Disavow Project 2025 'Not Fooling Anyone'
"These attempts to create the appearance of distance between Trump and Project 2025 are happening because Americans are starting to learn about this extreme takeover plan," said one Democratic congressman.
Jul 30, 2024
As the Heritage Foundation announced Tuesday that Project 2025's director will soon step down, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump continued efforts to distance his campaign from the far-right blueprint, despite the clear and well-documented connections.
"President Trump's campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the president in any way," Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a campaign statement.
"Reports of Project 2025's demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign—it will not end well for you," the pair added in an apparent reference to news about the director's upcoming departure.
The 2025 Presidential Transition Project, as it is formally called, is a policy agenda, personnel recruitment, training, and a 180-day playbook for the next right-wing president, spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation and backed by over 100 other organizations. Critics have described it as a "far-right playbook for American authoritarianism."
At least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration—including six former Cabinet secretaries—have been involved with Project 2025, according to a CNN analysis published earlier this month. Among them is the outgoing director, Paul Dans.
"Dans served in the Trump administration as chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management where he managed the federal agency in charge of human resources policy for the more than 2 million federal workers," according to his profile on the Heritage website.
"He also served as OPM's White House liaison and worked integrally with the White House Office of Presidential Personnel to staff the approximately 4,000 presidential appointees across the federal government," Dans' profile states. "In January 2021, President Trump appointed Dans to serve as chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission."
Both Dans and Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts confirmed Tuesday that the project director plans to leave the think tank late next month, with the latter declaring that "under Paul Dans' leadership, Project 2025 has completed exactly what it set out to do," and "we are extremely grateful for his and everyone's work."
While Tuesday's news arrived after weeks of the Trump campaign trying to disavow the initiative, Roberts framed Dans' looming exit as part of a long-established plan, saying that "when we began Project 2025 in April 2022, we set a timeline for the project to conclude its policy drafting after the two party conventions this year, and we are sticking to that timeline."
The Republican National Convention was held in Wisconsin earlier this month—on the first day, Trump announced Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate—and the Democratic National Convention is set to be held in Illinois next month, though the party plans to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris in an online vote as soon as Thursday.
Mirroring Roberts' statement, Dans highlighted the timing of the conventions and emphasized that "we have completed what we set out to do, which was create a unified conservative vision, bringing together over 110 leading organizations, united behind the cause of deconstructing the administrative state."
Both men also stressed that that project's "efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels" will continue.
Like President Joe Biden—who dropped his reelection effort and endorsed his vice president earlier this month—Harris and her campaign have forcefully warned about the threats posed by Project 2025 and spotlighted its connections to Trump and Vance, who wrote the foreword to Roberts' new book.
"Project 2025 is on the ballot because Donald Trump is on the ballot. This is his agenda, written by his allies, for Donald Trump to inflict on our country," Harris' campaign manager, Julie Chávez Rodriguez, said in a statement Tuesday. "Hiding the 920-page blueprint from the American people doesn't make it less real—in fact, it should make voters more concerned about what else Trump and his allies are hiding."
"What remains clear," she added, "is that Trump, Vance, and the Project 2025 agenda will take America backwards: more abortion bans, more suffering, higher costs for the middle class, cuts to Social Security and Medicare, repeal of the Affordable Care Act, dirtier air and water, and empowering Trump to destroy American democracy."
Congressman Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), founder of the Stop Project 2025 Task Force, argued in a lengthy statement Tuesday that "Americans are not stupid" and "this personnel shell game is not fooling anyone."
"These attempts to create the appearance of distance between Trump and Project 2025 are happening because Americans are starting to learn about this extreme takeover plan for Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans to quickly dismantle checks and balances, amass unprecedented presidential power, and seize total control over our government and our individual freedoms," he said. "With recent polling showing how deeply toxic Project 2025 is with the American people, Trump and his political advisers are in full retreat, suggesting they know nothing about Project 2025 and feigning outrage at the notion that their plan is actually their plan."
"We will continue working with dozens of leading advocacy groups and experts to bring Trump's Project 2025 out of the shadows and spotlight it for the American people. Trump can run but he cannot hide," Huffman added. "No amount of spinning or play-fighting can change the fact that Donald Trump is inextricably intertwined with Project 2025."
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