Though some Senate Republicans previously announced support, it would now give bureaucrats at the FTC free rein to determine what online content is considered ‘harmful’ to children.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Texas Insider Report) — The Kids Online Safety Act, or "KOSA" as its called – began as a bipartisan bill meant to help protect the nation's youth from predators and inappropriate content online. To accomplish this, it originally gave enforcement powers to each of the Nation's 50 States, and each State's Attorneys General. This quickly, however, caused an uproar within the LGBTQ+ community, as various groups claimed State AGs would have the power "to target marginalized communities" and limit children from "access" to transgender healthcare, sex education, birth control, and even abortion.
To appease the groups and earn additional Democrat support, Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) agreed to strip authority from State AGs – including Texas' Attorney General Ken Paxton – and hand it over to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, also known as the FTC.Because of the broad range of often controversial issues the Federal Trade Commission oversees – and how it has or hasn't handles some of those issues – the Copia Institute's founder, Mike Masnick, summed up the resultant new rule-making abilities granted to the FTC under the latest KOSA language as,
“Basically giving a massive – and easily abused – power to the FTC.”
The Federal Trade Commission is headed by five Commissioners, nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, each serving a seven-year term. No more than three Commissioners can be of the same political party, and the sitting President chooses one Commissioner to act as Chair.
Under the current Biden White House, the FTC is led by a far-left Biden appointee named Lina Khan, who has faced scrutiny for wielding the FTC's power to advance her own progressive political agenda.
A lengthy investigation by the House Judiciary Committee led to the release of a detailed 49-page report of February 24th of tthis year, which documented concerns from multiple FTC employees that Lina Khan was making decisions to make political headlines, rather than for the good of the American Public.
So as details emerge about the potential every day effects of KOSA’s new language emboldening the FTC, demanded by LGBTQ organizations such as the National Center for Transgender Equality, Congressional Republicans have started to questions KOSA's implications.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, spoke out against KOSA’s new language – explaining how the initial KOSA language was changed:
“The bill (initially) ran into trouble because LGBT groups were worried it would make it too easy for red state AGs to target predators who try to groom children into mutilating themselves or destroying themselves with hormones and puberty blockers."So now that the bill has been overhauled to take away power from State AGs, (since some of them might be conservatives who care about children,) and instead gives almost all power to the FTC currently read by ultra-left ideologue Lina Khan, sure enough, LGBT groups have dropped all their concerns."
Mr. Kirk says moving oversight of the bill to the FTC will result in KOSA doing “zero to protect children – but will do a lot to vaguely enhance the power of Washington bureaucrats to destroy whoever they want, for any reason.”
Now, instead of allowing Texas and other state's elected officials or Attorneys General to enforce KOSA by adhering to Texas’ values, enforcement of KOSA would be left to the FTC.
Texas representatives will likely have the opportunity to oppose KOSA this year, as the bill is expected to come up for a vote in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives later this year.
Texas representatives will likely have the opportunity to oppose KOSA this year, as the bill is expected to come up for a vote in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives later this year.
However, Senator Ted Cruz is currently listed as one of the bill 67 Senate cosponsors. Cruz’s support for KOSA appears to be inconsistent with his continued criticism of Lina Khan.
At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing last year, Sen. Cruz blamed her leadership for the FTC abandoning a legacy of bipartisanship in favor of “a partisan, legally suspect agenda” – and said Khan is turning the FTC into a “weapon of the Biden Administration to target political rivals.”
Earlier this month, Cruz expressed hesitation about a different tech bill over concerns that it “gives unprecedented power to the FTC to become referees of internet speech.”It is unlikely Sen. Cruz would support giving Lina Khan (at right, with President Biden,) and the Federal Trade Commission power to decide what online content is "harmful" for Texas children, but he has not publicly weighed in as more information and additional questions have been raised about how the "Kids Online Safety Act" was altered to expand the FTC's power at the direction of numerous LGBTQ+ groups.
Given the increasingly evident partisan direction of the FTC, and the widespread distrust of the agency's leadership, KOSA will likely face an uphill battle for passage.
