as the house is going to be voting on the kids act passage today (6/29/26, 6:30EST), i’ve been seeing a lot of people thinking that this is the end.
this is not the end. this is not the end of this fight.
within the kids act and kosa, there’s something that has been fought over forever: duty of care. to explain it simply, it would require technology companies to build guardrails that would protect its users from harm, and if the standard is not met, the platform would be held responsible. this is bad, very bad to have included.
the current house version does not include duty of care. it was removed when it was reintroduced as it was an extremely controversial part of kosa that a lot of people opposed. this house version without duty of care is controversial and disliked, and opposed by both the senate and the parental groups.
the senate and parents do NOT want this to pass without duty of care. quoted from this article written by austin denean:
“Leading Senate advocates for social media regulation rejected the lack of duty of care requirements in the House compromise and said it was “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber. The Senate version of KOSA has sweeping bipartisan support and has been backed by many parent advocacy groups. Senators approved a version of KOSA with overwhelming bipartisan support in the last Congress, but the legislation ultimately stalled out in the House.”
along with this, two major cosponsors, richard blumenthal, and maria cantwell, has come out and said to vote NO on the kids act due to this, with cantwell saying,
“We are perplexed why our House colleagues are considering something that has such weak language that even the proponents are saying don't pass it, it's worse than doing nothing.”
quoted from this article from jericho casper:
“The senators urged House members not to advance a weakened version of the bill and to stick with what they called the “real KOSA,” referring to the Kids Online Safety Act that Blumenthal has championed, and rejecting what they described as a “bait-and-switch” or “KOSA light” approach.“
while the house procedurally can add the duty of care back in, the house does not want to, and wants it to pass without the duty of care as they removed it because of free speech concerns, liability fears from platforms, and fear that it would over censor the internet. removing the duty of care is one of the biggest reasons it’s gotten as far as it has, and adding it in now would cause major backlash and pretty much blow up the entire deal in place. the house specifically removed duty of care so it could pass with bipartisan support.
the senate has said that they will not pass it without duty of care. they have called it dead on arrival if it does pass the house. neither chamber has been able to compromise.
if the house adds the duty of care back in, they risk losing a lot of their support. if the house does not add duty of care back in, since it’s a non-negotiable point in the senate, the senate will either have to negotiate with the house, which will be a huge fight and will most likely stall the bill, or outright refuse to pass it.
along with that, every two years congress resets, in a way. basically meaning that if something does not pass by the end of the two year session (which for this year would be the 2025-2026 session, the end of this year), it has to completely start over. that’s why kosa had to be reintroduced and went through it all again. if nothing is passed by the end of the year, it will have to start over once again.
i just wanted to put this out here: we still have time. there will be a fight either way, whether it fails or passes. but this is not the end. it’s still bad, still a red alert, but not the end.
that being said, still make noise about it. call your senators, email, fax, raise awareness about it. have those phones ringing off the hook! the reason why it hasn’t passed yet is because of the pushback! do not stop doing what y’all are doing. call in the morning, and then before the session, and never stop opposing this, because it’s absolutely fucking terrible to say the very least. i just wanted to put more information out there.
as always, if i have gotten something wrong, correct me and i will fix it. if you have more information, please let me know. always do your own research and do not rely only on information from posts.
KOSA is a censorship bill that won’t make kids safe. Instead, it'll put all internet users at risk, especially youth. If you believe in a fr
All of the bad internet bills. One website.
