Written by PTC | Published October 2, 2024
LOS ANGELES (October 2, 2024) – The Parents Television and Media Council (PTC) called out Big Tech lobbyists for spreading disinformation about the Kids Online Safety Act to stop the bill from coming to a vote in the U.S. House.
“Big Tech does not have our children’s interests at heart and will be the reason online child protection measures fail in Congress – unless our elected leaders see through the façade. There is no reason why the Kids Online Safety Act shouldn’t pass the House given the overwhelming bipartisan support for it in the U.S. Senate. Congress must advance online child protection. There is simply no excuse for children to continue to be Big Tech’s prey,” said Melissa Henson, vice president, Parents Television and Media Council.
The New York Post reported that there has been “intense lobbying” from Big Tech around the Kids Online Safety Act, and that they are tailoring objections to the bill depending on the House member’s party affiliation.
According to the Post, “Meta, TikTok parent ByteDance, Snap, X and Discord – the five social media firms called to testify at a bombshell Senate hearing on online harm to minors in January – spent a whopping $30 million in 2023 alone on lobbying around KOSA and other tech-focused bills, according to disclosures compiled by Issue One.” Additionally, “Both Google and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta filed more lobbying disclosures related to KOSA than any other bill in 2024, according to OpenSecrets records.”
“It is clear that Big Tech is fearful that they will have to comply with KOSA regulations that are designed to hold social media companies and other digital platforms accountable for protecting children online by requiring that stringent safety and privacy settings to be on by default. KOSA would help shield children from the immense harms online. Congress must pass KOSA and ignore the fearmongering by Big Tech lobbyists,” Henson said.