from the it's-a-fucking-censorship-bill,-wake-up dept
It still amazes me that KOSA has any Democratic co-sponsors, let alone 21 Democratic co-sponsors in the Senate led by lead Democratic sponsor (and embracer of any bill that will undermine the internet it it lets him ignorantly grandstand about how terrible the internet is), Senator Richard Blumenthal. This includes some big names who purport to be more “reasonable” Senators, like Brian Schatz, Chris Murphy and more.
As we noted, Republicans haven’t been shy that their plan for KOSA is to label all sorts of content they dislike as “harmful” and make sure that KOSA bars it from social media. The Heritage Foundation made it clear that KOSA would be useful in driving LGBTQ content offline.
Of course, it’s one thing for a think tank (even one that has become the intellectual underpinnings — if there was such a thing — of Trumpism) to say this. It’s another for the bill’s lead Republican sponsor to say it.
But, she has.
As first pointed out by Erin Reed, Senator Marsha Blackburn, who co-authored the bill with Senator Blumenthal, finally admitted what other GOP Senators had been keeping quiet. That they fully intend to use KOSA in their war against trans people:
In perhaps the clearest example of red flags against this law, one of the biggest sponsors of the bill, Senator Marsha Blackburn, stated that the bill would be used to “protect minor children from the transgender [sic] in our culture.”
She says it in this video, which actually goes further than the quote from Reed:
The full transcript is way worse. When asked by the “Family Policy Alliance” about the “top issue” that “conservatives” should be “taking action” on, Blackburn starts out with the line above, before talking about how social media is “exposing” kids to such content, suggesting that it’s turning the kids trans (which, um, is not how any of this works).
Well, there are a couple of things, of course, protecting minor children from the transgender and this culture and that influence. And I would add to that watching what’s happening on social media.
And I’ve got the kids online safety act that I think we’re going to end up getting through, probably this summer. This would put a duty of care and responsibility on the social media platforms.
And this is where children are being indoctrinated. They’re hearing things at school and then they’re getting onto YouTube to watch a video. And all of a sudden this comes to them, um, and they’re on Snapchat, or they’re on Instagram and they click on something and the next thing you know, they’re being inundated with it.
Parents need to be watching this. Teachers need to be watching and protecting our children and making certain that they are not exposed to things that they are emotionally not mature enough to handle.
The whole statement is a bit of a wandering word salad without complete thoughts, but it seems pretty clear that Senator Marsha Blackburn believes that YouTube, SnapChat, and Instagram are turning the kids trans, and that she’s hoping KOSA will be useful in “protecting children” from that.
While most of the media ignored it when folks pointed out the Heritage Foundation saying flat out how KOSA would be used, at least some in the media are finally picking up on this now that Blackburn is being so upfront. NBC News had an article highlighting Blackburn’s comments, as did Mashable.
But will any of the mainstream media, maybe, ask Democratic Senators like Blumenthal and Schatz how they feel about this? Will they ask President Biden, who recently scolded Congress to “pass it, pass it, pass it” when asked about KOSA?
How hard is it for the NY Times or the Washington Post or CNN or whoever else to ask this question: “The sponsor of KOSA says that the bill will be used to ‘protect’ children from ‘the transgender.’ How can you support a bill that will be used to censor and harm transgender individuals?”
While we’re at it, can someone ask that of other supporters of the bill, like Dove Soap and Lizzo? Or how about Common Sense Media, who says they “strongly support” KOSA? I didn’t realize that Common Sense Media is anti-trans. Or that Senators Blumenthal, Schatz, Murphy, Durbin and others are. But if they’re supporting this bill, their actions make it clear that they have no problem passing bills that will be used to harm trans people.
Filed Under: kosa, lgbtq, marsha blackburn, richard blumenthal, transgender