The Kids Online Safety Act has hit resistance in the House of Representatives suggesting the highly anticipated bipartisan legislation may not pass without modifications, The Hill reported on Wednesday.
Last week the Senate passed the act by an almost unheard of 91-3 margin. The bill attempts to protect children from the pernicious effects of the internet and sets forth a "duty of care" for social media platforms. Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., were the three no votes expressing concerns regarding subjective government censorship.
A House leadership aide spoke to the outlet and said that concerns among members imply that the bill "cannot be brought in its current form."
"It could lead to censorship of conservative speech, such as pro-life views, is almost certainly unconstitutional, and grants sweeping new authority to unelected bureaucrats at the FTC [Federal Trade Comission]," the leadership aide said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who co-authored the bill, said it "literally will save lives. What we're doing is giving parents and kids the tools to disconnect from harmful content, bullying, eating disorders, stuff that really hurts them, and also impose a duty of care on Big Tech that for too long has said 'trust us' and betrayed that trust."
Last week Paul told The New York Post that while the bill has noble intentions, it is written in such a way as to allow the government to censor speech that it decides will cause anxiety in America's youth. "The whole idea that we're going to set up a committee and we're going to give a vague definition of anxiety — and then say anything that causes anxiety we're going to give a group the power to regulate — is bizarre," Paul said.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had been optimistic about the bill's passage in the House telling CNBC in July, "Obviously, we need to protect children with regard to online activity. The internet is the wild, wild west, and some of these reforms are overdue."
Johnson told the outlet that although he assumed the bill "would have a lot of support" he cautioned the House would need to look "at the exact details of the legislation."