X and Microsoft support controversial US proposal for online protection for teenagers

Snap, Microsoft and X, formerly Twitter, have expressed their support for the Kids Online Safety Act, a US bill aimed at protecting children and teenagers online. The law has been widely criticized because it could lead to arbitrary censorship and self-censorship on social media.

X and Microsoft said in a US Senate hearing this week that they support the bill in its entirety, reports TechCrunch. The site notes that Microsoft does not have a social media platform that would actually fall under the law, making the support relatively insignificant. X is of course a platform and has had less moderation for a year than before.

The Kids Online Safety Act is a bill proposed by American politicians from both major parties in the wake of the outcry about the harmfulness of Instagram for teenagers. Now that it has been established that social media can lead to mental health problems including anxiety, depression and eating disorders, politicians want platforms to be responsible for ‘design and services’ that can cause or worsen mental health disorders.

Critics from, among others, the Electronic Frontier Foundation argue against that that the law with its current text makes platforms responsible for everything that happens and therefore gives the government itself a weapon to apply censorship to every conceivable subject. Moreover, according to the EFF, it can lead to self-censorship on social media, because companies do not want to be responsible for the consequences. The law initially included a requirement to verify the age of all users, but that has now been removed, leaving it unclear how platforms should apply the law.

Meta, operator of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and Discord endorse the spirit of the law, but find the current text unsuitable and can only support the law with adjustments, they said in the hearing.