Santorum Torches ‘Kids Online Safety Act’ Ahead Of FAA Bill: Will Lead To ‘Digital Censorship Of Conservative Views’

(Photo by Zach Roberts/NurPhoto via AP)

Attached oddly to an FAA reauthorization bill up before the Senate next week may be proposed internet legislation which Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn, Democratic Sens. Brian Schatz and Richard Blumenthal, President Joe Biden, and possibly Speaker of the House Mike Johnson are all, to one degree or another, advocating for on the heels of the passage of a TikTok ban.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum, who remains an outspoken family values commentator and pundit, spoke to Mediaite about one item that will be on the agenda next week: The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).

Next week the Senate will vote on a five-year Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization. But although that may sound bland or perfunctory, some turbulence is expected, as Punchbowl put it. That’s because of the number of Amendments being added that are not related to the underlying bill, as Senators attach bipartisan efforts to what will be one of the last must-pass pieces of legislation before the election.

Among those bills is KOSA, which has wide bipartisan support – but is not without controversy. A debate has emerged on the right over the last year about whether KOSA will increase protections for kids online or have the exact opposite effect, essentially empowering Big Tech to enforce standards of what can be said and how it can be said online.

Censorship on apps was already a major issue on the right, and one of the reasons Elon Musk claimed for his purchase of Twitter. But questions of whether tech companies are able to determine what does and does not constitute free speech, harmful speech, disinformation, or misinformation have plagued the center and even the left increasingly, especially on issues such as Ukraine and Gaza.

Santorum is among those critics and offered this comment on the subject.

“Social and family values conservatives should be especially wary about advancing the so-called ‘Kids Online Safety Act.’ Not only will this bill vastly increase the chances of kids and parents having their identities stolen online via the provisions in § 102 and § 108 of the bill. If passed, KOSA will also undoubtedly result in more content of the type that conservatives in states like Florida have been trying to keep away from kids making its way onto their screens thanks to § 102.

“It will facilitate digital censorship of culturally conservative views, and even appears to create a new iteration of the Biden Disinformation Board whose makeup also happens to look like it will be determined by applying DEI principles and possibly staffed by regulators hand-picked by Randi Weingarten and the AFT— the exact people who caused so much damage to children during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Those concerns may be part of the Senate debate – although the bill already had over 60 senators on board – but they will definitely be part of any House debate, where a source tells Mediaite that members of the House Freedom Caucus including Rep. Jim Jordan are unhappy with the specifics of the bill and the potential for “abuse.”

UPDATE: Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s spokesperson sends Mediaite this response to Santorum, suggesting he is a front for Big Tech on the issue:

The bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act, supported by over two-thirds of the Senate, requires social media platforms to put the well-being of children first by providing an environment that is safe by default. The legislation has specific provisions included to protect freedom of speech and ensure content cannot be censored. It is not surprising that Big Tech companies are using surrogates to peddle lies to conservatives in an attempt to create division. All parents, regardless of political affiliation or background, should want their children to be protected online.

Yet the question could be moot, at least as far as the FAA reauthorization. Axios reported Wednesday that “Senate leadership is divided over whether to allow amendments that do not pertain to the bill. Some would be popular, but it could open a can of worms and risk the bill’s passage in the House, leadership aides tell Axios.”

And in one final tweak to the circumstances, the campus protests that have dominated media coverage this week and captured the attention of everyone in America? Well guess where those were organized? On TikTok. By young people.

Censorship, freedom of speech, privacy, national security, protecting kids, family values, DEI, wokeism, anti-Israel sentiment. All rolled into an FAA reauthorization?

Could be quite a week.

NOTE: Post updated to include comment from Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s office.