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Senators <\/a> and <\/a> announced on Saturday that they\u2019ve made changes to the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) with help from X to \u201cstrengthen the bill while safeguarding free speech online and ensuring it is not used to stifle expression.\u201d The Senate <\/a> with a vote of 91-3, but it\u2019s since stalled in the House, and its proponents are pushing for it to be passed before the end of the year. X\u2019s CEO Linda Yaccarino also posted about the collaboration, and called for Congress and the House to pass the bill.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter working with the bill authors, I\u2019m proud to share that we\u2019ve made progress to further protect freedom of speech while maintaining safety for minors online,\u201d <\/a> wrote in a post on X that was shared by the two senators. KOSA is meant to protect minors from \u201caddictive\u201d social media features and potentially dangerous content by placing a \u201cduty of care\u201d on the companies that own the platforms. But critics have argued that it could lead to censorship and other harms. The new changes, according to <\/em><\/a>, <\/em>clarify the conditions under which duty of care can be enforced and narrow its application around anxiety and depressive disorders, stating they must be \u201cobjectively verifiable\u201d and tied to \u201ccompulsive usage.\u201d<\/p>\n In their joint statement, Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) and Blackburn (R-Tennessee) said:<\/p>\n These changes should eliminate once and for all the false narrative that this bill would be weaponized by unelected bureaucrats to censor Americans. We thank Elon and Linda for their bold leadership and commitment to protecting children online and for helping us get this bill across the finish line this Congress. We appreciate that this endorsement and revised text reflects their publicly stated goal of furthering free speech without fear of censorship. We reiterate X\u2019s call to pass KOSA by the end of the year \u2014 it is clear that this legislation has overwhelming support from Congress.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n KOSA was first introduced in February 2022 and has faced opposition from groups including the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It\u2019s been revised multiple times.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n