Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders urged congressional leaders to pass the Kids Online Safety Act before the end of the year, joining the likes of X owner Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr. in supporting the landmark legislation.
The bill, also known as KOSA, would impose a legal “duty of care” to ensure social-media apps shield kids from sexual abuse, drug addiction and risky stunts that can cause injury or even death. It is widely seen as the most consequential bill regulating Big Tech in decades.
Gov. Sanders, a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump, described KOSA as a “commonsense step in the right direction that preserves free speech” while also addressing an alarming surge in rates of suicide and self-harm among teens caused by Big Tech apps.
The governor outlined her case in the Thursday letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), which was exclusively obtained by The Post.
The Post has reached out to the lawmakers for comment.
The letter from Sanders – who served as Trump’s White House press secretary during his first term – comes at a critical moment for the bill’s advocates. Congress has just a few days left to pass KOSA before its current session ends.
The legislation received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate and passed in a 91-3 vote last July – but has since stalled in the House due to concerns among some top Republicans that it could be used to enable censorship.
Johnson has yet to schedule a floor vote for the bill and threw cold water on the notion of passing the bill before year-end, telling Politico last week: “I think we can do it early next year and get that achievement done.”
Sanders noted that she pushed for Arkansas schools to go “phone-free” and recently hosted Dr. Jonathan Haidt, the author of “The Anxious Generation” and a staunch KOSA supporter, on a statewide tour to inform teachers and parents about the risks of social media on kids’ development.
“America experimented with unrestricted social media use for our kids and the results of that experiment are clear: it is an unmitigated disaster,” Gov. Sanders wrote in the Thursday letter obtained by The Post. “We need to reverse these alarming trends and protect kids online.”
“I urge you to act quickly to pass KOSA before the end of the year and protect our children,” she added.
“These companies are spending millions of dollars lobbying against legislation that installs commonsense safeguards on their platforms, and millions more suing states like Arkansas that take preventative steps to protect kids,” Sanders wrote. “It is time for a federal fix to this nationwide problem.”
KOSA gained major allies last week in the form of Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino – who revealed that they had worked with the bill’s co-authors and made tweaks to “further protect freedom of speech while maintaining safety for minors online.”
Musk, a key donor and adviser to Trump, said: “Protecting kids should always be priority #1.”
Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the lead cosponsors on the Senate version of KOSA, said X’s assistance “should eliminate once and for all the false narrative that this bill would be weaponized by unelected bureaucrats to censor Americans.”
Elsewhere, Trump Jr. endorsed the legislation, writing that “we can protect free speech and our kids at the same time from Big Tech.”
As The Post has reported, Big Tech advocates have staged a no-holds-barred fight to kill the legislation – including by tailoring their message about KOSA depending on which constituency they’re trying to influence.
Lobbyists have been telling House Republicans it can be weaponized against conservative speech and telling Democrats that it is “anti-LGBTQ+” and could limit pro-choice speech.
Google and Meta have spent heavily to kill or weaken the bill.
