Taxpayer Watchdog Urges Senate to Reject Unconstitutional Social Media Bill

For Immediate Release

Contact: Kara Zupkus (224) 456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will consider the Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA). The bill would bar children below the age of 13 from creating social media accounts and bar the platforms from certain uses of targeted-content algorithms with respect to children under the age of 17. As now constructed, these provisions will work as a de facto age verification mandate, which, as many federal courts have ruled, places unconstitutional burdens on Americans’ right to free speech.

In anticipation of the markup, Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) President David Williams provided the following comment:

“Although it is admirable that the Senate wants to protect children online, it must find a way to do so that does not violate the Constitution in myriad ways. Courts have been clear that age-verification mandates, whether implicit or explicit, are unconstitutional. By forcing users to potentially compromise their anonymity and submit sensitive personal information to websites or the government that can be hacked, they burden American adults’ access to online speech so heavily that they cannot withstand First Amendment scrutiny.

“Blanket bans on children’s access to entire forms of media also raise significant questions. As the late Justice Scalia noted, the government certainly can impose regulations to help parents make choices for their children. However, lawmakers must take care that their efforts to help parental decision-making don’t turn out to preempt parental decision-making. The government can assist parents in choosing what content their children see but cannot use that as a cover to substitute their own judgement.

“In the wake of the Supreme Court’s majority opinion in the NetChoice cases, bills that seeks to limit and control social-media platforms’ algorithms face still another constitutional hurdle. The Court recognized that algorithms embody editorial discretion and therefore warrant First Amendment protection. Depending on implementation, regulations of algorithms could be at odds with this precedent.

“If KOSMA were to become law, the federal government would have to spend taxpayer money for a fruitless legal defense, ending inevitably in an injunction. Setting taxpayer dollars on fire in this manner is the epitome of fiscal irresponsibility.

“For these reasons and more, KOSMA should be rejected. As the Senate seeks to keep kids safe online, it must operate within the limits prescribed by the First Amendment.”

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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.