The Anti-LGBTQ Internet Censorship Bill Is Back
From Taylor Lorenz’s Power User by Taylor Lorenz
June 12, 2026 · 33 min
About this episode
This episode discusses the dangers of the Kids Online Safety Act and its implications for internet censorship, particularly regarding LGBTQ voices and privacy issues.
Just in time for Pride month, Marsha Blackburn and the Heritage Foundation's anti-LGBTQ censorship is back (now supported by OpenAI). SUPPORT MY WORK: Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at usermag.co Support my work on Patreon: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is back, and this time, the White House is reportedly negotiating a deal to pass it in exchange for federal preemption of state AI laws. In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I break down why KOSA is one of the most dangerous internet censorship bills in Congress, why tech billionaires like Sam Altman and Elon Musk actually SUPPORT it, and what the media is getting completely wrong about this so-called "trade-off." I'm joined by Ari Cohn, one of the top First Amendment lawyers in the country, to explain exactly how KOSA's "duty of care" provision will force platforms to mass-censor content, including LGBTQ voices, mental health support communities, reproductive health information, and more. We cover the junk science behind the social media moral panic, the age verification privacy nightmare, how the FTC could become the internet's censor-in-chief, and why we've…
People in this episode
Host: Taylor Lorenz
Guest: Ari Cohn
Topics covered
- internet censorship
- LGBTQ rights
- Kids Online Safety Act
- First Amendment
- social media regulation
- age verification
- privacy issues
Keywords
- KOSA
- internet censorship
- LGBTQ
- First Amendment
- social media
- age verification
- privacy
- Marsha Blackburn
- Heritage Foundation
- OpenAI
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Heritage Foundation, FTC
Books & works: Kids Online Safety Act
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