Elon Musk’s X speaks out in favor of pro-censorship law

Some of the biggest tech companies are being questioned Wednesday by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in a hearing titled “Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis.”

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg as well as TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, Discord CEO Jason Citron and X CEO Linda Yaccarino are all on Capitol Hill representing their respective companies. The Senate technology/2023/11/20/senate-subpoena-musk-x-snap-kids/” target=”_blank” title=”(opens in a new window)”>subpoenaed Spiegel, Citron and Yaccarino to ensure their appearance.

Of those called to testify, only two expressed full support for one of the most important bills on this topic, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA): Snap’s Spiegel and X’s Yaccarino.

However, while KOSA may be touted as a way to keep children safe online, critics warned that the bill favors censorship, may harm children, and will infringe on online privacy.

This makes Yaccarino’s support for KOSA particularly noteworthy. In short, everything that Elon Musk’s “Free Speech Platform” X claims to be against.

KOSA is a “danger” for online rights

KOSA is billed as a bill that protects children online. And it has bipartisan support under the auspices of doing primarily that.

But KOSA critics, like the online civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), called the bill “ahuge danger to our rights online.

Under the proposed legislation, LGBTQ content could be targeted and important self-harm and suicide prevention materials could be blocked from young people who need these resources. Additionally, one’s online privacy would be eroded as users would be required to provide age verification documents to access certain platforms or content.

Yaccarino expresses support for KOSA

The platform formerly known as Twitter has changed dramatically since its acquisition by Elon Musk. Besides the name change to X, perhaps the biggest change was the type of users and content allowed on the platform. For example, there was a technology/hate-speech-israel-gaza-internet.html” target=”_blank” title=”(opens in a new window)”>notable increase reported in white supremacist messages and anti-trans rhetoric on X.

Musk defended content moderation policies that allow such posts by affirming “freedom of speech.”

This is in clear contrast to what Yaccarino said during the Senate hearing.

“We support KOSA,” Yaccarino said when asked directly if she supported the bill.

“[We] “I’m going to continue to make sure that this accelerates and continue to provide a community for teens who are looking for that voice,” the X CEO continued. This reflected her previous testimony at the hearing when she said that KOSA “should make progress” and that the company would “continue to engage to ensure it protects freedom of expression.”

Zuckerberg and TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew clashed with senators when asked about KOSA, making it clear they do not support the legislation as it stands.

In Yaccarino’s testimony at the Senate hearing, she also claimed that X was not “the platform of choice for children and adolescents.” Indeed, there are social media platforms more popular with children and young people, such as TikTok or Instagram. However, there are still children on X.

The tweet may have been deleted

“We will always do everything possible to ensure the safety of children and minors,” Yaccarino job on X on January 27, alongside a new report from the company on how it handles child exploitation on the platform. This update from the company was released just days before the Senate hearing.

Although After layoffs of its trust and security team, researchers find that X had a growing problem with child exploitation on the platform. Additionally, X’s content policies protections removed for transgender users – including young trans people – on the X platform.

And, as for Musk himself, the owner of intervened personally in the past to reinstate the account of a far-right user who posted what Musk called “child exploitation photos” on X.