X CEO Linda Yaccarino recently announced her part in revising the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a digital censorship bill that would force social networks to moderate specific content that is deemed harmful and inappropriate for children, something critics have said opens the pathway for broader implementation of digital IDs for things such as age verification – which is something X owner Elon Musk has previously indicated that he seeks to turn the platform into something that emulates China’s all-in-one WeChat app, which the Chinese government uses to enforce their social credit score surveillance system.
For context: the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) provided a critical overview of what KOSA – which was passed by the U.S. Senate in July – entails, writing:
The bill allows the Federal Trade Commission to sue apps and websites that don’t take measures to “prevent and mitigate” various harms to minors, including anxiety, depression, substance use, and eating disorders. Mitigating such harms is worthwhile, but KOSA doesn’t do the job. KOSA is an unconstitutional censorship bill that gives the FTC, and potentially state Attorneys General, the power to restrict protected online speech they find objectionable.
KOSA will stifle online speech. Apps and websites will have to comply with a vague and overbroad provision demanding that they prevent “harm to minors” in all “design features.” Because they could be liable for content public officials believe causes anxiety, depression, “compulsive use,” or other alleged harms to minors, the provision incentivizes censorship. For example, some elected officials claim information about LGBTQ+ life is harmful to children and already have bannedbooks to that end. Other officials might target information about sports or hobbies they believe are dangerous. They could also target news and political commentary on social media, if they believe it causes anxiety or depression.
Platforms will respond to KOSA’s vague new liability standard, written into the bill as a “duty of care,” by censoring users’ lawful speech on topics that government officials deem harmful under the law. KOSA is ambiguous enough that different administrations could censor content all along the political spectrum, from guns to vaccines to transgender issues to abortion.
KOSA will also result in online services imposing age-verification systems to prevent minors from having the same access to content as adults. These systems require everyone—adults and minors—to verify their age. All age verification systems burden the rights of adults to read, get information, and speak and browse online anonymously.
Collecting ID online is fundamentally different—and more dangerous—than in-person ID checks in the physical world. Online ID checks are not just a momentary display: They require adults to upload data-rich, government-issued identifying documents, and create a potentially lasting record of their visit.
Consumer-focused, comprehensive federal privacy laws would protect young people without infringing on the First Amendment rights of everyone who uses the internet. Stronger competition laws would open the field and force platforms to innovate, offering more user choice for parents and teens.
Since its passage in both the Senate and eventually Congress, the bill has undergone a “resolving differences” phase to iron out some of the issues that have been raised in regard to free speech and will need to pass once again.
Last week, the Senate released a draft of the updated bill that apparently was framed in-part with the aid of X CEO Linda Yaccarino. Musk appointed her CEO of X last year. Yaccarino was in charge of NBC Universal’s Advertising Sales business and is “Chairman of the WEF’s Taskforce on Future of Work and sits on the WEF’s Media, Entertainment and Culture Industry Governors Steering Committee. She is also highly engaged with the Value in Media initiative,” according to her LinkedIn profile.
In an attempt to reportedly woo some GOP members, the latest last-minute bill is meant to address some of the free speech issues that are inherent in the text of the legislation.
On December 7th, Yaccarino explained X’s involvement with framing the bill:
When X testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last January, we committed to working with Congress on child safety legislation. We’ve heard the pleas of parents and youth advocates who seek sensible guardrails across online platforms, and the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) addresses that need. After working with the bill authors, I’m proud to share that we’ve made progress to further protect freedom of speech while maintaining safety for minors online.
EFF reported that only one sentence to the section on what classifies as “duty of care” is meant. “Nothing in this section shall be construed to allow a government entity to enforce subsection a [the duty of care] based upon the viewpoint of users expressed by or through any speech, expression, or information protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,” the new sentence states.
Writing for EFF, Jason Kelley and Molly Buckley explain how this still effectively changes nothing:
But the viewpoint of users was never impacted by KOSA’s duty of care in the first place. The duty of care is a duty imposed on platforms, not users. Platforms must mitigate the harms listed in the bill, not users, and the platform’s ability to share users’ views is what’s at risk—not the ability of users to express those views. Adding that the bill doesn’t impose liability based on user expression doesn’t change how the bill would be interpreted or enforced. The FTC could still hold a platform liable for the speech it contains.
Let’s say, for example, that a covered platform like reddit hosts a forum created and maintained by users for discussion of overcoming eating disorders. Even though the speech contained in that forum is entirely legal, often helpful, and possibly even life-saving, the FTC could still hold reddit liable for violating the duty of care by allowing young people to view it. The same could be true of a Facebook group about LGBTQ issues, or for a post about drug use that X showed a user through its algorithm. If a platform’s defense were that this information is protected expression, the FTC could simply say that they aren’t enforcing it based on the expression of any individual viewpoint, but based on the fact that the platform allowed a design feature—a subreddit, Facebook group, or algorithm—to distribute that expression to minors. It’s a superfluous carveout for user speech and expression that KOSA never penalized in the first place, but which the platform would still be penalized for distributing.
It’s particularly disappointing that those in charge of X—likely a covered platform under the law—had any role in writing this language, as the authors have failed to grasp the world of difference between immunizing individual expression, and protecting their own platform from the liability that KOSA would place on it.
Other definitions added to the bill do not help to clarify matters either, such as defining what exactly “compulsive usage” means. The latest definition reads: “a persistent and repetitive use of a covered platform that significantly impacts one or more major life activities, including socializing, sleeping, eating, learning, reading, concentrating, communicating, or working.” This definition is still too vague and broad, and defined parameters are not listed in the bill either.
The bill’s original cosponsors, Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Martha Blackburn (R-TN), said in a joint statement, reported by Reclaim The Net, ‘dismissed objections to the bill as a “false narrative” that it “would be weaponized by unelected bureaucrats to censor Americans.” However the mechanism for ensuring compliance—age verification—remains a central concern. Platforms would likely be forced to implement digital ID systems, raising alarms about surveillance, data breaches, and a chilling effect on online expression.’
X To Mimic WeChat
X and Yaccarino’s involvement with KOSA speaks to Elon Musk’s desire to transform X into an all-in-one app that emulates China’s WeChat platform, which combines digital identification, banking, social media and other items in one place, which in turn is then used by the Chinese government to enforce its social credit score system.
After rebranding social media platform Twitter simply as X, Musk revealed last year that X would become the next iteration of an all-in-one app platform that can facilitate social media, public and private documentation, banking and financial services, and a plethora of other things.
Musk wrote in a X post on July 24th, writing:
Twitter was acquired by X Corp both to ensure freedom of speech and as an accelerant for X, the everything app. This is not simply a company renaming itself, but doing the same thing.
The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like birds tweeting – but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video.
In the months to come, we will add comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world. The Twitter name does not make sense in that context, so we must bid adieu to the bird.
That same week Musk Watcher.Guru reported that X would become more like China’s WeChat, and that “X would become half of the global financial system,” he said, “if done right,” he clarified. Musk also noted that it will be done in a way that most people do not think of when it comes to banking, but the “most efficient database for thing that is money,” he explained.
On the same day, Yaccarino also posted:
X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.
For years, fans and critics alike have pushed Twitter to dream bigger, to innovate faster, and to fulfill our great potential. X will do that and more. We’ve already started to see X take shape over the past 8 months through our rapid feature launches, but we’re just getting started.
On May 16th, 2022, Musk was a guest on the All-In Podcast where the hosts discussed a variety of topics, though mostly centered on technology, including his thoughts on Twitter – well before his recent purchase of the company.
During the podcast, Musk was asked about his thoughts on the Chinese-based app WeChat, and if Musk would consider making Twitter more like WeChat. He had this to say:
For those that have used WeChat – WeChat’s actually a good model. If you’re in China you kind of live on WeChat: it does everything.
It’s sorta like Twitter, plus PayPal, plus a whole bunch of other things, and all roll into one with actually a great interface, and it’s really an excellent app.
And we don’t have anything like that outside of China.
Such an app would be really useful.[…] But I think this thing really needs to exist whether it is converting Twitter to be [like] an all-encompassing app, […] or start something new […], but it does need to happen somehow.
This is not the last time, however, Musk considered overhauling Twitter and making it more like WeChat.
One month prior, he appeared in another interview courtesy of The Kilowatts, where Musk joked about how he would literally just copy and paste the WeChat framework, and then sit back and watch the profits roll in.
We don’t even have an app that’s as good as WeChat in China – you can live on WeChat, basically.
WeChat is kickass, and we don’t have anything like WeChat outside of China.
My idea would be like: ‘how about if we just copy WeChat?’ Copy them!
But for those unfamiliar with WeChat, it is a primary tool the Communist regime in China keeps tabs on its people. As Musk alluded to, the Chinese live on this app – from chatting, transactions, gaming, medical features, swapping recipes, you name it – and so therefore, the government uses it to strengthen their surveillance state.
In July, the India-based outlet Wion did a succinct story on how the Chinese government weaponizes this app against its people.
“Authorities are increasingly using the app to justify arrests or issue threats,” the host said.
The government-funded parent company Tencent designed and implemented the health rating system for the app. This same tool was heavily used as a contact tracing app for Covid-19 cases and recovery. It also doubled as a vaccine passport, where Chinese would have to scan a unique QR code to enter venues and locations wherever they went.
Not surprisingly, the government heavily censored what the people could view on the app, namely concerning Covid, and the government regularly bans accounts for discussing what is going on with lockdowns, vaccines, cases, and so on.
After their accounts are [blocked], user’s say the police come and question them.
The problem is the app is so crucial for existence in China, that users cannot even give it up. Wion noted
Nations like the United States and India have already banned the use of the app, reportedly because of censorship and encryption concerns.
In a separate report by Wion, the outlet noted that after Musk purchased Twitter he posted a tweet that said,
Buying Twitter is like an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
I have repeatedly said a number of times that Musk is so obviously one of the greatest examples of a technocratic satanist, who is not one of the good guys, one of the “white hats” controlled-opposition pundits in “alt” media and those on the perceived Right posit that he is a friend of free speech. Total lies and fallacies. The cult of Elon still blows my mind. What, because this dork posts dank memes you think he’s your friend?!
1 Corinthians 14:20 Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
David Knight recently cited my report on tokenization, and he immediately drew a connection to Musk’s X and his desire to have X be the penultimate financial facilitator in the U.S.
Whether this happens exactly that way or not remains to be seen, but what it does demonstrate, as I detailed in my report on tokenization, is that Musk is being used as a pied piper, along with Trump and others in this regard, to beguile the ignorant masses into accepting digital bondage: get the masses to bemoan the “Left’s” censorship, but run to embrace the “Right’s” censorship, hidden behind the guise of voter IDs and proof of citizenship to separate illegals from registered taxpayers.
Proverbs 4:24 Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. [25] Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. [26] Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. [27] Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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