Last-ditch pitch for social media bill may fall short

According to Donald Trump Jr., “It's time for House Republicans to pass the Kids Online Safety Act ASAP.”

Speaker Mike Johnson disagrees.

Johnson says he remains concerned that the Senate-passed bill, the first serious attempt by Congress to force social media companies to do more to protect kids online, “might lead to further censorship by the government of valid conservative voices” and that more negotiation was needed.

In other words, a Saturday offer from the principal GOP Senate sponsor, Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn, to make changes to the bill, combined with endorsements from Trump Jr. and Elon Musk, haven’t yet gotten Johnson on board.

But Johnson has softened his "no" a little, saying that if an agreement weren’t possible this year, Republicans could take up the measure again in 2025. “All of us, a hundred percent of us, support the principle behind it, but you've got to get this one right,” he said.

Why it matters: Blackburn’s bill would create a “duty of care” requiring social media firms to change design features that addict kids and allow unwanted contact from people they don’t know. Changes she offered over the weekend would limit the regulation of platform design so it only applies to personalized features, and also limit the duty of care to only harms that are related to features that stoke compulsive usage. She also emphasized that her new version does not allow the Federal Trade Commission or any other government entity to go after protected speech, another worry House Republicans have expressed.

But despite a lobbying campaign that also includes parents, advocacy groups, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and attorneys general in over 35 states, Johnson hasn’t relented.

The opponents of the legislation include unusual bedfellows: Facebook parent Meta, tech lobbying group NetChoice, and conservative and liberal groups concerned about speech, including Fight for the Future, the ACLU, and Patriot Voices, an advocacy group started by former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).

Johnson said that waiting till next year, when Republicans will have unified control of Congress and the White House, would speed negotiations. But that might effectively kill the bill.

Blackburn’s version passed the Senate as part of a two-bill package in a bipartisan 91-3 July vote.

But when the House Energy and Commerce Committee took up another version of the bill in September, the sponsor, Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), agreed to make changes requested by GOP leaders that proponents of the Senate bill said made it much weaker.

For example, Bilirakis changed the duty-of-care language so that it only applied to the physical health of minors. The surgeon general has found that social media poses a significant danger to kids’ mental health.

Tech industry opponents of the bill want to get rid of the duty-of-care language entirely, arguing it could force them to suppress content.

What’s next: Parents groups that support KOSA are demonstrating on Capitol Hill today, putting up a tree with presents bearing the names of children who the parents say died because of social media.

They are still hoping to convince lawmakers to attach KOSA to end-of-year spending legislation.

Jordain Carney contributed to this story.