{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2025/12/technology/video-blackburn-calls-on-congress-to-pass-senate-version-of-kosa-following-latest-meta-scandal", "VIDEO: Blackburn Calls on Congress to Pass Senate Version of KOSA Following Latest Meta Scandal", "2025-12-03", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "Senate", "TN", "Marsha Blackburn", "B001243", "www.blackburn.senate.gov", "blackburn", "https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/news/cc8c80c1-d564-4bbb-93a4-f1d772346ae0", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) delivered remarks on the Senate floor calling on Congress to pass the Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act, which currently has a veto-proof majority of 69 co-sponsors. Earlier this week, Senator Blackburn penned an op-ed in TIME following new reporting that revealed sex trafficking on Meta platforms was both difficult to report and widely tolerated.\n\nClick hereto download Senator Blackburn\u2019s remarks on the Senate floor.\n\nREMARKS AS PREPARED\n\nIt\u2019s No Secret Big Tech Has Sold Out Kids\u2019 Safety for Profit\n\nWe have known for years that Big Tech has sold out children\u2019s safety online for profit.\n\nTheir algorithms connect children with drug dealers and flood their feeds with pro-suicide content.\n\nTheir AI chatbots sexualize children in roleplaying fantasies.\n\nTheir design features allow children to share their precise, real-time location on a map with anyone, including predators eager to track them down.\n\nTheir entire profit model depends on addicting children to their products\u2014no matter the consequences.\n\nAnd every day, we learn more about this appalling abuse.\n\nNew Court Filings Reveal Meta Had \u201c17x Strike\u201d Policy for Individuals Who Engaged in Sex Trafficking\n\nA recent brief filed by more than 1,800 plaintiffs, including parents and children, shows how Meta knowingly exposed children to unthinkable harms.\n\nAccording to the brief, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, conducted internal studies showing that social media addiction among minors fuels anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and suicidal thoughts.\n\nBut when those findings surfaced, Meta buried the research and misled Congress about the results.\n\nAs a matter of policy, Meta allegedly refused to remove individuals who engaged in sex trafficking on its platforms until users reported the offender at least 17 times.\n\nEven when the company detected child sexual abuse material with \u201c100% confidence,\u201d Meta often failed to remove the content.\n\nAn internal audit even showed that the company knowingly connected minors with potential predators through its algorithmic follow recommendations.\n\nOn a single day in 2022, it made such recommendations 1.4 million times.\n\nSenate Version of KOSA Would Finally Require Big Tech to Take Responsibility for How Platforms Are Designed\n\nOne thing should be clear: Big Tech companies cannot be trusted to make their platforms safe by design because meaningful safety measures would cut into their bottom line.\n\nThat\u2019s why Congress must step up and ensure that these companies finally face accountability for the harm they have inflicted on an entire generation of children.\n\nEarlier this year, I reintroduced the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act, which would ensure children are afforded the same protections from harm in the virtual world that they have in the physical world.\n\nThe Senate\u2019s version of KOSA would establish a clear duty of care for online platforms to prevent their algorithms from pushing dangers on minors, including sexual abuse, illicit drugs, and the promotion of suicide and eating disorders.\n\nThis duty of care is critical: Requiring Big Tech companies to take responsibility for making their own products safer is essential to protecting kids and giving parents peace of mind.\n\nIt\u2019s a big reason why this legislation has gained a veto-proof majority with 69 co-sponsors here in the Senate.\n\nBlackburn Makes the Case for the Duty of Care\n\nLast week, our colleagues in the House released a discussion draft of a new version of KOSA that would strip this duty of care.\n\nWhile our colleagues in the House have not yet formally introduced this weaker version of KOSA, it\u2019s important to note the difference in language.\n\nWith the Senate version, social media platforms would be required to \u201cexercise reasonable care in the creation and implementation of any design feature to prevent and mitigate \u2026 harms to minors where a reasonable and prudent person would agree that such harms were reasonably foreseeable.\u201d\n\nWith the House version, platforms would only be required to \u201cestablish, implement, maintain, and enforce reasonable policies, practices, and procedures that address\u201d such harms.\n\nWithout the duty of care to prevent foreseeable harms, this new requirement is completely unenforceable.That\u2019s not all. The House version weakens the standard to prove that Big Tech companies have knowledge of harms on their platforms. This would empower executives to bury their heads in the sand to avoid any accountability.\n\nWhile the Senate version only preempts state laws, rules, or regulations that \u201cconflict\u201d with its provisions, the House version would wipe out any state law that \u201crelates to\u201d the provisions of the bill\u2014even if they don\u2019t conflict.\n\nThis would do nothing to protect children online. It would only protect Big Tech from facing accountability.\n\nThe Senate version of KOSA would ensure that Big Tech Companies can\u2019t design their platforms to prey on our children for profit. We must preserve the duty of care and send this landmark legislation to President Trump\u2019s desk as soon as possible.\n\nFuture generations of American children and families are depending on us to rein in Big Tech. Failure is not an option.\n\nRELATED\n\nICYMI in TIME: Blackburn Makes Case for KOSA Following Latest Allegations Against Meta", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2025/12/technology/video-blackburn-calls-on-congress-to-pass-senate-version-of-kosa-following-latest-meta-scandal"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9001903235912323, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}