LGBTQ, well being teams see divide on digital safety invoice

EDC, which represents about 40 teams, says the invoice would assist stop minors from being topic to harmful algorithms broadcasting damaging suggestions or movies selling consuming issues, that are among the many deadliest behavioral well being issues.

Nonetheless, probably together with the invoice in a spending package deal has sparked criticism from some LGBTQ advocacy teams who argue that it could have ramifications for queer youth and reproductive well being.

A greater than 90-member coalition together with Battle for the Future, GLAAD, Advocates for Youth and the American Civil Liberties Union despatched an open letter on Nov. 28 to Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee leaders and Majority Chief Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., saying the invoice is just too imprecise. They wrote that social media firms may use it to censor entry to training sources, and it may lead to extra surveillance for age verification and unintentionally out LGBTQ youth who might not have a supportive residence atmosphere.

The coalition additionally worries that it may have an effect on entry to reproductive well being info and that know-how firms might undertake broad, uniform insurance policies nationwide due to assorted and altering abortion legal guidelines.

If an organization is frightened about authorized motion after it shows details about accessing an abortion to a minor in Texas, the place the process is usually banned, they are saying, then they might err on the facet of warning and restrict all these posts to minors from different states.