Tell Senators with Bluesky accounts what you think about KOSA and other bad internet bills

With the Senate Commerce Committee markup this Wednesday, now's a great time to contact your Senators - on the phone or by email, and also on social networks. And a lot of Senators have accounts on Bluesky. Hmm ...

View post on Bluesky

Tagging or replying to legislators on social networks doesn't replace contacting them through official channels. Phone calls and emails count for more, and there's no guarantee they'll read all the posts. Still, it's a useful complement. Senators (or more accurately somebody in their comms team) typically track the number of interactions with their accounts and run sentiment analysis, so they'll notice if they start getting a lot of comments about bad internet bills. And these posts are public, so other people might see them and join in as well.

Tynan Purdy's post tagging Senators Warren and Markey of Massachusetts is a great example of one way to do it. It emphasizes a key point that undercuts industry's spin, and includes the magic words "as your constituent". Whether or not the Senators' staffers actually take the time to watch the video, others might find it useful (as I certainly did). And it creates an opportunity for other people in Massachusetts to reply, and either reemphasize Tynan's point or bring up other problems with the bill.

View post on Bluesky

This post from Washington Privacy Organizers, replying to a post from Senator Maria Cantwell about Pride month, has more specific asks. As the Ranking Member (most senior Democrat) on the Commerce committee, she has a lot of influence on what happens next, on this and other bills. So it's worth trying to highlight how bad her support of this anti-LGBTQIA2S+ bill makes her look. And KOSA's not the only bill they're marking up, so it also mentions the SCREEN Act.

The easiest way to find your Senators is by searching on Bluesky, Blacksky, mu.social, or whatever app you use. Official accounts are on senate.gov; many also have individual accounts. There are probably some parody accounts floating around, so double-check to make sure the "verified" mark is there.

And if you join in on a thread like these – or start a similar one up on your own – make sure to mention it when you call the Senators' offices on Monday or Tuesday. If staffers start to get a handful of calls mentioning discussions on Bluesky, it increases the likelihood they'll take the feedback into account.