The House Energy and Commerce Committee is hard at work putting together a comprehensive package of legislation with the goal of improving the safety and well being of America’s children online. The final product is yet to be released, and while I don’t expect to agree with every individual piece of it, I share their goal and celebrate their commitment to good policy. As with any omnibus legislation, everyone is looking to get their legislation attached.
For example, Rep. Kat Cammack (R., Fla.) is looking to include her App Store regulation bill into the mix. There’s just one problem: the bill was originally written by socialist former Biden appointee and current Zohran Mamdani advisor Lina Khan, and it would make the internet a lot less safe for kids.
The App Store “Freedom” Act is a crony capitalism bill, not a child safety bill. So it’s a bit mystifying why it is being billed as such. The basic argument is that leading app stores have too much control over the environment they built and maintain, and therefore, app developers and users need more access to what’s under the hood. This means that users should be able to download restricted or unsafe apps directly onto their devices and that app developers need to have fewer restrictions placed upon them when accessing system-level data. Proponents think that will drive competition and that the corresponding security, privacy, and property rights concerns are worth the squeeze.
These changes would be a disaster for kids. For example, Apple’s App Store doesn’t allow apps with pornographic content in them. That means that each app developer is screened when they want to list their app on Apple’s platform. Congresswoman Cammack’s bill would force app stores to allow every user to download any app they wanted directly onto their phone, bypassing those secure ecosystems and safety protocols that keep kids safe. It also means that those “sideloaded” apps won’t be covered as effectively by other parental screening tools that devices and companies offer to help parents monitor their children’s internet use.
The App Store “Freedom” Act would, in the end, increase the likelihood of children engaging with harmful content, reduce parents’ access to the tools necessary to keep their kids safe, and empower scammers and predators to more effectively target children.
Lina Khan, before her disastrous tenure as Biden’s FTC Chair, and long before her new gig as a leading member of the New York City DSA politburo, was policy counsel for the House Judiciary Democrats subcommittee on antitrust. Her report, calling for an overhaul of American antitrust law in favor of a (now failing) European-style regulatory state, outlined six pieces of legislation that congressional Democrats would champion for the next few years. This progressive legislative agenda included what is now called the “App Store Freedom Act.” That effort would break against the bulwark of Republican House leaders like Chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) and his principled support of the free market.
Congresswoman Kat Cammack is a good member of Congress and a strong conservative. Something has gone very wrong that she is trying to get a socialist’s bill into a child safety package. Years of hard work by principled Republicans saw this legislation and much like it defeated. The politicians who championed these bills have either resigned from their positions or have left Congress, and the progressive antitrust movement is rudderless.
Now is the worst possible time for a Republican leader to give this progressive ideology aid, especially when the safety of American kids is at stake.
Zach Lilly is Director of Government Affairs at NetChoice, a trade association committed to keeping the internet safe for free enterprise and free expression. He has also served in the Commerce Department and as a policy adviser to former Rep. Dave Reichert (R., Wash.). Learn more at netchoice.org/keepyourphonesecure.
