Editor’s note: Big Tent Ideas always aims to provide balancing perspectives on the hottest issues of the day. Below is a column from Taylor Millard, where he argues that the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) will allow dangerous federal overreach under the guise of protecting children’s safety. You can find a counterpoint here, where Tori Hirsch argues that KOSA is necessary and that comparisons to Europe’s regime are misplaced and overblown.

Recently, in the UK, news emerged that the author of a nasty tweet alleged to have incited racial hatred—but which read to many people as a steroid-infused version of “get stuffed”—was given a 31-month sentence for her post.

Meanwhile, a fiercely-fought presidential election played out in Romania, with the right-wing candidate losing out and accusing the French of interfering to deprive him of a victory.

According to the founder and owner of Telegram, before the election, the French government asked the app to “silence conservative voices in Romania.” Despite the French government previously having arrested him apparently over a failure to remove content it wanted gone, Telegram flatly refused to play ball, arguing that “You can’t ‘defend democracy’ by destroying democracy. You can’t ‘fight election interference’ by interfering with elections. You either have freedom of speech and fair elections — or you don’t.”

That’s a sentiment that many US conservatives share. However, some Republican lawmakers seem to be taking their cues from the Europeans where online speech is concerned. They are pushing legislation that would stifle expression that apps, not governments, should determine whether or not to host, relying entirely on their own constitutionally-guaranteed right to freedom of association.