Molly Buckley

Legislative Analyst

Molly is a legislative analyst at EFF, primarily focused on the fight against online age verification and all of the censorship and surveillance that comes with it. Previously, Molly was a Legal Fellow on EFF's civil liberties team. Molly holds a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and a B.A. in media studies and political science from Vassar College.

Email Address:

mollybuckley@eff.org

Deeplinks Posts by Molly

Deeplinks Blog by Molly Buckley, Maddie Daly | December 31, 2025

Congress's Crusade to Age Gate the Internet: 2025 in Review
- Español
In the name of 'protecting kids online,' Congress pushed forward legislation this year that could have severely undermined our privacy and stifled free speech. These bills would have mandated invasive age-verification checks for everyone online—adults and kids alike—handing unprecedented control to tech companies and government authorities.Lawmakers from both sides of...
- Read more about Congress's Crusade to Age Gate the Internet: 2025 in Review
Deeplinks Blog by Molly Buckley | December 10, 2025

Age Verification Is Coming For the Internet. We Built You a Resource Hub to Fight Back.

Age verification laws are proliferating fast across the United States and around the world, creating a dangerous and confusing tangle of rules about what we’re all allowed to see and do online. That's why today, we're launching EFF.org/Age, a one-stop shop for users seeking to understand what these laws actually...
- Read more about Age Verification Is Coming For the Internet. We Built You a Resource Hub to Fight Back.
Deeplinks Blog by Molly Buckley | November 14, 2025

A Surveillance Mandate Disguised As Child Safety: Why the GUARD Act Won't Keep Us Safe

A new bill sponsored by Sen. Hawley (R-MO), Sen. Blumenthal (D-CT), Sen. Britt (R-AL), Sen. Warner (D-VA), and Sen. Murphy (D-CT) would require AI chatbots to verify all users’ ages, prohibit minors from using AI tools, and implement steep criminal penalties for chatbots that promote or solicit certain harms. That...
- Read more about A Surveillance Mandate Disguised As Child Safety: Why the GUARD Act Won't Keep Us Safe
Deeplinks Blog by Molly Buckley | October 3, 2025

#StopCensoringAbortion: What We Learned and Where We Go From Here

This is the tenth and final installment in a blog series documenting EFF's findings from the Stop Censoring Abortion campaign. You can read additional posts here. When we launched Stop Censoring Abortion, our goals were to understand how social media platforms were silencing abortion-related content, gather data...
- Read more about #StopCensoringAbortion: What We Learned and Where We Go From Here
Deeplinks Blog by Molly Buckley | October 1, 2025

Platforms Have Failed Us on Abortion Content. Here's How They Can Fix It.

This is the eighth installment in a blog series documenting EFF's findings from the Stop Censoring Abortion campaign. You can read additional posts here. In our Stop Censoring Abortion series, we’ve documented the many ways that reproductive rights advocates have faced arbitrary censorship on Meta platforms. Since...
- Read more about Platforms Have Failed Us on Abortion Content. Here's How They Can Fix It.
Deeplinks Blog by Molly Buckley | September 5, 2025

Age Verification Is A Windfall for Big Tech—And A Death Sentence For Smaller Platforms

If you live in Mississippi, you may have noticed that you are no longer able to log into your Bluesky or Dreamwidth accounts from within the state. That’s because, in a chilling early warning sign for the U.S., both social platforms decided to block all users in Mississippi from their...
- Read more about Age Verification Is A Windfall for Big Tech—And A Death Sentence For Smaller Platforms
Deeplinks Blog by Molly Buckley | August 8, 2025

Americans, Be Warned: Lessons From Reddit’s Chaotic UK Age Verification Rollout
- Español
Now that the Online Safety Act has gone into effect, countless problems have begun to reveal themselves, and the absurd, disastrous outcome illustrates why we must work to avoid this age-verified future at all costs.
- Read more about Americans, Be Warned: Lessons From Reddit’s Chaotic UK Age Verification Rollout
Deeplinks Blog by Molly Buckley | December 31, 2024

Fighting Online ID Mandates: 2024 In Review

This year, nearly half of U.S. states passed laws imposing age verification requirements on online platforms. Though age verification mandates are often touted as “online safety” measures for kids, the laws actually do more harm than good.
- Read more about Fighting Online ID Mandates: 2024 In Review
Deeplinks Blog by Jason Kelley, Molly Buckley | December 12, 2024

X's Last-Minute Update to the Kids Online Safety Act Still Fails to Protect Kids—or Adults—Online

Late last week, the Senate released yet another version of the Kids Online Safety Act, written, reportedly, with the assistance of X CEO Linda Yaccarino in a flawed attempt to address the critical free speech issues inherent in the bill. This last minute draft remains, at its core, an unconstitutional...
- Read more about X's Last-Minute Update to the Kids Online Safety Act Still Fails to Protect Kids—or Adults—Online
Deeplinks Blog by Molly Buckley | October 4, 2024

EFF to Fifth Circuit: Age Verification Laws Will Hurt More Than They Help

EFF, along with the ACLU and the ACLU of Mississippi, filed an amicus brief on Thursday asking a federal appellate court to continue to block Mississippi’s HB 1126—a bill that imposes age verification mandates on social media services across the internet.
- Read more about EFF to Fifth Circuit: Age Verification Laws Will Hurt More Than They Help