FOSTA Passes Senate, Making Prostitution Ads a Federal Crime
 

FOSTA - SESTA

FOSTA Passes Senate, Making Prostitution Ads a Federal Crime


The U.S. Senate just passed one of the worst bills in recent memory, the so-called "Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act" (FOSTA) that cleared the House of Representatives in late February.

This is the measure that would make online prostitution ads a federal crime and decimate Section 230, the federal provision shielding web publishers and platforms from legal liabilities for the things that users post. It's largely portrayed as a response to Backpage, but its reach goes far far beyond that.

Under FOSTA, attempts by a website to filter out bad content could lead to more legal liability. The only way for companies to stay safe may be to completely give up on content moderation.

And we haven't even touched on the damage FOSTA will do for sex workers, who will lose their ability to find and screen clients electronically making them more vulnerable to violence and exploitation. They will also lose the ability to warn each other about dangerous customers on sex-work message boards.

As Alana Massey noted recently at Allure, "these bills target websites that are widely and inaccurately believed to be hubs of sex-trafficking activity when it is precisely those websites that enable people in the sex trades to do their work safely and independently, at the same time as they make it easier for authorities to find and investigate possible sex-trafficking cases."

In a lengthy Senate floor speech on Monday, bill sponsor Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) told a series of whoppers about U.S. sex-trafficking, starting with an assertion that "there is a federal law that now permits sex-trafficking online."

There isn't. And when it comes to federal law enforcement, Section 230 doesn't even apply.

Without any changes to existing law, those who commit federal crimes such as sex-trafficking of children, sex-trafficking via force/fraud/coercion, knowingly advertising a victim of trafficking, paying for sex with someone under age 18, forced labor, debt bondage, and all sorts of related activities are fully prosecutable, and Section 230 has nothing to say about it.

In defense of his bill, Portman also cited an increase in the number of "sex-trafficking cases" reported to a national hotline run by Polaris Project—an entity that counts any call, text, or email as a "case" of sex-trafficking (even though the vast majority are simply requests for information or unsubstantiated "tips") and that has spent the past decade lobbying for state laws requiring all sorts of businesses to post their hotline number at their business for public display.

But the worst part of Portman's defense was this attempt at an argument:

Unbelievably, for years, these websites have gotten away with sex-trafficking because when parents...file a lawsuit for damages to try to stop what is going on, they are told: We are immune. When the prosecutors in these local communities step up and ask: "How could this illegal activity be going on? This is illegal to do on the street corners, certainly it is illegal to do online," the judges say: We are immune.

And yet, Portman isn't introducing legislation to hold the street corners—or the government entities who own them—accountable as sex traffickers when prostitution takes place there.

"In the absence of Section 230, the internet as we know it would shrivel," warned Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) from the Senate floor Wednesday. "Civic organizations protecting their right to free speech could be ruined by their more powerful political opponents" and "there would be an enormous chilling effect on speech in America." That's why big companies like Facebook like efforts like this to weaken it, Wyden added.

The measure will "make it harder, not easier, to root out and prosecute sex-traffickers," said Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), who voted no on FOSTA.



Elizabeth Nolan Brown
Reason Magazine

https://reason.com/blog/2018/03/21/s...afficking-bill

The U.S. Senate Just Passed a Bill That Puts Sex Workers In Danger

The SESTA-FOSTA bill makes website platforms liable for their users’ speech.

The internet just became a more hostile place for sex workers, victims of sex trafficking, and fans of internet freedom.

The U.S. Senate voted 97-2 to pass SESTA - FOSTA on Wednesday, making websites liable for what their users say and do on their platforms.

The bill is a mashup of the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA).

This bill punishes website platforms for users’ behavior—specifically, discussions of prostitution and sex trade—internet freedom groups have vocally opposed the language of the bill.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation called it a “win for censorship.”

Move this shit to the political category where it should go.

Yes. ADMIN.? I know you can delete shit. Can you move it?

Admin, oh Admin...

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Getting the finger from a banned member Libertine is not cool.

Oh, I thought it was a guilded Empire State building and a random bs Clint good humor pic. Ehhhh...you know Clint can't have much to say about FOSTA.

It's going to be all about slipping and sliding your way to good times SANS any negotiating or bear the consequences.

Wakey wakey!

reoccurring dream phallic symbol for you ?

"All elongated objects, such as a gilded Empire State Building, are comparable to an erection and stand for the male penis." ~ Sigmund Freud

Dude,
You're just monopolizing and consuming the available space with your BS we don't care about.
Y? We dont crap on ur lawn.