Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Law Unintended Consequences

Dear Members and Advocates,

In 2017, Forbes Magazine featured an opinion piece titled, “The Well-Meaning ‘Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act’ Could Be A Trojan Horse”, which was written by Larry Magid. He began the article by stating, “It’s hard for me to argue about a proposed law called Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act. After all, I’m co-founder and CEO of ConnectSafely.org, an internet safety group, and have been active in child protection organizations for decades. But this proposed law, which has the support of several prominent Republican and Democratic senators, may have some unintended consequences both for tech companies and the very people the bill hopes to protect. “

Larry’s premonition came true a year later, as the legislature passed a new bill that imposed criminal liability on websites for actions/comments/posts from it’s users. In other words, classifieds sites, such as Craigslist could be hit with criminal liability for something one of its users posted. And the example isn’t a hypothetical. Earlier this month, the founder of Backpage.com was indicted on human trafficking charges. For years, people posted ads for sex services in Backpages’ classifieds services and by turning a blind eye to what its members were posting, they were arrested. Willing to take no chances, Craigslist immediately took down its personals section.

Now, nobody is for sex trafficking or would argue that it’s a good thing. But as Magid predicted, the government’s action is showing some immediate collateral consequences for those who the bill hoped to protect. Case in point; last week, a segment on NPR featured several sex workers who were talking about the demise of Craigslist personals and Backpage.com. For them (those who engage in sex work by choice), these internet portals got them off the street corners. Transactions could be handled online instead of out of seedy motels. There was a level of vetting and if something tragic did happen, there was an electronic trail to investigate. Sex workers no longer needed promoters or pimps.

These online sites made it safer for them. Law enforcement also used these sites to investigate actual sex trafficking. If you believe their press releases, the internet was an invaluable tool for them in rescuing trafficked women. That tool has now been taken away from them, making it more difficult to identify actual trafficking victims.

With the same sentiment as Magid alluded to in his article, it’s hard to argue against something that’s titled ‘stop enabling sex trafficking’ but when the laws harm so many more people than they help, you need to speak out. Take, for example; International Megan’s Law. When H.R. 4573 came out, who would argue against a law titled, “The International Megan’s Law to Prevent Demand for Child Sex Trafficking”? But now that we’ve had some experience living with this law, we see that the law is punishing far, far more individuals travelling for completely innocent purposes, than its protecting children being sex trafficked.

Take, for example the two heartbreaking stories we wrote about here. A daughter didn’t have her father at her wedding and the children have STILL not been reunited with their exiled father. What about those children? What about the thousands of individuals who need to travel for business (to support their families) or to visit sick relatives, who were turned away at their destination because the United States sent a warning to the receiving country? Even though only a very small fraction of people (sex offenders and non) might travel for illicit purposes, the overwhelming majority simply want or need to travel for perfectly legitimate purposes. The IML has broken apart families and made it impossible for individuals to attend to sick relatives or share in family celebrations, decades after they were punished for their crimes.

Tacking the word “sex trafficking” onto a bill has proven to be a Trojan horse for lawmakers to trick their colleagues into voting for anything, regardless of how untested, irrational, ineffective or expensive it might be. Dare I call it “good”, but the good thing about the recent prosecution of Backpage and Craigslist are that they are not targeting a disfavored, suppressed group. In 2014 Backpage.com earned $135 million and last year Craigslist took in over $690 million. Online media giants won’t stand for it and they have the resources that we don’t to hopefully fight these laws.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act insulated websites from their member’s posts. In 1996, it was touted as one of the most valuable tools for protecting freedom of expression and innovation on the Internet. That protection is in jeopardy today and its very unlikely online publishers will stand for it. Imagine if every time someone posted something threatening on another’s Facebook page, the FBI arrested Mark Zuckerberg. Or, if the feds would seek to shut down YouTube because some of the videos might be pirated content. It seems incredible, but that’s where we’re heading.

Whether it’s the ‘International Megan’s Law to Prevent Demand for Child Sex Trafficking’ (which became law in 2016),the ‘Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act’ (which became law in 2017) or the ‘Allow  States  and  Victims  to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act’ (which was signed into law this year), as government uses the term “sex trafficking” to pass more laws that throw out the baby with the bath water and create collateral consequences for people engaging in innocent activities, it is our hope that the large whales caught in their nets will fight back, creating some legal precedent to help us all.

Sincerely,

The Florida Action Committee

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