FSC Asks Members to Submit Questions in Advance of Leadership Conference

Free Speech Coalition is asking members to submit questions they want addressed by outside tech and legal experts, prior to the FSC’s inaugural Leadership Conference on January 18th.

FSC, in partnership with XBIZ, will bring representatives from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), and law firms Taylor Wessing and Baker Hostetler to the conference to address how adult businesses will be impacted by new age-verification requirements in the UK, privacy laws in the EU, and net neutrality and SESTA legislation in the US.

“We face major challenges to the survival of adult businesses in 2018,” said Eric Paul Leue, Executive Director of FSC. “New regulations and legislation in the US, EU and UK could result in blanket bans, major fines and possible criminal liabilities. Unfortunately, many in our industry are still largely unaware of the danger posed — it’s time to sound the alarm.”

Companies that fail to comply with new, stringent age-verification laws will be locked out of the UK market later this year, and new data privacy laws in the EU will result in massive fines for companies that do not better secure user data, no matter where they are located. In the US, the repeal of net neutrality may presage a wave of corporate censorship, and the now-likely passage of SESTA and FOSTA could leave legal adult businesses vulnerable to federal charges.

“Because the issues are so complex, and the risk of non-compliance so high, we are bringing in legal scholars, leading technologists and locally based experts to discuss how these changes will affect adult businesses,” said Leue. “In order to make these sessions as effective and tailored as possible, we’re asking our members to submit questions on these topics in advance.”

Information about the individual issues, and bios about the panelists and speakers, can be found here. Questions can be submitted via the FSC’s online form.

FSC members who have not yet RSVP’d for the limited seating conference may do so by requesting tickets through this form. If you have any questions regarding the conference, please email [email protected]