How 'sex trafficking' just opened the censorship floodgates (Engadget)

Read the full article by Violet Blue on Endagnet.com 

FOSTA-SESTA's opponents include the National Organization for Women, the ACLU, EFF, the Center for Democracy & Technology, national sex work right orgs, sex workers of all stripes, AIDS United, sex trafficking victims' rights groups, a variety of tech groups, and more -- including the Department of Justice.

In the trenches of sex trafficking and its unwilling cellmate, sex work, there's no doubt this is going to make everything much worse. Those who spoke with In Justice Today said that "the legislation stands to do more harm than good by failing to distinguish between trafficking victims and sex workers, eliminating sex workers' source of income, and hampering anti-trafficking investigations."

"Allowing internet platforms on which sexual services are brokered to thrive may be key to apprehending traffickers and recovering victims," wrote legal scholar Ariel Levy in a 2017 paper on sex commerce online. The paper concludes recommending against censoring and shuttering sex-commerce spaces, finding that laws and algorithms which do so only push the activity underground, where it's difficult for law enforcement to monitor.

The Department of Justice agrees. The DoJ sent a last-minute letter to lawmakers early this week saying FOSTA-SESTA is probably unconstitutional and will make finding and prosecuting sex traffickers more difficult.