Today, with the President’s signing of H.R. 1865, the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, also known as FOSTA-SESTA, anti-trafficking advocates and survivors of sex trafficking and their families celebrate this long awaited progress in the effort to combat online sex trafficking. Today’s bill signing comes days after federal agencies seized Backpage.com—a website that the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations reported is knowingly facilitating child sex trafficking—and charged seven Backpage executives in a 93-count indictment. With FOSTA-SESTA signed into law, state prosecutors can prevent similar websites from taking over Backpage’s market share and courtroom doors have been opened to trafficking survivors who seek to hold exploitative websites civilly liable. These concurrent efforts by federal law enforcement, Congress and the President are drastically changing the landscape that, until now, has allowed the sex trafficking industry to thrive.

As anti-trafficking advocates and sex trafficking survivors have argued throughout the process of passing FOSTA-SESTA, the long term impact of civil and state criminal liability for Backpage and other websites that employ a Backpage “business model” is to limit the online marketplace for sex trafficking victims. As the federal government investigates and prosecutes Backpage for its role in facilitating sex trafficking, FOSTA-SESTA will enable state prosecutors to respond when smaller websites begin to employ the same business model. Just as the majority of human trafficking prosecutions occur at the state level, this legislation will enable a more agile, prompt response to similar websites, addressing the problem before the scale of exploitation matches the harm caused by Backpage.

Recent criticisms of FOSTA-SESTA and the Backpage seizure claim these efforts harm trafficking survivors who post ads on Backpage and similar sites for commercial sex. However, these criticisms fail to recognize the inherent harm that commercially sexually exploited individuals face every day—whether survivors are bought and sold online or on the street, they face rates of violence that dwarf the potential for violence faced by most other sectors of the population.[1] Research on the commercial sex industry and survivor accounts demonstrate how the majority of individuals sold for sex are under the control of a trafficker or pimp who often receives the money survivors earn from commercial sex transactions.[2]

The reality is that online advertisements do not insulate victims of sex trafficking from the harm of being sold, purchased and raped; conversely, online advertisements facilitate the violence. Online platforms, like Backpage, that facilitate access to marginalized individuals do not provide them protection from the harms inherent in the commercial sex trade.[3] Instead, an unchecked platform like Backpage heightens the risk of violence at the hands of sex buyers. Rarely do sex trafficking survivors have choices in their exploitation, no less sufficient autonomy to use Backpage as a tool to protect themselves from their trafficker or their buyers.[4] Thus, providing perpetrators with an easy, anonymous and relatively unmonitored means to sell and purchase survivors for sex creates more opportunities for them to face the risk of violence.

We look forward to a changed landscape that not only holds websites like Backpage accountable, but shifts our national dialogue about the exploitation of vulnerable individuals. Indeed, recognizing the harm caused by online platforms as facilitators of trafficking and exploitation is a critical step in shifting the broader narrative to recognize the scope of exploitation that occurs in the commercial sex industry. Through these efforts, the perception of online platforms as benign, passive tools for connecting consenting adults is a veil that has been lifted to expose the violent reality of the commercial sex industry. Lifting this veil should also shift the focus of anti-prostitution efforts from the most vulnerable and marginalized—those selling sexual services, often to survive—to focus instead on the perpetrators and drivers of this exploitative industry—the sex buyers, facilitators and pimps who exploit and profit from the vulnerability of those whose lack of choice traps them in the commercial sex industry.

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[1] Michael Shively et al., ABT Assoc., Inc., Developing a National Action Plan for Eliminating Sex Trafficking 5–6 (2010) (discussing research showing that 95% percent of trafficked women and girls internationally are physically abused, 59% are sexually abused and prostituted persons have mortality rates 200% higher than their peers) available at http://multco.us/sites/default/files/documents/developing_a_final_action_plan_to_eliminate_sex_trafficking.pdf.

[2] Melissa Farley et al., Online Prostitution and Trafficking, 77 Albany Law Rev., 104 (2014).

[3] Id. at 104 (“You are not safer because you work indoors. Craigslist is just the “internet streets,” where the same predators and hustlers are meeting you with the same intentions except they look like straight people who go to medical school and have Blackberrys. I consider myself in the same risk and danger zones as a street worker. I am an upper working class anonymous client worker.”) (quoting Marikopassion, An Outlaw’s Insurance Policy, Bound, not Gagged (Mar. 7, 2010), http://deepthroated.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/an-outlaws-insurance-policy/.).

[4] Alisa Bernard, The Smoke Screen That’s Obscuring the Voices of Survivors—Why We Must Amend the CDA (“In reality, a result of the now internet facilitated sex trade is the intentional disappearing of both victims and traffickers….Identification of victims and perpetrators has become practically impossible.”) available at: https://sharedhope.org/2017/10/smoke-screen/.

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In many ways this is a continuation of a long fight against online facilitation of sex trafficking which goes back more than a decade. In 2007, Shared Hope International’s (SHI) Center for Justice & Advocacy, produced one of the first research reports documenting websites’ role in facilitating the crime of sex trafficking. After studying the sex buying markets of Jamaica, The Netherlands, United States and Japan, Shared Hope found that “Technology has become the single greatest facilitator of the commercial sex trade.”  Additionally, the study found that in 2007, “In both the Netherlands and the United States, commercial sex services and the victims providing those services are advertised extensively over the Internet, with a simple search of English language websites advertising escort services yielding 2.2 million results on Google.”

This research was submitted to the Congressional Record in 2010 when Shared Hope International founder and president, former Congresswoman Linda Smith, testified alongside Ernie Allen, then President of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, about the proliferation of child sex trafficking in the United States and the internet’s role in contributing to the growth of this crime. Ten years after Shared Hope completed its 2007 research, the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations produced a groundbreaking report following 2 years of investigation and including data provided by Shared Hope and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, that found that the website Backpage.com had been knowingly facilitating child sex trafficking.

The legislation passed this week is the culmination of over a decade research and work by Congress, NGOs and survivors to reign in bad actors online. Awakening to the harmful effect of website facilitation and technological proliferation of sex trafficking, Congress has prioritized the voices of survivors calling for protection from violence.  As prostitution survivor, Alisa Bernard, stated in her compelling blog, “Online prostitution is not glamorous and it is not safer than street prostitution. The violence endemic to prostitution is not somehow mitigated by the internet. One study stated that violence is perpetrated predominantly by buyers regardless of venue of solicitation. The internet has normalized the buying of sex down to a negligible transaction.”

Such normalization of exploitation must end and the historic step taken by Congress this week will help to ensure that protecting exploited individuals, not profits, becomes the new normal.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Susanna Bean | Susanna@sharedhope.org

Shared Hope International is an international anti-trafficking organization focusing on prevention, restoration and justice for victims of sex trafficking. Linda Smith, served as a state legislator and Member of Congress from Washington State (1983-1998), and is the author of Renting Lacy (2009). She founded Shared Hope in 1998. Shared Hope’s Center for Justice & Advocacy leads state and federal legal reforms to advance protections for child sex trafficking victims with specific focus on amending the Communications Decency Act to restore survivors’ access to justice, eliminating laws that criminalize child sex trafficking victims for the crimes committed against them and ensuring that child sex trafficking victims receive the treatment and services they are entitled to as victims of a violent crime.

MEDIA MATERIALS:

For media convenience, a variety of resources are available at www.sharedhope.org/press.

WASHINGTON, D.C., Today the Senate passed H.R. 1865, the FOSTA-SESTA package, which provides access to justice for survivors of online sex trafficking and gives states critical tools for combatting this crime. This is a historic step by the US legislature to recognize the rights of victims by ensuring that websites who knowingly facilitate the sale of sex trafficking victims can be held responsible for their role in the crime.

This bill, now heading to the President’s desk, addresses the reality that sex trafficking is exploding online, finding haven in online classifieds that provide a platform to facilitate sex trafficking. Despite knowingly facilitating this crime these websites were permitted to hide behind an outdated and misinterpreted provision of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). Section 230 of the CDA was never intended to protect entities that facilitate sex trafficking and yet, courts repeatedly interpreted Section 230 as providing blanket immunity for online entities, including online entities that knowingly facilitate sex trafficking. In ruling against victims of sex trafficking who attempted to hold Backpage.com civilly liable for knowingly facilitating sex trafficking, courts pointed to the need for Congress to address this injustice through a legislative solution. The growing problem of online sex trafficking is not a new concern. Shared Hope International, in 2007, after researching sex trafficking markets in Jamaica, The Netherlands, United States and Japan, found that “Technology has become the single greatest facilitator of the commercial sex trade.”  In the intervening 11 years, the prevalence of sex trafficking online has virtually exploded.

Linda Smith, President and Founder of Shared Hope International, commented today on the meaning of this historic vote, “This is a step many of us have been working on for years. For close to a decade, research has increasingly shown the need to focus on technology as a facilitator of the crime of sex trafficking. Today Congress recognized this fact, and put survivors first. Survivors will now have legal recourse to pursue justice against online bad actors like Backpage.com.” Shared Hope is deeply appreciative of the legislators who championed this effort, including Senators Portman and Blumenthal for their strong leadership in the Senate joined by a team of bi-partisan original co-sponsors including Senators Cornyn, McCaskill, Heitcamp, Klobuchar and McCain, and for the tireless leadership of Representatives Wagner, Beatty, Maloney, McMorris Rogers and Walters in the House. Shared Hope also thanks Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy for ensuring this critical advancement in protections for sex trafficking survivors was able to move forward to the House and Senate floor for an overwhelming vote in both chambers. We also thank the 68 Senate co-sponsors and 174 House co-sponsors who heard the voices of advocates and survivors and gave this bill the momentum that carried it to passage. Shared Hope is also immensely appreciative of the partnership of advocates and survivors whose collective voices have enabled this legislation to overcome hurdle after hurdle and reach the President’s desk.

With Congress’ passage of the FOSTA-SESTA package today, Shared Hope International looks forward to this bill being quickly signed into law, opening the door to victims’ access to justice and enabling states to utilize their laws to combat the scourge of online sex trafficking. As the only NGO working in every state to end child sex trafficking through legal reform, Shared Hope International now looks forward to working with the states to ensure the strength of their laws aligns with the critical new tools provided by this historic legislation.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Susanna Bean | Susanna@sharedhope.org

Shared Hope International is an international anti-trafficking organization focusing on prevention, restoration and justice for victims of sex trafficking. Linda Smith, served as a state legislator and Member of Congress from Washington State (1983-1998), and is the author of Renting Lacy (2009). She founded Shared Hope in 1998. Shared Hope’s Center for Justice & Advocacy leads state and federal legal reforms to advance protections for child sex trafficking victims with specific focus on amending the Communications Decency Act to restore survivors’ access to justice, eliminating laws that criminalize child sex trafficking victims for the crimes committed against them and ensuring that child sex trafficking victims receive the treatment and services they are entitled to as victims of a violent crime.

MEDIA MATERIALS:

For media convenience, a variety of resources are available at www.sharedhope.org/press.