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from the looking-for-love-in-all-the-wrong-places dept.
Amazon and Microsoft employees caught up in sex trafficking sting
The tech industry has a clear history of sexism and misogyny, but a recent Newsweek report highlights another problem. The publication got its hands on a slew of emails sent to brothels and pimps between 2014 and 2016 that document the industry's patronage of brothels and purchasing of services from trafficked sex workers. Among the emails, which were obtained through a public records request to the King County Prosecutor's Office, were 67 sent from Microsoft employee email accounts, 63 from Amazon accounts and dozens more from companies like Boeing, T-Mobile, Oracle and local Seattle tech firms.
Some of the emails were collected during a 2015 sting operation that targeted sex worker review boards and resulted in the arrest of 18 individuals, including high-level Amazon and Microsoft directors. Two opted for a trial, which is currently set to begin in March.
Seattle's sex industry has grown right alongside its tech industry and the city's authorities have said that some men spend up to $50,000 per year on sex workers. Brothels are even known to advertise how close they are to tech offices. Alex Trouteaud, director of policy and research at the anti-trafficking organization Demand Abolition, told Newsweek that the tech industry is a "culture that has readily embraced trafficking."
Newsweek: Tech Bros Bought Sex Trafficking Victims by Using Amazon and Microsoft Work Emails
Related: "Pimping" Charges Against Backpage Executives Dismissed
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday December 28 2017, @02:00AM
In this case, male dominated tech industry. Put a bunch of girls in it and productivity will plummet.
Personally I think that's bullshit, but even if it isn't, what's the problem? What is the tech industry doing these days that's so great anyway? Making a bunch of stupid, useless cellphone apps and web pages with horrible flat UIs? There's still a few small sectors here and there that are doing pretty cool stuff, like SpaceX, but overall it's just a bunch of wasted effort on reinventing the wheel, poorly. UIs, after all, hit their peaks between 2005-2010, and have been going straight downhill ever since.