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DOJ Lets Cops Know SESTA/FOSTA Is For Shutting Down Websites, Not Busting Sex Traffickers
[SESTA/FOSTA] is in force and all it's doing is hurting efforts to track down sex traffickers and harming sex workers whose protections were already minimal. Sex traffickers, however, don't appear to be bothered by the new law. But that's because the law wasn't written to target sex traffickers, as a top DOJ official made clear at a law enforcement conference on child exploitation. Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan's comments make it clear SESTA/FOSTA won't be used to dismantle criminal organizations and rescue victims of sex traffickers. It's there to give the government easy wins over websites while sex traffickers continue unmolested.
In April, Backpage.com – the internet's leading forum to advertise child prostitution – was seized and shut down, thanks to the collective action by CEOS and our federal and state partners. The Backpage website was a criminal haven where sex traffickers marketed their young victims. The Backpage takedown – and the contemporaneous arrests of individuals allegedly responsible for administering the site – struck a monumental blow against child sex traffickers.
But other sites inevitably will seek to fill the void left by Backpage, and we must be vigilant in bringing those criminals to justice as well. With the recent passage of the SESTA-FOSTA legislation, state and local prosecutors are now positioned to more effectively prosecute criminals that host online sex trafficking markets that victimize our children.
"Criminals" that "host sex trafficking markets." That's the target. That's any website that might be used by actual sex traffickers to engage in actual sex trafficking. There's no dedicated web service for sex trafficking -- at least not out in the open where Section 230 immunity used to matter. This is all about taking down websites for hosting any content perceived as sex trafficking-related. It wasn't enough to hang Backpage and its execs. The government will be scanning sites for this content and then targeting the website for content posted by third parties it seems mostly uninterested in pursuing.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Monday June 18 2018, @02:31AM (5 children)
1. The bill's Senate sponsor, Rob Portman of Ohio, made a big deal about support for the bill coming from faith-based organizations.
2. Some of its biggest advocacy groups, such as Shared Hope International [sharedhope.org] and Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition [ffcoalition.com], are explicitly Christian organizations.
I'm perfectly fine with religious beliefs existing. Heck, I have some religious beliefs myself. The problem here is that the religious beliefs in question are leading to government regulation that appears to stop casual sex (which harms basically nobody but is seen as a serious problem by Bible-thumpers) rather than actually stopping sex trafficking (which is a heinous crime that harms millions of people worldwide). And the bi-partisan set of legislators who overwhelmingly voted for it knew full well that's what was going on.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @02:51AM
The real problem is that this law is blatantly unconstitutional since it violates free speech rights. If our courts actually did their job - which I'm not entirely sure they will - they would throw this law out as soon as it's challenged.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 18 2018, @04:15AM (2 children)
So, basically, we have a power grab, bipartisan in nature, and one of the righties points to support from a couple of Christian groups? Said Christian groups are more than balanced by corporate interests, right? And, who gains power - the Christian tools, or the corporate interests? I can see that a whole bunch of tools, religious or not, might be suckered in by "think of the children" arguments. But, don't blame Christians for being tools any more than you might blame ignorant lefties for being suckered in. Over and over, I see that support was bipartisan. Lefties and righties alike fell for the power grab.
Bottom line, gubbermint is willing to ignore the constitution, because they like POWER. Prostitutes have traditionally been ready victims of those in power, and those in power have been terribly upset that prostitutes had the audacity to move up in the world. Religion doesn't really fit into the story.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @09:59AM
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/03/how-fosta-will-get-hollywood-filters-theyve-long-wanted [eff.org]
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday June 18 2018, @02:57PM
Part of the reasoning behind the power grab was "Are you in favor of this, or do you support sex trafficking?" The brave congresscritter that can stand up to that is rare.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @03:21PM
"Heck, I have some religious beliefs myself. "
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In other words you are a dumb shit.
You are immediately disqualified from all discussions.
Do not breed, the world doesn't need any more proles like you.