A sex worker review website has blocked U.S. users in anticipation of the Stop Enabling Sex-Trafficking Act (SESTA) coming into effect. U.S.-based users can still access it with a VPN, while all visitors are asked to "not access TER from a Prohibited Country":
A website that hosts customer reviews of sex workers has started blocking Internet users in the United States because of forthcoming changes in US law. Congress recently passed the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act bill (SESTA), and President Trump is expected to sign it into law. SESTA will make it easier to prosecute websites that host third-party content that promotes or facilitates prostitution, even in cases when the sex workers aren't victims of trafficking.
After Congress approved the bill, Craigslist removed its "Personals" section and Reddit removed some sex-related subreddits. The Erotic Review (TER) has followed suit by blocking any user who appears to be visiting the website from the United States. "As a result of this new law, TER has made the difficult decision to block access to the website from the United States until such time as the courts have enjoined enforcement of the law, the law has been repealed or amended, or TER has found a way to sufficiently address any legal concerns created by the new law," the website's home page says in a notice to anyone who accesses the site from a US location.
[...] SESTA was inspired largely by the existence of Backpage. But federal law enforcement authorities were able to shut Backpage down last week, even though SESTA hasn't been signed into law yet. Trump may sign the bill this week. [...] Some sex workers have spoken out against SESTA, saying that websites can help sex workers screen clients and avoid dangerous situations. A group called Survivors Against SESTA says the new law "will cause harm to vulnerable populations engaging in the sex trade without helping trafficking victims."
Previously: U.S. Congress Passes SESTA/FOSTA Law
Craigslist Removes Personals Sections in the U.S.
FBI Seizes backpage.com and Affiliates
Related Stories
In Passing SESTA/FOSTA, Lawmakers Failed to Separate Their Good Intentions from Bad Law
The U.S. Senate just voted 97-2 to pass the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA, H.R. 1865), a bill that silences online speech by forcing Internet platforms to censor their users. As lobbyists and members of Congress applaud themselves for enacting a law tackling the problem of trafficking, let's be clear: Congress just made trafficking victims less safe, not more.
The version of FOSTA that just passed the Senate combined an earlier version of FOSTA (what we call FOSTA 2.0) with the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA, S. 1693). The history of SESTA/FOSTA—a bad bill that turned into a worse bill and then was rushed through votes in both houses of Congress—is a story about Congress' failure to see that its good intentions can result in bad law. It's a story of Congress' failure to listen to the constituents who'd be most affected by the laws it passed. It's also the story of some players in the tech sector choosing to settle for compromises and half-wins that will put ordinary people in danger.
[...] Throughout the SESTA/FOSTA debate, the bills' proponents provided little to no evidence that increased platform liability would do anything to reduce trafficking. On the other hand, the bills' opponents have presented a great deal of evidence that shutting down platforms where sexual services are advertised exposes trafficking victims to more danger.
Freedom Network USA—the largest national network of organizations working to reduce trafficking in their communities—spoke out early to express grave concerns [.pdf] that removing sexual ads from the Internet would also remove the best chance trafficking victims had of being found and helped by organizations like theirs as well as law enforcement agencies.
In response to the passage of the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), Craigslist has removed Personals sections for U.S. users:
Classified advertising website Craigslist has closed its dating ads section in the US, in response to a new bill against sex trafficking.
The bill states that websites can now be punished for "facilitating" prostitution and sex trafficking.
Ads promoting prostitution and child sexual abuse have previously been posted in the "personals" section of Craigslist.
The company said keeping the section open in the US was too much of a risk.
In a statement, Craigslist said the new law would "subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully".
Reddit also took the opportunity to ban a number of subreddits (list not exhaustive), including some like /r/escorts, but many more broadly related to "transactions for goods and services".
Also at Ars Technica and The Verge.
Notorious website backpage.com has been seized according to NY Daily News.
Sex ads platform Backpage.com was seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Friday hours after its founder's Phoenix home was raided.
Visitors to the site landed on a notice from the federal government announcing its seizure.
"Backpage.com and affiliated websites have been seized as part of an enforcement action by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, with analytical assistance from the Joint Regional Intelligence Center," the announcement read.
Founder's home also raided by the FBI Friday morning.
U.S. Government Seizes backpage.com
The FBI, Justice Department, and other agencies have seized backpage.com, and one of the co-founders had their home raided:
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @05:29PM (7 children)
This will succeed by driving things more underground. Once it is not so visible, authorities can pretend the problem has been solved! A win for all concerned (expect the actual victims).
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday April 11 2018, @05:40PM
Silly me used to think that street walkers at the traffic light, and reports of back-alley assaults, were more visible than the online-to-hotel-room option.
That wasn't double-plus-good thinking.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday April 11 2018, @05:55PM (2 children)
As I said in a previous story on this subject, it's an election year. And, the social conservatives are the incumbents. So, expect more hypocritical and selective crackdowns on "sinful" things-- the drugs, sex, rock and roll, and violent video games. The crackdown will be more severe on darker skinned peoples, of course. But not guns, no crackdown there, no sir!
(Score: 3, Informative) by JNCF on Wednesday April 11 2018, @07:52PM (1 child)
Your post is pretty spot on, until the end. I wish the end was correct, but it isn't. This very year Trump made it clear that he wants police to be able to seize firearms without first going through due process. Whether or not that goes through is a matter of bureaucracy, but he signalled that he likes the idea.
"Take the guns first, go through due process second." [c-span.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Grishnakh on Thursday April 12 2018, @01:33AM
Anti-gun people should be very happy about this, because this means that the pro-gun conservatives will now also believe the police should be able to seize guns on a whim, because Trump thinks so. The conservatives (esp. the evangelicals) will readily change their opinions to line up with Trump's. Maybe that's all part of the plan: Trump courts these backwards people, gets them where they'll excuse anything about him that normally would disagree with their morals, and now he just has to slowly "evolve" (like the proverbial frog in a boiling pot) to make this portion of the population change their opinions. Just wait; by the end of his first term he'll have them agreeing to gun control, and by the end of his second term he'll have them agreeing with abortion and business taxes on churches.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @06:05PM (2 children)
I think you've missed it.
This is the camel's nose in the tent. It's easy to go after sex traffickers, but the precedent they're establishing is that web site operators can be held liable for what their users post. This establishes that web sites are not common carriers. A precedent that will exist in a very Supreme Court sense of the word once this law gets challenged. It's so convenient our judicial branch has a de-facto veto over anything inconvenient amended to the constitution like the bill of rights!
Next they'll come after the fake news. And why not? Who needs lizard person and weather war conspiracies involving delicious cheez pizza clogging up their Failbook and TwitFace feed? I think we can all agree that we don't want fake news.
Wait a little while for what they really want to do, which is shut down websites for carrying oppositional reporting. Doubleplusgood if they arrest the operators. They were just a bunch of filthy, anti-American communists anyway.
Then they'll come after Soylent, and there will be nobody left to speak up for a bunch of smelly dorks!
Well, not really. We're smelly dorks, so we'll just mosey over to a darknet and keep having our pointless flamewars. Or they'll just realize that all we do is have pointless flamewars and Soylent will be fine.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JNCF on Wednesday April 11 2018, @08:13PM
Five years ago, "Area 51" was still fake news. [theatlantic.com] Don't agree with the government reported numbers of civilian casualties in Iraq? You're fake news, liar. The fake news umbrella can stretch over any inconvenient leaks and statistics they wish it to, effectively allowing censorship of any dissenters who cite non-approved facts without even requiring an escalation past that point. Fake news might as well be the end game.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Thursday April 12 2018, @01:36AM
Wait a little while for what they really want to do, which is shut down websites for carrying oppositional reporting. Doubleplusgood if they arrest the operators. They were just a bunch of filthy, anti-American communists anyway.
Then they'll come after Soylent, and there will be nobody left to speak up for a bunch of smelly dorks!
I really don't see the problem here. If you don't like the laws or liability in a certain country, then you host your website in a different country that doesn't have these problems. It's not like the US is going to set up a "great firewall" any time soon and block these sites. Just don't be dumb and make it obvious you're running the site that's hosted offshore.
(Score: 2, Funny) by looorg on Wednesday April 11 2018, @08:19PM
So it's a site dedicated to rating subjective experiences in your encounters with hookers? Cause they are all just like fucking-machines that will perform the same over and over again and everyone likes the same things? Some kind of hooker-YELP? "Great blowjob, got supergonorrea, would not recommend!"
That said is there a YELP effect or similar in this case? Do people actually look up their hooker before going? Oh I see here that BillyBobSuperCock69 rated her two thumbs up, must try her now! I guess perhaps it works for escorts that you order. But still as with most reviews a highly subjective experience most likely.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday April 11 2018, @10:04PM
Sometimes, I wonder if Soylent doesn't need some better polls.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @10:29PM (5 children)
http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/police-officer-sacked-after-advertising-himself-as-sex-worker-online/news-story/eae3b38d1173dd7ffe5849086d336acb [news.com.au]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday April 12 2018, @04:06AM (4 children)
Woman charged after boy, 14, paid her $480 for sex at Florida hotel, police say [ajc.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @05:36PM (3 children)
Unless of course she somehow was really bad at it ( I mean he's 14 years old, shouldn't take that much to please him ;) ).
Boy probably "borrowed" $480 from his dad and that's how his dad found out...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @05:57PM (2 children)
Would you deem it rape if it was a male teacher and a female student instead?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @06:07PM
Statutory rape is an arbitrarily defined false concept and equality says that girls should be as emotionally prepared as boys for sex, so it's not rape. At worst, it's a life lesson and hands-on sex ed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @03:32AM
If you were a farmer thousands of years ago back when a family farm couldn't reliably feed that much more than the family and not many others; AND before reliable contraception it would be a big deal if your daughter got pregnant when some unknown male seduced her and ran off. You have to take care of someone else's genes, which might be fine if you approved of the guy and he helped take of your daughter and the baby. But in this case he ran off...
Whereas if some unknown female seduced your son, ran off and gave birth to your grandkid, you win- someone else is paying to reproduce your genes.
(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday April 12 2018, @12:55AM
Craigslist is also blocking connections from known vpns (well, from NordVPN at least). I also suspect Citibank and Chase are doing something similar. We know that Google is effectively blocking tor. It's coming...
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edinlinux on Thursday April 12 2018, @04:32AM (2 children)
There are additional changes at Craigslist, they have removed the 'theraputic' (massages) category in the USA.
As well, (it seems, though I need to do more testing), that posts originating from the USA to the 'personals' sections for countries outside the US (get 'auto flagged for deletion', but reposting the exact same ad again with an IP from outside the USA works..)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Thursday April 12 2018, @04:46AM (1 child)
Interesting that they are using IP geoblocking when the site is already divided by locale. The fear is real.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @05:46AM
sort of like living in the United States of China... that is what this is becoming..