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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 Azuma Hazuki on Saturday December 30 2017, @04:10AM (2 children)
All the women (and the men, this happens to men too!) who suffered from this and survived that I've met told me their johns were getting off on the power differential. I still see this. The latest exhibit was some asshole who fucking posted his location data at some brothel with the status "Finally, someplace where women can't complain about being sexually harassed on the job!"
These are not good people.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:08PM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday December 30 2017, @08:18PM
You aren't wrong, but personally I think it should be limited to things done solo behind a webcam. There's too much danger inherent in close contact like that, and most men are overwhelmingly more powerful physically than most women. This may be a good niche for teledildonic peripherals, interestingly...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...