FOSTA-SESTA: An Unclear Law
FOSTA-SESTA: Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) are the U.S. Senate and House bills that became law on April 11, 2018.
The goal of FOSTA-SESTA, according to Hacking/Hustling, was “to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to clarify that section 230 of such Act does not prohibit the enforcement against providers and users of interactive computer services of Federal and State criminal and civil law relating to sexual exploitation of children or sex trafficking, and for other purposes.”
Read more about the bills here:
🔗 PUBLIC LAW 115–164—APR. 11, 2018
🔗 H.R.1865 - Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017
🔗 S.1693 - Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act of 2017
So what does that mean and where is the creation of these acts coming from?
Turns out, in the late ’90s and early ’00s, websites like Craigslist, CityVibe, NightShift and Backpage.com expanded the opportunity for online sex work. Meaning, sex workers could interact with clients worldwide and clients could have access to these services without leaving home.
“It allowed some sex workers to strike out on their own, instead of having
to work with exploitative pimps or agencies; and sex workers could connect
with one another, allowing them to build online communities and begin
articulating some of their shared interests and problems.”
— Liz Tung, health and science reporter, for Wider Horizons for You and Yours (WHYY)
Initially, this seemed like a win for sex workers. But unfortunately, it also opened the door for human trafficking. In the pursuit of doing something about it, “FOSTA-SESTA creates an exception to Section 230 that means website publishers would be responsible if third parties are found to be posting ads for prostitution — including consensual sex work — on their platforms.”
This incriminated sex work, since there is no clear distinction in the bill between sex work and sex trafficking. Thus, sex workers are also liable for posting their work online. Hacking/Hustling claims that “while the bill creates liability for those websites for ‘knowingly facilitating sex trafficking,’ there is not clarity for what that means. It also allows more people to file civil suits against websites.”
Outside of the sex work industry, we might experience the effects of FOSTA-SESTA when social media platforms ban certain types of content. While the bills aim to “clarify the country's sex trafficking law to make it illegal to knowingly assist, facilitate, or support sex trafficking,” they could also have negative effects for sex educators and sex-positive content creators all around the world.
The implementation of FOSTA-SESTA suddenly left a lot of sex workers without a quick, accesible form of communication between themselves and/or their clients. Workers have seen an impact on income and “more than 70% say FOSTA-SESTA has affected their financial situation negatively.” Additionally, many sex wokers reported losing their online network of support, which allowed them to be safer and make more knowledgeable decisions when taking in a client.
“As a result, a number of sex workers have been forced to return to street prostitution, work with agencies or pimps, or try and make up the difference with other jobs.” This implies that, by not being able to use online platforms to sell their work, sex workers face increased risks that range from financial ones up to health and safety-related ones.
“So a lot of them have had to return to work that doesn’t cater to their disability
or it doesn’t allow them to take time off, which just causes more flare-ups and
more health issues for them.”
— Researcher and Former Sex Worker Ariel Wolfwriter as quoted on WHYY
Although human trafficking is unacceptable and there should be laws to ensure it doesn’t occur, FOSTA-SESTA has created new problems through its lack of conceptual clarity; problems that deeply affect an already vulnerable part of the population. Whether or not sex workers have freely chosen to be there, the burden of societal stigma speaks for itself—in this case, through our public policies.
