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I was around for the #FostaSesta fight a few years ago, and saw how it played out. So let's remember that history now because #SISEA is terrifying. THREAD:
FOSTA-SESTA (short for the Fight Online Sex-Trafficking Act and the Stop Enabling Sex-Traffickers Act) was ostensibly created to curb sex trafficking.
Specifically, supporters of the bill said they were trying to target companies that facilitate underage children who have been forced into sex-work against their will (the phrase “child sex slavery” was used frequently).
However, the final language of the bill removed references to coerced labor were mostly removed, replaced with language that governs prostitution – failing to differentiate between non-consensual and consensual sex between two adults
Because the bills focus on “facilitation” of prostitution by poking holes in Section 230 (so now website publishers are responsible for the content their users post), not only have many websites that sex workers have relied on...
...to safely screen potential clients have been shut down, but also many websites that were purely educational and meant to help people be safe have also closed out of fear that the sweeping language of “facilitation” could be used against them.
In other words, the “problem” the law actually designed to "fix"—despite the messaging surrounding it—was to relabel all pornography as “sexual exploitation,” and sex work that happens in-person as “trafficking.”
Thanks to Fosta-Sesta, more sex workers were forced onto the street, where they are exposed to far higher dangers then when these workers were able to safely screen clients online.
If the language we're heading now around #SISEA sounds familiar, it's because it's nothing new. Advocates for Fosta-Sesta, led by Sen. Portman, leveraged emotions around human trafficking, in one speech he said...
...“…every single Senator needs to be engaged and involved in this because this is an outrage that this is happening in this country, in this century. It’s a stain on our national character. We can make a difference here.”
But it should come as no surprise that the covert objective was targeting sex workers. Fosta-Sesta was not about protecting human rights so much as playing the conservative Christian Right (just like #SISEA today)
Shortly after Fosta-Sesta passed in 2018, it's supporters claimed 90% of online sex-trafficking ads were shut down. But the Washington Post showed that was crap. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/08/20/has-sex-trafficking-law-eliminated-percent-sex-trafficking-ads/?utm_term=.10756826245a
In San Francisco, cops actually reported a 170%(!!!) INCREASE in human trafficking since the passage of FOSTA-SESTA. https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/02/03/new-laws-forced-sex-workers-back-on-sf-streets-caused-170-spike-in-human-trafficking/
The result of Fosta-Sesta was the mainstream websites which used to be open for sex-workers to screen clientele, like Backpage & Cityvibe were shut down outright, while other sites altered terms of service or eliminated particular services to ban sex-workers from their platforms
"The immediate impact was swift and, honestly, terrifying. We watched people [lose] any bit of autonomy they had. We watched people wind up homeless overnight. We watched members of our community disappear." https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/anti-sex-trafficking-advocates-say-new-law-cripples-efforts-to-save-victims-629081/
Sex work is never going away. Sex work has always been and will always be. What #SISEA will do is strip safety and protections from sex workers, just like FOSTA-SESTA did.
Also, shout out to @acvalens who is also putting out helpful stuff on this BS. https://twitter.com/acvalens/status/1340338322326106112?s=19
THIS IS NOT AND NEVER HAS BEEN about trafficking. #SISEA is ONLY an effort to make life miserable and more dangerous for sex workers, and it will succeed in that if passed.
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Mama still needs to buy some Christmas presents for my kid. $MistressThorns
Mama still needs to buy some Christmas presents for my kid. $MistressThorns
