#189: Fighting Online Sex Trafficking

Tech Policy Podcast

TechFreedom

Technology

4.8 • 45 Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2017

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Recently, Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) introduced the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA). The bill is gaining co-sponsors and support on both sides of the aisle, and virtually everyone agrees that sex trafficking is a very real problem that Congress needs to address. But the bill is also getting pushback from voices across the spectrum, including right- and left-leaning civil society groups and tech companies big and small. Supporters of SESTA argue that long-standing intermediary liability protections for web platforms are enabling sex trafficking, citing the website Backpage.com, whose founders knowingly profited from and facilitated sex crimes. Critics of SESTA caution that the safe harbor in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is a bedrock of Internet freedom, and warn that the bill would actually undermine cooperation between law enforcement and tech companies. Evan discusses with TechFreedom’s Berin Szoka and Ashkhen Kazaryan. For more, see our coalition letter.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tech Policy Podcast. I'm Evan Schwarger.
0:11.5	On today's show, our internet platforms enabling sex trafficking.
0:15.8	Some in Congress seem to think so.
0:17.6	And recently, a couple of members of Congress introduced the Stop Enabling
0:22.7	Sex Traffickers Act of 2017. Now, of course, this is definitely something our government
0:28.1	should be focusing on. Sex trafficking is a terrible crime. But what does this bill have to do with
0:33.0	the internet and tech policy? And could this actually backfire? Will the bill have its intended effect?
0:39.0	And what types of consequences might we see for the internet broadly?
0:43.5	Joining me to discuss this is Tech Freedom President Baran Soka, an affiliated fellow at Tech
0:48.2	Freedom, Ash Kazarian.
0:49.9	Gentlemen and Lady, thanks for joining.
0:51.8	Thank you for having me back.
0:53.8	So what is motivating Congress to get into this issue right now?
0:58.6	Ash, can you kind of describe what's going on with the website Backpage?
1:02.2	Now, for listeners that don't know what Backpage is because they use Craigslist,
1:05.8	Backpage is essentially the other Craigslist.
1:08.5	Now, Craigslist made a decision a while back to get out of the
1:12.3	prostitution business, to be blunt, having ads that directly advertise sex services. Backpage
1:19.2	did not get out of that business, and now they might be regretting that decision. But, Ash,
1:24.5	what happened with this website and why is Congress so focused on Backpage.com?
1:29.1	So Backpage.com is the other version of Craigslist, but most of their revenues come from
1:34.5	prostitution ads and some sex trafficking ads. There have been multiple cases where victims
	...

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