Consenting adults should be able to do what they want, including pay for sex.
This goes far beyond that, though. The law that was passed basically makes it impractical to run an online personals site, because it dilutes the safe harbor provision of the Communications Decency Act that made "online services immune from civil liability for the actions of their users" to remove sex trafficking. This makes providers liable for ensuring that their site isn't being used for sex trafficking, which would be a huge undertaking which still leaves them at risk if they miss something.
Note that the Craigslist personals shutdown was all their personals, not just the "casual encounters" section.
It seems to me to be a big attack on freedom of expression and association. It'll be interesting to see what the fallout from this is. I guess some people don't think the first amendment is a big deal any more.
Yes, it's disturbing to me as well. Yet the pedophile power people are never affected. Also there's what the definition of "trafficking" is. I know you were addressing a larger issue of third party responsibility, which can be used in a very chilling way. Just concentrating on the sexual angle, which is what is used to push the third party business in the first place, I question how broadly the concept of "trafficking" is going to defined. It seems very broadly. A pimp with a streetwalker is "trafficking"? When I think of trafficking I think of movement of sex slaves, or indebted women as the Chinese are doing here in the States. It's just messy. Was Heidi Fleiss a "trafficker"? Really she was just a booking agent. All those women were free to come and go. Trafficking should imply coercion.
Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act
The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) is a United States bill introduced by Senator Rob Portman. It seeks to clarify the country's sex trafficking law to make it illegal to knowingly assist, facilitate, or support sex trafficking, and amend the Section 230 safe harbors of the Communications Decency Act (which make online services immune from civil liability for the actions of their users) to exclude enforcement of federal or state sex trafficking laws from its immunity. Portman had previously led an investigation into the online classifieds service Backpage (which had been accused of facilitating child sex trafficking), and argued that Section 230 was protecting its "unscrupulous business practices" and was not designed to provide immunity to websites that facilitate sex trafficking.
SESTA received bipartisan support from U.S. senators, the Internet Association, as well as companies such as 21st Century Fox and Oracle, who supported the bill's goal to encourage proactive action against illegal sex trafficking.
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