On Wednesday, the Senate passed the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA). This law revokes the complete immunity for websites and apps which knowingly enable and profit from sex trafficking that these sites had previously enjoyed under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). The House passed the bill in February and President Donald Trump has indicated he will sign it. While the law should be common sense, its passage required overcoming a sustained lobbying campaign by tech giants like Microsoft and Google. Rather than oppose the legislation out in the open, they worked behind the scenes to surreptitiously kill the bills by funding third parties to do their dirty work for them.
When the Internet Association (which represents Microsoft, Google and most other tech giants) opposed the bill last September, it qualified that “criminal actors and facilitators of human trafficking – including rogue operators like Backpage.com” should be held responsible. The Association argued it supported the law’s aims, but it was too vague and could create a slippery slope.
However, the bill only became necessary because tech titans helped protect Backpage from liability. Superficially, Backpage is a general classified ad site. Its design and categories mirror Craigslist. However, in practice, it makes 93% of its revenue from “adult services.” When sex trafficking victims and local law enforcement have tried to hold Backpage responsible for enabling child prostitution on its site, the courts have held that the CDA’s Section 230 gives online platforms like Backpage immunity for everything posted on their sites. – READ MORE
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