Blackburn Urges Push on House Bill to Deter Online Sex Trafficking

The House should move forward with legislation to combat online sex trafficking, Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said at a Thursday hearing on a House bill to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Congress is confronting the “very ugly subject” of sex trafficking and “driving toward effective action,” Blackburn said. She's committed to finding the right legislative solution that gives victims "adequate recourse" (see 1711290052). Ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., hopes legislation can soon be marked up and go to the floor for a vote, a move officials told us is likely early next year.

The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) is a “gold standard,” said HR 1865's sponsor, Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., because it would allow victims to pursue civil cases under federal and state law, give more power to states and localities to prohibit sex trafficking, and make it illegal for websites to post information that promotes sex trafficking. Wagner's bill has 171 co-sponsors. She supports a similar Senate bill, but said Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act S-1693 isn’t the “future-oriented solution.” Wagner is working with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and talking to relevant stakeholders about potential amendments to her bill, a Judiciary Committee spokeswoman said.

Wagner told the subcommittee the bill is her “top priority,” and would give victims legal recourse against attackers. “Congress cannot pass a bill that amends Section 230 but is so narrow that it could only be used to prosecute Backpage.com,” an online ad website under investigation for aiding sex trafficking (see 1711290031), Wagner said. The Senate version is picking up momentum (see 1711060064), with 50 co-sponsors, most recently Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Christopher Coons, D-Del., and John Thune, R-S.D. Wagner said SESTA "is not the full solution,” advocating "for a bill that conveys robust state and local criminal enforcement.”

The tech industry has some reservations about the bills, though it supports the underlying goals. “There are solutions that we can implement that will punish sex traffickers but still allow the Internet to be a model for economic and social freedom,” said a statement from NetChoice General Counsel Carl Szabo. These include creating new criminal codes that directly attack the problem of online sex trafficking at the source and instituting mandatory sentencing and guaranteeing victim restitution, he said. DOJ should bring criminal cases against known bad actors and engage state attorneys general to combat the problem, Szabo said. "Because the hearing included no industry witnesses, the committee unfortunately did not hear from the technology sector experts working on the front line to combat trafficking,” said Matt Schruers, vice president-Computer & Communications Industry Association.

Successful prosecution of online entities aiding sex trafficking is elusive due to immunity for “interactive computer services,” including ISPs and online platforms that publish third-party content, the subcommittee majority staff hearing memo said. The Section 230 law giving online services immunity for third-party content helped build innovation and freedom of expression, but inadvertently provided cover for online sex traffickers, the memo said.

An overly broad interpretation of 230 by courts “created virtually absolute immunity for online entities,” said Yiota Souras, senior vice president-National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “The law must do more to protect the vulnerable,” said Lisa Thompson, vice president-National Center on Sexual Exploitation. “Amend the Communications Decency Act.”

Technology often “compounds, exposes and illuminates the victimization and violence,” said Derri Smith, CEO of End Slavery Tennessee. Sex trafficking is “enabled through emerging communications technologies, said Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Russ Winkler. Congress should adopt a legal structure “that ensures that law enforcement can access the digital evidence we need to keep the public safe,” he said.

Allowing state-by-state variations in anti-online sex-trafficking laws would create a “dilemma” for online services, said Santa Clara University High Tech Law Institute Director Eric Goldman. Congress can bolster Section 230 by ensuring online services face “only a single federal standard of liability,” basing liability on a site’s “intent to facilitate illegal activities" and protecting sites from being penalized for taking actions to stop sex trafficking, Goldman said.