Tech Groups, CDT Criticize Anti-Sex Trafficking Bill

A handful of tech groups asked House lawmakers to delay considering “rushed” anti-sex trafficking legislation, slated for a vote Monday, arguing the law would ultimately harm victims. The Center for Democracy & Technology also criticized the bill, claiming it would “substantially expand” legal risks of hosting online speech, resulting in broad censorship. Lawmakers have an agreement (see 1802220043) for amending the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (HR-1865) to include language from the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (S-1693). The House bill has 174 co-sponsors. TechFreedom, Engine, FreedomWorks, Citizens Outreach, R Street Institute and the Committee for Justice wrote a letter calling SESTA’s language unworkable and warned against simply merging the two bills on the House floor. “Any new legislation should empower prosecutors and compensate victims without inadvertently discouraging responsible websites from helping to combat sex trafficking,” the groups wrote. TechFreedom released a separate statement Friday, again saying the legislation, as merged, would harm, not help, trafficking victims. SESTA would “upset a balance carefully struck by Congress in 1996 to ensure that the fear of liability does not discourage responsible websites from assisting in the fight against trafficking,” TechFreedom said. CDT’s Free Expression Project Director Emma Llansó said Thursday the reconciled bill combines the most expansive parts of SESTA and FOSTA, creating a “mashup of overlapping forms of federal and state criminal and civil liability for internet intermediaries.” Llansó said the legal risks from the new law could potentially put small firms out of business after one infraction, jeopardizing classified ad sites, dating apps, social media platforms and other hosts of user-generated content. “By including SESTA's expansion of existing federal anti-trafficking law, which links liability to knowledge of specific content, the House bill will actually discourage some platforms from engaging in good-faith moderation efforts,” CDT said. CTA President Gary Shapiro said Friday that “moving forward on a House vote without having a legislative hearing on the impact of the SESTA language is ill-advised.”