DOJ Finally Uses FOSTA, Over Two Years Later... To Shut Down A Site Used By Sex Workers
from the worth-it? dept
For years leading up to the passage of FOSTA, we were told that Congress had to pass the law as quickly as possible because so many women were "at risk" due to trafficking. And when asked for evidence of this, people would point to Backpage, even though the site had shut down its "adult" section under pressure from Congress a year earlier. Of course, the actual stats that were provided turned out to be fake and Backpage was seized before the law was even passed. The charges against the founders did not include sex trafficking charges. Also, as the details have come out about Backpage, it's become evident that rather than facilitating sex trafficking, the company was actively working with law enforcement to find and arrest sex traffickers. However, where they started to push back on law enforcement was when law enforcement wanted to go after non-trafficked sex workers.
However, with all of the moral panic around the need to pass FOSTA, we highlighted earlier this year that two years had gone by and the DOJ had not used the law a single time to go after any "sex trafficking" site. Instead, as we predicted, the law was being used in nuisance lawsuits, such as mailing list provider MailChimp and CRM provider Salesforce because Backpage had used those services.
Finally, last week, however, the DOJ made use of FOSTA in shutting down a website and arresting its operator. A site called CityXGuide.com (and some other sites that it ran -- including one with a name similar to Backpage) were seized, and the guy who ran it, Wilhan Martono, was arrested in California. From the details provided, it does look like Martono saw an opportunity to jump into the market vacated by Backpage, and the charges claim that he brought in $21 million doing so.
The original indictment was done in early June, but it was only just unsealed with Martono's arrest and the seizure of the various websites. It does seem clear that Martono sought to be the source for advertising sex work, but the DOJ conveniently mashes together sex work and sex trafficking, because that's the kind of thing law enforcement likes to do.
Indeed, the immediate reaction to this appears to be that plenty of non-trafficked sex workers, who previously had relied on Backpage to remain safe and now relied on Martono's sites, are again put in danger. The Hacking/Hustling collective -- a group of sex workers who came together to advocate around issues such as FOSTA -- put out a press release calling out what a stupid, counterproductive move this is:
“When we are re-envisioning public safety, this is a perfect example of why we can’t exempt human trafficking. Instead of resources going to real investigations or victim support, you have six agencies spending time and resources reading ads and looking for the word ‘blow job’” said Lorelei Lee, a collective member of Hacking//Hustling.
I was going to link to another website that has a blog advocating for sex workers' rights that explained in great detail how this puts sex workers at danger, but honestly, under a broad interpretation of FOSTA, linking to that website might violate the law. That's because after reading the blog post, I saw that there was a link to a "find escorts" site associated with the blog, and while I think I should be able to link to such a blog post, with its cogent explanation for why this DOJ action puts women at risk... merely linking to it would put me at risk under a broad reading of FOSTA (a stupid, unconstitutional reading, but, alas, these are some of the chilling effects created by the law).
Either way, it's difficult to see how this does anything to stop actual sex trafficking. Indeed, again, it's likely to put victims at even greater risk -- while also putting sex workers at greater risk. Studies have shown that when these sites go down, more women are put at risk. Even worse, as noted, Backpage actually helped law enforcement track down and arrest traffickers. But by making everything else such sites do illegal, it appears that (obviously) Martono avoided helping law enforcement at all (the indictment suggests he ignored various subpoenas).
Again, this is exactly as tons of people predicted. When these ads were appearing on places like Craigslist and Backpage, those companies worked closely with law enforcement to go after actual traffickers, and get them arrested. But now, with things like FOSTA, rather than do that, law enforcement can just... take down the best source to find and track down traffickers, pushing them to sites that are less and less likely to help law enforcement? How does that make sense. Indeed, we've covered a number of law enforcement officials saying that the shutdown of Backpage has made it more difficult to find actual traffickers.
And, if you want any more evidence of that: note that nowhere with this announcement is there anything about arresting any actual traffickers. I have a request in to the DOJ asking if they or any law enforcement have arrested any actual traffickers who used these sites -- but at the time of publishing they have not responded. The indictment claims -- somewhat salaciously -- that the sites seized were used to identify "numerous victims of child sex trafficking," including a "13-year-old Jane Doe." Obviously, it's horrific to find out about that Jane Doe or any victim of sex trafficking, but it does seem odd that there is no mention of any arrests of the traffickers.
Because... wouldn't arresting actual traffickers be the goal here?
Either way, this story is getting buzz on Twitter from two communities: sex workers who are pissed off and angry that they're now losing business and the ability to operate safely... and... believers in the ridiculous Q anon nonsense conspiracy theory, who believe that everything going on in the world is a plot to cover up child sex trafficking. To them, this is evidence that the big promised crackdown on sex trafficking rings has begun. Of course, the lack of any actual arrests for actual sex trafficking kinda suggests that's not the goal here.
Still, this whole thing allowed FOSTA co-author Senator Rob Portman to take a victory lap. Someone should ask him why he's celebrating putting women at risk -- or at least ask him where the arrests are for actual sex trafficking.
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Filed Under: doj, fosta, section 230, sex trafficking, sex workers, wilhan martono
Companies: backpage, cityxguide
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Who thought you could bat below zero?
That's not even an alibi case.
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Re: Who thought you could bat below zero?
These people have this fascinating ability to somehow hit into triple-plays when the bases are empty.
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Harder time finding sex traffickers?
I have it on good authority that if you stop finding something, it no longer exists.
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Re: Harder time finding sex traffickers?
If you arrest fewer sex traffickers, then obviously that means there are fewer cases of sex trafficking. Declare victory!
/s
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Re: Harder time finding sex traffickers?
if you stop finding something, it no longer exists.
Yes, it's called the "Trump-COVID" search algorithm. If applied correctly it can RID the world of ALL known diseases literally overnight.
"Jackie: Well, first of all become a (spin) doctor and discover a marvelous new cure for something, and then, when the medical profession really starts to take notice of you, you can jolly well tell them what to do and make sure they get everything right so there'll never be any diseases ever again."
https://montypython.net/scripts/diseases.php
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Re: Re: Harder time finding sex traffickers?
Forgot to "login"
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Color me surprised, but this is just the War On Drugs, Part Whatever, with a smattering of Florida Sheriff Grady Judd's shame campaign. It's much easier and a better volume proposition for LE to arrest the end users than to put in any actual leg work and go after the people causing it all.
I suspect next we'll have the DoJ manufacturing sex slave rings, and getting some homeless guy who lives under a bridge to run it for them so they can arrest him. How many imaginary trafficked girls is the major felony threshold?
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Re: how many
I hope it is 0 imaginary people, but 1 real person.
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Re: Re: how many
I hope you actually meant an infinite number of imaginary people, because strictly speaking '0' would mean that anyone could be charged with a felony at any time without any cause...
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And in the end.
What do you do with the Women and Men and children discovered?
What facilities, jobs, this and that are you going to create to KEEP these person out of the business...Including drug abuse if needed.
Answer: NONE.
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'They served their purpose, who cares what comes next?'
When you're the kinda person who only considers the victims to be props to be used for PR what happens to them after you're done is someone else's problem.
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Re: And in the end.
All we have to do is abolish poverty forever, and sex work will go away with it. After all, these ladies wouldn't be working if they didn't need the money to spend on residential rent or some such nonsense.
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Re: Re: And in the end.
very good, but there are SOME that do it for the money, and enough men that are Aholes, idiots, cant get a date...that they can make money. LOTS of money.
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'If we can't see it, it doesn't exist.'
While there certainly are law enforcement that care about sex trafficking, helping the victims and finding and punishing the guilty it's sadly been pretty clear from the start that FOSTA isn't and never was about that, rather it is nothing but a PR stunt and a way to undermine 230.
So long as those involved can claim that they Did Something then that's all that mattered, with any damage merely brushed aside as acceptable collateral damage, and criticism rebutted by the lie/projection that the other person doesn't care about victims of sex trafficking.
There are ways to fight sex trafficking, but driving it underground and making it so that sites would have to be utterly insane to help law enforcement is most certainly not one of them.
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Re: 'If we can't see it, it doesn't exist.'
you mean...
As trump kills regulations and laws created by the previous pres. and then he STARTS them up again with a period MOVED to the left...
TRUMP DID IT..not the other guy.,
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Re: Re: 'If we can't see it, it doesn't exist.'
ANYONE realize that this is a LAME DUCK period, and the reps are passing bills..
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https://newsone.com/3965112/milwaukee-missing-black-girls-found-report/
From how the police reacted I don't think they're actually interested in finding victims of sex trafficking.
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The police don’t give a shit about Black lives — even (and maybe especially) if they’re victims of sex trafficking.
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The US has to be one of the few countries that treat sex as more harmful than guns and killing people.
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Re:
I certainly hope it is anyway, bad enough that the US has their priorities on the subject all screwed up, I'd hate for other countries to be similarly insane when it comes to sexuality.
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Norma Jean Almodovar, 1997
Watching these free speech, free association cases reminds me of how christian and globalist interests tried to marginalize Norma Jean Almodovar (who took down the LAPD Ramparts division at the time of Rodney King ) because she stood for independence, individual choice, and anti -collective freedom for women.
http://www.wendymcelroy.com/vern2.htm
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"somewhat salaciously -- that the sites seized were used to identify "numerous victims of child sex trafficking," including a "13-year-old Jane Doe."
Police charging documents have become little more than PR lies to media for reprint.
Back when MyRedBook was taken down in 2014, an FBI agent had a claim of a minor involved in commercial sex inserted into the charging documents despite there being no evidence of any such thing.
She became a rescue industry hero for inserting that false claim and it has been going in ever since. Prosecutors use their absolute immunity to knowingly include lies in charging documents and the salacious media blindly re-prints them to sell clicks. It's absolutely disgusting and I see no sign it will ever stop.
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