WASHINGTON _ It's not been signed into law yet, but the bill aimed at curbing online advertising of the illegal sex trade that passed Congress recently has already pushed some sites to close down their adult or personal sections.
Supporters are applauding, calling it a victory in the battle against trafficking, especially of children.
"Because of (the legislation) websites are already taking long overdue steps to shut down avenues that were being used to traffic victims across the country," said Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., a prime sponsor of the legislation in the House.
But critics say it proves their point that the new law could actually hurt victims of sexual violence and sex trafficking by driving the trade further underground. And they say the actions so far point to unintended consequences of chilling much broader speech on the internet.
Referring to the bill by its Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act acronym, TechDirt columnist Mike Masnick cited the announcements, and wrote: "Remember how all the SESTA supporters insisted that SESTA would only target those willfully supporting sex trafficking and wouldn't do anything against other sites? That's already been proven wrong."
The legislation, pushed by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., among others, gives more authority to state, local and federal prosecutors and victims to go after those that knowingly advertise illegal sex online.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign the legislation, which passed the House and Senate by wide margins, during the week of April 8.
Since its passage, several online advertisers and sites have made change-in-policy announcements, including:
_ Craigslist, the online version of newspaper classifieds, closed its personals section, citing the new law. "Any tool or service can be misused," the company announced. "We can't take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, so we are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline. Hopefully we can bring them back some day."
_ Reddit changed its content policy forbidding anyone to advertise "paid services involving physical sexual contact." The site also included the advertisement of firearms in that content ban.
_ Microsoft said that as of May 1, it would ban "offensive language" from Xbox, Office and Skype, a move that many saw as a response to the passage of the legislation.
The new legislation seems destined for court challenges.
It passed the Senate, 97-2, and the House 388-25, over the objections of the Department of Justice, which argued it "raises serious constitutional concerns."
Backpage, the website that was the target of both a McCaskill investigation and Wagner's frequent rhetorical barbs, has been largely quiet since the bill's passage. But Backpage has been a very litigious company in the past, and often won in court challenges attempting to hold it accountable for ads. Currently, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which the new bill amends, gives broad "third-party" protections to sites that host others' speech.
Critics have abounded in online sites and blogs.
Daily Beast columnist Elizabeth Nolan Brown wrote that she and acquaintances forged relationships through Craigslist's personals' "strange and tantalizing mix of anonymity and eros and possibility," and that she knew longtime couples who had met on the site.
"Sex trafficking is horrific. But so are a lot of other crimes," Brown wrote. "And under (the new legislation), our law effectively says that both sex trafficking and paid sex between two consenting adults are more grave offenses than rape, child molestation, mass murder, or anything else. What kind of logic is that?"
She added that "once we start treating technology as the guilty party in any badness it brokers, we will wind up with tech overlords terrified to let us speak about anything controversial at all."
And a Los Angeles-based attorney who represents victims of the sex trade, who would only be identified by her Twitter name as ErikaG, supported Backpage's argument that the site actually helped prosecution of illegal sex because it was there for anyone to see.
"I understand why people are concerned that there are web pages that host commercial sex activities but for law enforcement and for Advocate(s) it can be a very useful tool to help find our client and potential victims," the lawyer tweeted.
Wagner and McCaskill said the bill they got passed had widespread bipartisan support in large part because it was constitutional and narrowly aimed at those that "knowingly" advertised illegal sex on the internet.
Of the claims that the legislation will drive the sex trade further underground, McCaskill, a former sex crimes prosecutor in Kansas City, responded:
"There are many ways that we can discover sex traffickers, both from victims coming forward and sting operations. There should absolutely not be any attempt to hide behind, 'Oh it is going to drive it underground' in order to let people like Backpage make billions of dollars off the back of children that are being sold for sex."
McCaskill and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, successfully pushed a contempt of Congress citation against Backpage.
"I have been saying to Backpage: 'Bring it if you think you are going to use the courts to avoid liability for what you did, I wish you luck with that,'" McCaskill said. "I do not believe there is a constitutional challenge to this bill."
The bill, whose primary sponsor was Portman, has gotten support from unexpected quarters, including from a legal prostitute at a Nevada brothel. Tiara Tae wrote on her brothel's website that the passage of the bill was an argument for legalized prostitution in all 50 states.
"We've all heard the horror stories of 'Craigslist' type ads that were historically thinly veiled solicitations for illegal and sometimes underage prostitutes that put both the girls and the clients at risk of violent crime and disease, while providing an electronic black market trading place for street pimps and international human traffickers," she wrote.
"Personally, I'd much rather work in a proven legal system, like the time-tested Nevada brothel industry, than be a slave to a website owner that takes advantage of my desperate need to promote an illegal business."
Lisa Thompson, vice president of policy and research at the National Center for Sexual Exploitation, which supports the new legislation, said the target was sex trade _ legal or illegal.
"Whether legalized or not, the commercial sex industry retains its predatory dependence on women primed for prostitution through homelessness, poverty, incest and sexual assault," she said.
