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FOSTA: A Hostile Law with a Human Cost
| Content Provider | Scilit |
|---|---|
| Author | Chamberlain, Lura |
| Copyright Year | 2019 |
| Description | Journal: SSRN Electronic Journal The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 (FOSTA) eliminated legal immunity for websites that intentionally host user-generated advertisements for sex trafficking. However, Congress’s mechanism of choice to protect sex trafficking victims has faced critique and backlash from advocates for those involved in commercial sex, who argue that FOSTA’s broad legislative language does far more to harm sex workers — a group distinct from sex trafficking victims — than it does to eliminate sex trafficking, chilling significant protected speech in the process. These critics posit that FOSTA’s positive effects germane to its goals have been negligible, and that its chief outcome has been to eliminate digital screening and security protections that consensual sex workers rely upon, forcing the industry back into a far more dangerous street-based model. By eliminating protections for consensual sex workers, however, FOSTA endangers trafficking victims as well, and without online advertisements serving as a “smoking gun,” law enforcement has struggled to find trafficked individuals. This Note explores FOSTA’s effects on consensual sex workers in the United States from two angles. First, it analyzes how FOSTA’s chill on speech advocating for sex workers’ health, safety, and right to work in their industry contributes to the law’s unconstitutional overbreadth. Second, this Note examines FOSTA’s practical effects and compares those in line with its stated goals to the harmful consequences the law has inflicted upon the sex work community and beyond. While this Note proposes amended language to improve FOSTA, it ultimately advocates for FOSTA’s repeal, and suggests that if sex work were decriminalized and more pragmatic legislation were implemented to better inculpate traffickers, mitigate harm to trafficking survivors, and reduce future victimization, FOSTA’s stated goals could be realized. |
| Related Links | https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5598&context=flr https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm?abstractid=3314708 |
| ISSN | 10914358 |
| e-ISSN | 15565068 |
| DOI | 10.2139/ssrn.3314708 |
| Journal | SSRN Electronic Journal |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV |
| Publisher Date | 2019-01-01 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Journal: SSRN Electronic Journal Womens Studies Sex Work Sex Trafficking First Amendment |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
| Subject | Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health Psychiatry and Mental Health |
