So the grade A bullshit that is the FOSTA-SESTA bill (as covered previously here) was passed by the Senate this week. It’s a good indication of the level of dysfunction in American politics that while this dangerous bill was sailing through with no significant opposition, Senator Risch was holding up a one trillion dollar budget bill over the naming of a nature park after a political rival. Words fail me.
The effect was immediate. Craiglist dropped its entire personals section, reddit dropped sex related forums, CityVibe went dark, sex worker advertising forums vanished, etc. And that’s on day 1, before before the bill even becomes law.
It’s possible that you’re reading this and thinking ‘Why do I care? I don’t use any of those things.’ To you I’d firstly say ‘Don’t be such an asshole. Don’t you care about anyone other than yourself?’ This is a bill that’s going to cause active harm to many thousands of sex workers. Secondly, I’d say ‘Just wait. Stuff you do care about is going to follow closely behind.’
My prediction is that in the near future a grandstanding prosecutor is going to pick on some sex workers and claim (incorrectly) that they’ve been trafficked. Then he’ll use this law to go after whatever social media or online sites these workers have used or posted on. The facts won’t matter – just some juicy headlines about his crackdown on online filth and human misery. At which point all sorts of online platforms – twitter, tumblr, instagram, reddit, Google, etc. – will start to aggressively purge anything vaguely related to sex and kink. Or I guess I should say, ramp up their already aggressive efforts in that area. The effect on sex related speech will be chilling and widespread,
In theory the law shouldn’t affect sites like this one. In reality I rely hugely on those kind of platforms to provide interesting content and links. The majority of the images here feature sex workers of some form or another. This site literally wouldn’t exist if it hadn’t been for my experiences playing with Lady Lydia – a professional dominatrix I found online.
Hopefully the constitutionality of the bill will be challenged in the courts. In the meantime, I’d suggest doing whatever you can to support any sex workers you interact with, make yourself aware of their perspective on the issue  and donate to organizations like SWOP and EFF.
It’s a shame this lady wasn’t on the floor of the Senate to knock some sense into people.
Ill fares the land where the moral crusaders are on the march again … so duck and cover … and not only your ass!
You are right, paltego. There will be (collateral) damage and fall out and we fear it will happen sooner rather than later.
Marga and I just finished reading this related article:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/women-who-stray/201803/making-dating-straight-and-white-again
One cannot but wonder what the hell went wrong; what the hell is wrong. The dishonesty, the fanaticism, the narrow mindedness, the vileness and the viciousness so brazenly on display … One thing for sure though: The personal choices of one individual or a few can be exploited by some as an almost inexhaustible source of moral outrage for many.
We wish all of you a good weekend, nevertheless
Thanks for the link Titia. Interesting and highly relevant article. Although, to be fair, it seems like it is not just the right joining in on this particular crusade. The left is being equally stupid.
It’s depressing, but all one can do is to try and encourage the pendulum to swing the other way as quickly as possible. Sadly that will probably take years.
Hope you and Marga are both well!
-paltego