A draft bill in the House of Representatives would have devastating consequences, and it's being done in the name of preventing sex trafficking yet again.
This proposed law, tactically called “No Immunity for Sex Traffickers Online Act," has not been introduced yet but would gut the protections in Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act (CDA) by allowing the broad criminalization of websites like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Snapchat for sex-trafficking offenses involving minors.
We already have sufficient state and federal penalties to catch and punish people who force minors into prostitution, but this draft bill would make criminal all web publishers and platforms, essentially forcing them to pay up simply because predatory people violate the terms of use on their site.
Not only does this unfair bill target the wrong people, but it would not actually prevent or stop child sex trafficking.
As the law currently stands, web publishers and platforms - like Facebook, the New Yorker, Reddit - aren't legally liable for posts by third parties on their sites. That means Snapchat can't be sued if one of their users violates the terms of use of their site and sends an inappropriate picture over the app. Twitter can't be sued if a user is harassing someone. Care2 can't be sued if someone leaves a nasty comment on a petition. And so on.
Sign to send a strong message that Americans are not going support another bad law that puts innocent people in jail under the guise of rescuing sex trafficking victims.
