Pimps Are Preying on Sex Workers Pushed Off the Web Because of FOSTA-SESTA
The last time Katie tried to leave her pimp, he beat her with a tire iron.
“Time heals physical wounds,” Katie, whose name has been changed to protect her safety, told me over the phone. “I have been independent for years now and away from him, but I’m still mentally trying to get over, you know, everything he’s done.”
In March, Congress passed the Fight Sex Trafficking Online Act (FOSTA), a controversial mashup bill packaged with the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) that was framed by proponents as being anti-sex trafficking. It punishes websites for discussions of prostitution and the sex trade, under the guise of anti-sex trafficking efforts.
But because of this new law, exploitative and abusive people like Katie’s former pimp are swooping back into sex workers’ lives. They’re capitalizing on the confusion and fear this law has created, as online communities where sex workers found and vetted clients and offered each other support are disappearing.
What are you going to do without me, now? exploiters say, flooding former victims’ inboxes and texts. You need me. According to sex workers I’ve spoken with, this is a common message.
“Pimps seem to be coming out of the woodwork since this all happened,” Laura LeMoon, a sex trafficking survivor, writer, and co-founder and director of harm reduction nonprofit Safe Night Access Project Seattle, told me in an email. “They’re taking advantage of the situation sex workers are in. This is why I say FOSTA/SESTA have actually increased trafficking. I’ve had pimps contacting me. They’re leeches. They make money off of [sex workers’] misfortune.”
...
For sex workers, all of this marks the erasure of vital online communities. “I always say community is the best defense against trafficking, but I want to make it concrete for people who aren't in the sex trade and don't know just how vital community is to preventing trafficking,” Lola, a community organizer with Survivors Against SESTA, told me in an email.
According to Lola, online communities provide all sorts of supports to sex workers. They help them address any immediate survival needs, such as finding shelter or food. They can provide warnings that a potential client is violent, or check in on their well-being, or help them find access to know-your-rights training.
“SESTA has wiped clean essential spaces for all of that community, because it took away the online platforms and tools sex workers use to communicate,” Lola said. Even aside from making it harder for them to work, she said, it’s made workers an easier target for traffickers.
...
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Dr.3D
Connect With Us