On March 21, the U.S. Senate passed into law the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA). Many lawmakers are calling it the worst possible legislation curtailing free speech online and sex censorship bill FOSTA-SESTA is on its way to be signed into law by Trump. Although the president has yet to sign the legislation, the bill’s effects are already being felt. FOSTA (known in a previous form as SESTA, or the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act) amends Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides tech companies immunity from most liability for publishing third-party content. The bill makes sites and services liable for hosting what it very loosely defines as sex trafficking and prostitution content.

FOSTA-SESTA puts into law that sex work and sex trafficking are the same thing and makes discussion and advertising part of the crime. Its blurry interpretation of sex and commerce, as well as bill’s illogical, incorrect amalgamation of sex trafficking and sex work is straight out of a bad movie. FOSTA carves out an additional statutory exception for that immunity. The idea is that online platforms should face the same liability for enabling illegal sex-trafficking as offline outlets do. FOSTA goes on to provide that technology companies will not be shielded from civil liability if they knowingly assist, support or facilitate advertising activity that violates federal sex-trafficking law. Currently, advertisers are liable under Section 1591(a)(2) if they knowingly benefit from outlawed ads. FOSTA not only carves out an exception to Section 230 immunity for violations of Section 1591, but it also redefines what constitutes a Section 1591 violation to include ‘knowingly assisting, supporting or facilitating’ advertising.

Major platforms are already doing damage control. Two days after the bill passed, Craigslist closed its personal ads section, which was often used to post solicitations for sex. Pointing to FOSTA, the advertising hub wrote, “Any tool or service can be misused. 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.” It further added, “To the millions of spouses, partners and couples who met through craigslist, we wish you every happiness.’ Likewise, Reddit also banned sex-worker subreddits, including Escorts, Male Escorts, Hookers and SugarDaddy, shortly after the bill was passed. Though neither Reddit nor the shuttered adult-advertising websites cited FOSTA, the timing hints at the legislation’s influence.

FOSTA has been criticized by some lawmakers and sex workers for making it harder to combat sex trafficking. “The failure to understand the technological side effects of this bill - specifically that it will become harder to expose sex-traffickers, while hamstringing innovation – will be something that this Congress will regret,” Sen. Ron Wyden told CNN earlier this month. Wyden and Sen. Rand Paul voted against FOSTA, which passed 97-2 in the Senate on Wednesday. It is likely to be signed into law by president Trump.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 31, 2018 02:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).