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Many legal sex workers have been hit by the takedown of sites like Backpage(1) and its sister cracker(2). These sites were the primary sources to advertise or f

Many legal sex workers have been hit by the takedown of sites like Backpage(1) and its sister cracker(2). These sites were the primary sources to advertise or find their services. It was heavily used by independent sex workers. 1. https://www.thecut.com/2018/04/7-sex-workers-on-what-it-means-to-lose-backpage.html https://www.thecut.com/2018/04/7-sex-workers-on-what-it-mean... 2. https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/sex/sex-workers-in-australia-say-american-law-is-creating-devastating-losses-back-home/news-story/09139a2f0d631cd7284090d2336ca517 https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/sex/sex-work...

rablo 8y ago
“Sex worker” is not a career.
- vanadium 8y ago
  Assuming the person has complete agency of their body and life, that's not exactly in your wheelhouse to proclaim with such certainty.
  - rablo 8y ago
    It is, actually. We live in a society. FOSTA is just the beginning, I’m sure things are going to get real tight for “sex workers”, pun intended.
    - vanadium 8y ago
      Respectfully, "we live in a society" isn't an answer any more than "the sun rose today". Plenty of European nations reason about this in far more pragmatic and dignified terms than does the United States.
    - StavrosK 8y ago
      Weird how "we live in a society" until something happens one doesn't like, like trying to ban guns.
    - Fukkaudeku 8y ago
      Gamers rise up
    - downandout 8y ago
      I’m always curious what the motivation is when I see someone that is militant about forcing the rest of society to live by their personal moral code. Is this a religious issue for you, @rablo, or is it something else? Why do you wish harm/difficulties on sex workers? Finally, you asserted that it is in fact “in your wheelhouse” to declare that “Sex worker is not a career”. What do you believe gives you the authority to make this declaration?
- stryk 8y ago
  Prostitution is the oldest career there is in the United States (also one of the very few that is genuinely recession-proof). There have always been, and always will be, people willing to pay for and be paid for sex. Take Australia for example, where it's legal, regulated, and safer - I'm sure there are plenty of men & women making a nice living off of it.
  - cyberpunk0 8y ago
    It's one of the oldest careers in human history...
    - erik_seaberg 8y ago
      Not only human. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_among_animals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_among_animals
- gnahckire 8y ago
  career - a field for or pursuit of consecutive progressive achievement especially in public, professional, or business life [1] It has been a career for ages. Reading the history is pretty interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_prostitution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_prostitution [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/career https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/career
- abiox 8y ago
  why do you say that?
saas_co_de 8y ago
Yes, and they will have to "suffer" so that the scum owners of backpage who actively promoted child sex trafficking can no longer make millions selling children. If platforms keep child sex traffickers off their sites they won't get touched. If they don't they will get shut down. It really isn't that hard.
- heroprotagonist 8y ago
  Where did you get this information?
  - cwyers 8y ago
    https://www.wired.com/story/feds-seize-backpagecom-site-linked-to-sex-trafficking/ https://www.wired.com/story/feds-seize-backpagecom-site-link...
    - heroprotagonist 8y ago
      This link does not suggest that the owners of backpage were actively promoting child sex trafficking or selling children. The closest connection is about them automatically stripping suggestive words like "lolita" and "young" from online ads without blocking the advertisement. It's a bit of doublethink to suggest that removing suggestive words from an advertisement is facilitation. Where they got into more trouble was in the manual editing process. They moved from outright deleting all posts that offend to editing advertisements to remove 'sex for money' (not child sex) references because it was potentially driving their user base elsewhere and ultimately not effective in educating their usersabout what specifically in the post was not acceptable. So, greed, really. But the manual review process was not the same as the automatic removal of questionable phrases (such as the ones picked up by the media and politicians to further an agenda). Their moderators were not people actively seeking to enable the sale of children because the company would see increased advertising revenue. While they were greedy on the sex-for-money front, it's a huge unsupported leap to suggest actively enabling the sale of children. I'm sure if they saw some children for sale they would have acted appropriately. The same report that mentions the automatic filters advises that Backpage itself reports cases of suspected child exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and that in some months Backpage has transmitted hundreds of such reports to NCMEC. Which, of course, I am sure they are no longer sending these hundreds of reports per month since they were effectively shut down. Maybe there will be some other system with a moderation process that is likely to draw in and report offenders. But we'll probably kill that too. So, if the crime is facilitating prostitution, sure, they are guilty. Intent is clearly there. Knowingly facilitating child sex trafficking? No, the only indicator is automatic removal of phrases from posts. That's the fabrication extrapolated from scant evidence which was used to build support for encroaching legislation. The source of data for the hyperbolic claims of child sex trafficking was this 2017 Senate report if you'd like to review and make your own conclusions: https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Backpage%20Report%202017.01.10%20FINAL.pdf https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Backpage%20Report...

rablo 8y ago

“Sex worker” is not a career.

vanadium 8y ago
Assuming the person has complete agency of their body and life, that's not exactly in your wheelhouse to proclaim with such certainty.
- rablo 8y ago
  It is, actually. We live in a society. FOSTA is just the beginning, I’m sure things are going to get real tight for “sex workers”, pun intended.
  - vanadium 8y ago
    Respectfully, "we live in a society" isn't an answer any more than "the sun rose today". Plenty of European nations reason about this in far more pragmatic and dignified terms than does the United States.
  - StavrosK 8y ago
    Weird how "we live in a society" until something happens one doesn't like, like trying to ban guns.
  - Fukkaudeku 8y ago
    Gamers rise up
  - downandout 8y ago
    I’m always curious what the motivation is when I see someone that is militant about forcing the rest of society to live by their personal moral code. Is this a religious issue for you, @rablo, or is it something else? Why do you wish harm/difficulties on sex workers? Finally, you asserted that it is in fact “in your wheelhouse” to declare that “Sex worker is not a career”. What do you believe gives you the authority to make this declaration?
stryk 8y ago
Prostitution is the oldest career there is in the United States (also one of the very few that is genuinely recession-proof). There have always been, and always will be, people willing to pay for and be paid for sex. Take Australia for example, where it's legal, regulated, and safer - I'm sure there are plenty of men & women making a nice living off of it.
- cyberpunk0 8y ago
  It's one of the oldest careers in human history...
  - erik_seaberg 8y ago
    Not only human. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_among_animals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_among_animals
gnahckire 8y ago
career - a field for or pursuit of consecutive progressive achievement especially in public, professional, or business life [1] It has been a career for ages. Reading the history is pretty interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_prostitution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_prostitution [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/career https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/career
abiox 8y ago
why do you say that?

saas_co_de 8y ago

Yes, and they will have to "suffer" so that the scum owners of backpage who actively promoted child sex trafficking can no longer make millions selling children. If platforms keep child sex traffickers off their sites they won't get touched. If they don't they will get shut down. It really isn't that hard.

heroprotagonist 8y ago
Where did you get this information?
- cwyers 8y ago
  https://www.wired.com/story/feds-seize-backpagecom-site-linked-to-sex-trafficking/ https://www.wired.com/story/feds-seize-backpagecom-site-link...
  - heroprotagonist 8y ago
    This link does not suggest that the owners of backpage were actively promoting child sex trafficking or selling children. The closest connection is about them automatically stripping suggestive words like "lolita" and "young" from online ads without blocking the advertisement. It's a bit of doublethink to suggest that removing suggestive words from an advertisement is facilitation. Where they got into more trouble was in the manual editing process. They moved from outright deleting all posts that offend to editing advertisements to remove 'sex for money' (not child sex) references because it was potentially driving their user base elsewhere and ultimately not effective in educating their usersabout what specifically in the post was not acceptable. So, greed, really. But the manual review process was not the same as the automatic removal of questionable phrases (such as the ones picked up by the media and politicians to further an agenda). Their moderators were not people actively seeking to enable the sale of children because the company would see increased advertising revenue. While they were greedy on the sex-for-money front, it's a huge unsupported leap to suggest actively enabling the sale of children. I'm sure if they saw some children for sale they would have acted appropriately. The same report that mentions the automatic filters advises that Backpage itself reports cases of suspected child exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and that in some months Backpage has transmitted hundreds of such reports to NCMEC. Which, of course, I am sure they are no longer sending these hundreds of reports per month since they were effectively shut down. Maybe there will be some other system with a moderation process that is likely to draw in and report offenders. But we'll probably kill that too. So, if the crime is facilitating prostitution, sure, they are guilty. Intent is clearly there. Knowingly facilitating child sex trafficking? No, the only indicator is automatic removal of phrases from posts. That's the fabrication extrapolated from scant evidence which was used to build support for encroaching legislation. The source of data for the hyperbolic claims of child sex trafficking was this 2017 Senate report if you'd like to review and make your own conclusions: https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Backpage%20Report%202017.01.10%20FINAL.pdf https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Backpage%20Report...