A US government effort to fight online sex trafficking has cleansed many sites of personal ads and consensual eroticism, in a shift advocates say amounts to dangerous censorship

Craigslist has shut down its renowned “personals” section, which once featured ads titled “Hot days” and “Looking to fool around tonight”. Porn performers are complaining that Google Drive is no longer allowing them to share erotic videos with private clients. Microsoft has announced new rules banning “offensive language” from conversations on Skype and Xbox. And Reddit has closed sex industry discussion groups entitled “Escorts”, “Hookers”, and “SugarDaddy”.

All of this has happened in recent days and weeks; a particular genre of online sex, it seems, is vanishing from the internet.

The timing of all these internet sex crackdowns corresponds with the US Congress’s passage last week of a bill known as the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (Fosta).

While intended to protect victims of sex trafficking, critics say the bill will force internet platforms to censor their users in order to avoid being prosecuted for newly created sex trafficking offenses. Some sex workers argue the bill will hurt those who voluntarily work in the sex industry by pushing them off the internet and back on to the streets. Internet advocates say the bill may the beginning of a crackdown on free speech online.

There’s a lot of doubt. And, where there is doubt, platforms will err on the side of censorship

“US Congress just passed HR 1865, ‘Fosta’, seeking to subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully,” wrote Craiglist in a statement posted on Friday, where their online personals used to be. “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.”

The law puts new limits on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which has broadly protected internet providers from being held liable for content posted by their users. It carries penalties of up to 25 years in federal prison for anyone who runs an internet service “with the intent to promote or facilitate the prostitution of another person”.

“We used to be in a world where internet companies could provide platforms for lots of different types of internet speech without being in fear of being unduly prosecuted,” said Elliot Harmon, an activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Now there’s a lot of doubt. And, where there is doubt, platforms will err on the side of censorship.”

The bill passed through both the House and the Senate with broad bipartisan support and now awaits the signature of the president. Supporters of the new legislation said existing laws have allowed victims, including children, to be bought and sold through blatant ads on internet sites, which has created a surge of exploitation resulting in a multibillion-dollar industry.

“To the websites that for years have hidden behind Section 230 and profited from the sale of vulnerable women and children, know that your time has run out,” wrote Lauren Hersh, the co-founder of World Without Exploitation, a coalition of anti-trafficking groups that worked with legislators to get the bill passed.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, which has recently shut down its renowned ‘personals’ section. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A video promoting the campaign featured Amy Schumer, Seth Meyers and a host of other stars, saying: “Today you can go online and buy a child for sex. It’s as easy as ordering a pizza.” The bill also won the vocal support of Ivanka Trump.



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The group specifically targeted one of the most notorious sites for sex industry advertising, Backpage.com. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has said that nearly three-quarters of the 10,000 reports of potentially sex-trafficked children that it receives every year involve victims who were advertised on Backpage. Law enforcement efforts forced it to shut down its “escorts” ads and resulted in numerous lawsuits and the 2016 arrest of Backpage’s owner. But the company has managed to shake off attempts to shut down its posting of potential trafficking ads.

Backpage.com remains open and many of the prostitution ads appear to have simply migrated to the personals section. They are now listed only by phone number, with busty photos and links such as “Amazing_service_to_your_place/Come_to_u/Asian/ .” Other ads feature doe-eyed girls that look like children.

Meanwhile, other areas of the internet are feeling the chill that has surrounded the bill. Craiglist’s personals came down on Friday. Another website taken offline was Pounced.org, a dating site for “furries” – or devotees of anthropomorphic animal characters who like to dress in costumes. A notice on the site said it was purely a personals site and not devoted to prostitution at all. “The problem is, with limited resources and a small volunteer staff, our risk for operating the site has now significantly increased. Now if someone posts an ad looking to exchange sex for something to pounced.org, and we don’t catch it, is that facilitating prostitution?”

We didn’t know it was going to be this bad. We’re going to have to work in more dangerous situations

Reddit closed down its escort service “subreddits” about the same time the bill passed the Senate, but said in a posting that the move was part of a larger crackdown against transactions involving such items as drugs, firearms, stolen goods, or sex.

On 1 March, as the bill was being debated in Congress, a blogger noticed that Microsoft had issued a change to its terms of service which will ban “offensive language”, in addition to formerly banned nudity, bestiality, pornography, graphic violence, or criminal activity, from its services, including Skype and Xbox Live.

In a statement, Microsoft said the new rules, which go into effect on 1 May, are not related to the new bill. “The recent changes to the Microsoft service agreement’s code of conduct provide transparency on how we respond to customer reports of inappropriate public content,” it said.

While some sex workers complained that they recently lost the ability to share erotic video files with their clients, a Google spokesman said the company regularly uses artificial intelligence to flag videos containing sexually explicit material under Google Drive’s longstanding Terms of Service policy. If the files are deemed to violate the policy after undergoing a review, he said those videos may not be watched or shared, but they can still be accessed by their owners.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A march to end violence against sex workers. Many say online forums help vet potential clients and avoid dangerous situations. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

He said that, to his knowledge, there has been no recent increase in this kind of enforcement.

“Google is aware of the new legislation and we are reviewing it, but we haven’t reached a state where there are any proposed changes,” he said.

A site called YourDominatrix.com ended all US listings, with a note saying it was “due to a recent bill passed by Congress”. An escort site called CityVibe and the escort forums on “Hung Angels” shut down, as well. VerifyHim, a site devoted to helping sex workers stay safe by screening their clients, also removed its discussion forums.

Consensual sex workers say the new law will make the industry less safe, because they have been able to use internet sites without having to wander the streets.

“We knew it was going to be bad, but we didn’t know it was going to be this bad,” said Kate D’Adamo, an organizer for sex workers, who fought against the bill. “We’re going to be kicked off advertising platforms and we’re going to have to work in more dangerous situations.”

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On Twitter, sex workers who had once managed their accounts online were scrambling to find new ways to do business in light of the disruptions caused by the law. Some were passing around safety tips and “self-censoring” advice for the new era, while others were converting to secure email accounts and offshore internet hosting sites.

“This affects my ability to keep myself away from dangerous situations through the safety forums I frequently use to decide if I will see a client or not,” one sex worker in San Diego, who goes by the name Jheri Mae, told the Guardian. She said she uses her sex work to survive as a single mom. “And with all the ad platforms disappearing, my potential income disappears with it and that does worry me.”