Sen. Warren: #ListenToSurvivors of Sexual Exploitation

More than 250 survivors have signed the letter.

December 16, 2019

The Hon. Elizabeth Warren
U.S. Senate
309 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Warren:

We, the undersigned, survivors of sex trafficking and prostitution, are shocked to hear that you plan to introduce a bill co-sponsored with Senator Ron Wyden commissioning the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to study the effects of the 2018 law, Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act — Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (FOSTA-SESTA) on individuals who “consensually” engage in the sex trade, without studying the impact on the vast majority of the trade — children, sex trafficking victims and those who were coerced in the sex trade.

Your team recently visited with several survivors and stakeholders on the issue of sex trafficking and prostitution in Massachusetts. While there, they promised us that you would protect our community of survivors. This bill represents a total betrayal of that promise and an abject failure of leadership, not the least of which because you didn’t even bother to call us for input.

To remind you, reports indicate that an overwhelming number of those bought and sold in the sex trade are sex trafficked children, along with adults who first entered the sex trade as trafficked children before they turned 18 years old. And yet you and your legislation choose to center those who claim to enter and exit the sex trade “consensually,” even though there are no data indicating that they represent anything other than a very small minority of those in the sex trade. Not only is this misguided and troubling, but deeply insulting to those of us who have survived the brutality of being bought and sold for sex on and offline, who represent the majority of those in the sex trade.

To be clear — we are not opposed to a study of FOSTA-SESTA, but we are concerned about the motives of a bill that seeks to reflect the opinions of only a tiny fraction of those who are impacted. Confining a study to survey only those who opposed the legislation in the first place predetermines the outcome and undermines any public confidence in the true impact of the law. As one of the 97 Senators who voted in support of this groundbreaking law, you know that FOSTA-SESTA only holds websites accountable that knowingly facilitate the crime of sex trafficking. Any online site that monitors content in good faith has a large safe harbor from any sort of prosecution or liability. In fact, the Jane Doe children in your state who fought to hold websites accountable for trafficking them online did so after years of those very same websites making millions off the backs of exploited people. We are stunned that you would not consider or include the impact of FOSTA-SESTA on these children and others like them who fought for the law.

You may or may not be aware of the countless women and children and Transgender and Gender non-conforming persons who brutally perished in the sex trade, at the hands of sex buyers, pimps, traffickers and other third-party exploiters, including children sold online who were murdered. We implore you to consider them and other victims of commercial sexual exploitation in any study to examine the impact of FOSTA SESTA.

A number of your own constituents from Massachusetts, young high school and college women, who have sought “consensual” financial arrangements on SeekingArrangement, a “sugar dating” site, have been beaten, raped and have come within inches of losing their lives. This idea that commercial sex is safe online or that sex buyers can be vetted are tales spun from whole cloth. It is a narrative perpetuated by Google-funded groups, desperate to maintain Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in its pre-FOSTA-SESTA form and the Internet as a lawless Wild West of profitable exploitation. These special interest groups are at the heart of challenging or investigating FOSTA-SESTA and we are surprised that you would be swayed or duped by the tech lobby.

Any commission to study the effects of FOSTA-SESTA would be useless without studying the entirety of the sex trade and gaining clear knowledge of the actors and elements that are pushing for the buying and selling of human beings for sexual acts, online and off.

Please do not undo the brave and valiant leadership you have shown in supporting FOSTA-SESTA.

Sincerely yours,

Nikki Bell — CEO, Living In Freedom Together-LIFT, Worcester MA

Audrey Morrisey — Associate Director and National Survivor Leadership Director, My Life My Choice, Boston, MA

Cherie Jimenez — Director, EVA Center, Boston, MA