Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, today the Senate is voting to pass legislation to crack down on bad actors who abuse the power and potential of the internet to prey upon the most vulnerable among us in human trafficking rings. Websites like Backpage are repugnant, and I applaud my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their work in holding these bad actors accountable. I also applaud them for working to address the legitimate concerns of good-faith technology platforms that want to be able to engage in responsible content moderation and take steps to affirmatively stop abuses of their sites.

I am pleased to support this legislation because I believe it achieves the important balance between providing a mechanism to hold accountable sex traffickers while allowing free speech and innovation to continue to thrive. Key to my support is my understanding that this legislation would not allow nuisance lawsuits against technology companies--especially startups--based on bogus claims that they ``facilitate'' sex trafficking. It is also important to me that I believe the legislation as written does preserve Good Samaritan protections for platforms and website operators who engage in good- faith content moderation. Legitimate efforts to monitor for illegal content, shut down trafficking, or report suspected trafficking to law enforcement should not and cannot be the basis for liability under this legislation.

Finally, I want to note that I have heard concerns that this legislation could be misused or abused to penalize websites that promote important health and safety information to survivors of sex trafficking, including about HIV prevention and treatment, and provide access to community and peer support services. This information is particularly critical to the victims of sex trafficking and others who face high rates of violence and exploitation, like people who use drugs, people of color, and LGBTQ people. I believe the use of this legislation to create any liability for this important work would be an impermissible misreading of the statutory language and legislative intent.

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