Tough spot for trafficking bill
WASHINGTON — Bipartisan legislation to crack down on online child sex trafficking is putting Silicon Valley tech companies and California’s two Democratic senators on the spot, as proponents of the legislation try to rewrite a section of a 21-year-old law that the companies argue has been the foundation of the Internet’s growth.
At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday, Yvonne Ambrose, the mother of a 16-year sex trafficking victim who was found murdered near Chicago after being advertized for sale on the website Backpage.com, broke down in sobs after pleading with lawmakers to change the law “that is standing in the way of justice for my child.”
The Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, would allow criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits against websites that promote online trafficking. Currently, Internet companies such as Google are not held liable for content posted by third parties, unless the Justice Department brings suit. Portman said at the hearing that child predation has “moved from street to the smart phone,” bringing “ruthless efficiency” and massive profits to the pimping of teenagers and children.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, part of a major 1996 overhaul of telecommunications law, provides immunity for Internet companies for third-party content on their platforms. Ambrose accused Backpage and other such sites of “making millions of dollars exploiting our children,” warning that “our babies, your child, your nieces, your nephews” are vulnerable to web-based pimping.
As California’s attorney general, Sen. Kamala Harris brought the first state criminal charges against Backpage, and in one of her first hearings as the state’s new U.S. senator
earlier this year, she denounced the website and others like it.
“Backpage is the worst actor in a sprawling industry exploiting women and children throughout the world,” Harris said in Facebook post last month.
But Harris has not yet signed on to the Portman bill, which now has 28 co-sponsors from both parties.
Her spokesman, Tyrone Gayle, said Harris is working with the bill’s sponsors “to bring (Backpage) and others to justice while ensuring there are no unintended consequences that would stifle innovation.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is also holding off. A Feinstein aide said the senator “strongly supports the goal” of the bill, and that when talks over “potential tweaks” to the legislation conclude, Feinstein plans to sign on as a co-sponsor.
Although some Silicon Valley companies such as Hewlett-Packard have announced support for the legislation, the biggest Internet-based companies such as Google and Facebook have not, and their trade group, the Internet Association, testified against it Tuesday.
Susan Molinari, Google’s vice president of public policy, said in an email that the company has concerns about “unintended side effects” of the Portman bill and would prefer tweaks to the immunity clause of the Communications Decency Act.
“We have a long-standing commitment to eradicating human trafficking and have proposed language amending section 230 that would give trafficked victims and survivors the right to civil litigation and enable prosecutors to hold bad actors accountable for their crimes,” she said.
Abigail Slater, general counsel for the Internet Association, said the Portman bill is too broadly written and would open Internet companies to “unsustainable” legal liability for all content on their platforms and “create risk for an incredibly broad number of innocent businesses” by holding them liable for the crimes of others.
Sen. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who helped write Section 230, defended the statute, saying it provided the “legal foundation for the growth of the Internet as a platform for free speech around the world” and helped make the United States the world leader in Internet access by keeping “lawyers, politicians and tax collectors from hobbling information and growth.”
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who is continuing the prosecution of Backpage that Harris began, testified Tuesday in support of the legislation, telling senators that although current law does permit the federal Justice Department to bring charges against enterprises like Backpage, online sex trafficking has become one of the fastest growing crimes in the country, and federal prosecutions have proved inadequate.
He dismissed tech industry concerns about limiting Internet free speech.
Free speech is not completely unrestricted, Beccerra said. “You can’t yell fire in a theater, you can’t sell kids for sex on the street and you should not be allowed to traffic children on the Internet,” he told the committee.
“You can’t yell fire in a theater ... and you should not be allowed to traffic children on the Internet.” California Attorney General Xavier Beccerra