Trump signs online sex crime bill
Targets websites that facilitate exploitation
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed legislation on Wednesday that allows state and local law enforcement officials to prosecute websites that knowingly facilitate prostitution, sexual exploitation of children and illegal sex acts.
Though the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act came to Trump’s desk with bipartisan support, the president said the decision to sign the bill was “a tough one,” due to opposition from groups promoting such disparate causes as free speech, technology and sex workers’ rights.
Trump said he assumed foes had their reasons to oppose the measure, “but I personally don’t understand those reasons.”
The measure was designed to clarify that the 1996 Communications Decency Act does not shield online websites that profit from sex trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children. It also allows victims and their families to sue platforms that “knowingly” help or promote sex trafficking.
After the signing, Trump gave a pen to Yvonne Ambrose of Chicago. Fighting back tears, she thanked Trump and then related the story of her 16-year-old daughter Desiree Robinson, who was killed on Christmas Eve 2016 after apparently meeting a client who responded to a paid escort ad she had placed.
Ambrose is suing the website, Backpage, for its role in her daughter’s wrongful death.
Last week federal authorities seized and shut the site as part of a crackdown on sex trafficking.
The push to shut down sex-trafficking sites appealed to lawmakers across the political spectrum.
But critics challenged the measure on different grounds.
The Internet Association, which represents many technology industry companies, said in August that the bill was “overly broad” and would “create a new wave of frivolous and unpredictable actions against legitimate companies rather than addressing underlying criminal behavior.” The group switched its position after the House modified the bill’s language on civil damages.
The Electronic Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to digital rights, said the bill “marks an unprecedented push towards internet censorship, and does nothing to fight sex traffickers.”
Groups advocating for the rights of sex workers attacked the legislation from a different direction.
The Women’s March organization, which organized protests in Washington and across the country after Trump won the 2016 election, said it would endanger women engaged in the sex trade by forcing them off the internet.
Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal. com or 202-662-7391. Follow @ Debrajsaunders on Twitter.