[Lnc-business] URGENT - Request for ExCom meeting to add LP's voice opposing FOSTA (HR 1865) and SESTA (S. 1693)

[Daniel Hayes]

The email system is gaslighting me.   NOW I have “pictures” imbedded in the middle of the email along with attachments.


Daniel

Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 27, 2018, at 12:19 PM, Elizabeth Van Horn <elizabeth.vanhorn at lp.org> wrote:
> 
> I see both the attachments and the links. (Attachments are pdfs)
> 
> I also agree with Starchild on this issue.
> 
> ---
> Elizabeth Van Horn
> LNC Region 3 (IN, MI, OH, KY)
> Secretary Libertarian Party of Madison Co, Indiana
> Chair-LP Social Media Process Review Committee
> Vice-Chair Libertarian Pragmatist Caucus
> http://www.lpcaucus.org/
> 
>> On 2018-02-26 19:40, Starchild wrote:
>> I'm requesting that the LNC Executive Committee hold a special meeting
>> ASAP for the purpose of voting to add the Libertarian Party as a
>> signatory to the following attached letter in opposition to two bad
>> pieces of legislation currently in Congress which would further
>> criminalize consensual prostitution, and related online speech
>> including sharing harm reduction and safety tips for sex workers, in
>> the name of fighting sex trafficking (which they would do nothing to
>> stop).
>>    This harmful legislation was just brought to my attention. The House
>> bill, the "Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking
>> Act" or FOSTA, may be voted on in the House as soon as TOMORROW
>> (Tuesday, February 27), which makes this a time–sensitive matter that
>> lacks the time for a vote of the full LNC.
>>    I've reviewed the letter and did not notice anything substantive in
>> it that is objectionable from a libertarian perspective, but I
>> encourage others to review it as well. Due to our screwed-up email
>> list, I have copied the text of the letter below as well as attaching
>> it as a PDF file. Also attached is a graphic detailing some of the
>> provisions of these two bills (which may not come through).
>>    The libertarian-oriented Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) also
>> has a page devoted to stopping FOSTA for its Internet censorship
>> provisions –
>> https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1693 .
>> Another website with additional information detailing what's bad about
>> both bills is
>> https://medium.com/@EngineOrg/myth-vs-fact-what-you-need-to-know-about-sesta-fosta-850e74f3b8c4
>> .
>>    The actual text of the bills can be read at
>> https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1865 (FOSTA)
>> and https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1693
>> (SESTA).
>> Love & Liberty,
>>                                     ((( starchild )))
>> At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee
>>                          RealReform at earthlink.net
>>                                   (415) 625-FREE
>>                                     @StarchildSF
>> TEXT OF LETTER FOR LP TO SIGN ONTO:
>> February 25, 2018
>> As organizations which support the rights, health and wellbeing of
>> individuals who trade sex, the undersigned are firmly against the
>> passage of “Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act” SESTA (S. 1693) and
>> “Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act” FOSTA (H.1865). This legislation
>> will cause harm without improving anti-trafficking efforts. Passage of
>> this legislation will put the most vulnerable in our communities at
>> higher risk of violence and victimization. We reject legislation that
>> threaten the lives and safety of individuals trading sex - people who
>> are disproportionately LGBTQ, immigrant, and people of color trying to
>> survive. This legislation will target peers and communities who use
>> the internet for harm reduction and anti-violence work, and isolate
>> people who trade sex, increasing vulnerability to violence and
>> victimization.
>> Meaningful anti-trafficking work should not make those in the sex
>> trade more susceptible to violence and exploitation. After the closure
>> of RedBook or Rentboy.com, sex workers became even more vulnerable and
>> economically precarious. Both FOSTA and SESTA promote the closing of
>> those websites and chill the possibility for organizations to create
>> internet-based platforms which service providers and communities use
>> to distribute and access harm reduction and safety information and
>> techniques.
>> Under the current language in the Communications and Decency Act,
>> prosecutors have every tool required to go after third parties,
>> including websites, who have engaged in trafficking in persons. The
>> proposed changes made by SESTA open this to a wider civil liability
>> without clear guidelines for how to obey the law. These costly
>> lawsuits could easily imperil any website which caters to, or even
>> acknowledges, people who trade sex. This including websites which:
>> - Host ads, enabling safer conditions and screening for violence
>> - Host harm reduction information and mechanisms, including safety and
>> health tips for workers
>> - Create community for people who trade sex to share information
>> We anticipate that this will have a chilling effect on websites and
>> organizations providing valuable safety information, community and
>> peer support. Denying these resources exacerbate the risk of violence
>> and victimization of sex workers, including those experiencing
>> exploitation.
>> Websites which hold that information are also vital resources for
>> trafficking investigations. Pushing the sex trade further underground
>> means that it will be harder to identify potential victims, find an
>> electronic trail for which to build cases, and resurrect information
>> to access post-conviction relief. SESTA disincentivizes websites from
>> holding or creating a digital footprint, destroying these valuable
>> tools for law enforcement and service providers.
>> Further, shutting down websites that sex workers use to screen clients
>> more safely through ads does not deter people from trading sex. To the
>> contrary, this only drives sex workers to find clients through
>> street-based work where they face higher rates of violence, HIV, Hep C
>> and STI transmission, and exploitation. And those with fewer options
>> will inevitably be the most impacted. The impact of this legislation
>> is that trafficking victims will see more trauma and violence and have
>> fewer opportunities for identification by law enforcement.
>> The House-backed bill, FOSTA, takes this one step further and
>> criminalizes anyone using those platforms - including sex workers and
>> trafficking victims - and expands this to prostitution, as opposed to
>> the narrower crime of sex trafficking. By expanding the Mann Act,
>> which criminalizes the transportation of a person across state lines
>> for the purpose of prostitution, to encompass all of the internet
>> means that all harm reduction tools, which almost always involve
>> connecting to peers and community for safety and information, makes
>> people criminally liable for up to ten years in prison. Under FOSTA,
>> sharing information about violence, victimizers, HIV/STI transmission
>> when engaged in sex work would put a person at risk for criminal
>> prosecution. We have already seen these activities criminalized to the
>> detriment of those trading sex, and very often criminalizing
>> trafficking victims themselves. Improving anti-trafficking efforts
>> does not mean expanding the umbrella to crimes which require no force,
>> fraud or coercion, and this expansion undermines the original intent
>> of the law.
>> Currently, there are no standards for what is expected of
>> internet-based platforms when trafficking in the sex trade is
>> suspected. This legislation does not get us closer to that goal, and
>> instead makes it harder for trafficking investigators, prosecutors or
>> service providers to connect with potential victims and sex workers
>> better able to protect themselves from exploitation. Meaningful
>> legislation would empower stakeholders - sex workers, internet
>> platforms, law enforcement, the legal community and service providers
>> - to come together and build those expectations in a way which
>> mitigates harm.
>> As organizations which believe in supporting the safety and lives of
>> those engaged in the sex trade, we condemn these efforts and encourage
>> Congress to focus their efforts on harm reduction. These moves
>> criminalize the survival of our communities, especially those with
>> compounding marginalizations which make resources even more difficult
>> to obtain.
>> Sincerely,