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Radical Feminism, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, and the Digression of Sex Work in the United States

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Radical Feminism, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, and the Digression of Sex Work in the United States No Safe Harbor: Radical Feminism, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, and the Digression of Sex Work in the United States by Jennie Pearson B.J. (Journalism), Ryerson University, 2017 Extended Essay Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the School of Communication Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology © Jennie Pearson 2019 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Summer 2019 Copyright in this work rests with the author. Please ensure that any reproduction or re-use is done in accordance with the relevant national copyright legislation. Approval Name: Jennie Pearson Degree: Master of Arts Title: No Safe Harbor: Radical Feminism, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, and the Digression of Sex Work in the United States Program Director: Katherine Reilly Ellen Balka Senior Supervisor Professor Katherine Reilly Program Director Associate Professor Date Approved: August 27, 2019 ii Abstract In April of 2018, the U.S. Government passed a new internet law- Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), which many have argued has contributed to a surge in online censorship around sex work and supposedly, sex trafficking. While FOSTA/SESTA has been celebrated as a win for anti- trafficking activists, sex workers are already experiencing a loss of community, income, and resources, as well as an increase in violence. Using a third-wave feminist lens, this paper follows the eight-year campaign leading to FOSTA/SESTA’s inception and argues that this law is the most recent example of the U.S. Government’s conflation of sex work and sex trafficking, as well as an appropriation of radical feminist rhetoric as a means of reducing sex workers’ visibility. This paper provides an analysis of FOSTA/SESTA and argues that it is a largely flawed, regressive ‘solution’ to sex-trafficking that will only serve to push the industry even further underground, and in doing so, increases risk for those working as sex workers. Keywords: sex work; FOSTA/SESTA; human trafficking; sex trafficking; internet freedom; radical feminism iii Dedication “Sex workers are everywhere. We are your neighbours. We brush past you on the street. Our kids go to the same school as yours. We’re behind you at the self-service checkout, with baby food and a bottle of Pinot Grigio. People who sell sex are in your cafeteria, your political party, your place of worship. Sex workers are incarcerated inside immigration centers, and sex workers are protesting outside them.” ¾Juno Mac and Molly Smith, Revolting Prostitutes (2018;1) For sex workers everywhere. iv Acknowledgements My deepest thanks to Dr. Ellen Balka, Dr. Katherine Reilly, Dr. Adel Iskandar, Dr. Kirsten McAllister, and Dr. Enda Brophy for your guidance and encouragement throughout the past year. v Table of Contents Approval ............................................................................................................................. ii Abstract ............................................................................................................................. iii Dedication ......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... v Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. vi List of Figures .................................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1. Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2. Literature Review: Oppression vs. Profession ....................................... 6 2.1. 2nd Wave Feminism, Liberalism, and the Sex Wars ............................................. 6 Libertarian Feminism ................................................................................................. 8 2.2. Defining Sex Work as Work "I will sell my pussy but I won't sell my soul” .......... 10 Chapter 3. Prison Nation ........................................................................................... 15 3.1. Definitions of Trafficking and U.S. Law ................................................................ 15 Radical Feminism and the Law ............................................................................... 18 Chapter 4. Sex Work and the Digital Shift ............................................................... 22 The Rise of Adult Ads .............................................................................................. 23 Safety and Community ............................................................................................ 24 Chapter 5. FOSTA/SESTA ......................................................................................... 28 5.1. Jane Doe vs. Backpage.com ............................................................................... 29 How FOSTA/SESTA Fails to Recognize the Realities of Sex Trafficking ............... 30 Free Speech ............................................................................................................ 31 What FOSTA/SESTA Says About Sex Work .......................................................... 32 5.2. One Year Since FOSTA/SESTA: What Communities are Saying, Feeling & Living ................................................................................................................... 35 A Return to Street Level Sex Work .......................................................................... 35 Digital Spaces, Reporting, and Arrests .................................................................... 36 Shadow-banning ...................................................................................................... 36 Chapter 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 40 6.1. I am Not Jane Doe: Sex Workers Fight Back ...................................................... 40 6.2. Sex Workers for Decriminalization ....................................................................... 41 References ..................................................................................................................... 44 vi List of Figures Figure 1: Sex workers continue to face increased censorship on platforms like Instagram, which the above post from Jacq alludes to. Image Credit: @JacqtheStripper via Instagram ............................................................... 1 Figure 2: Sex work and sex trafficking both exist within a spectrum of choice ............... 16 Figure 4: Instagram has been criticized for over- censoring “sexually explicit” content Image Credit: @Exotic.Cancer via Instagram ......................................... 38 Figure 5: Leading to FOSTA/SESTA’s inception, activists campaigned for the bill’s dismissal Image Credit: @RamonaSlick via Instagram ........................... 40 vii Chapter 1. Introduction On April 23 of this year, Jacq the Stripper, a New York based artist, sex worker, activist, and social media personality, announced to her 150 thousand Instagram followers that she would be spending less time and energy on her account. This decision was inspired by changes to Instagram’s community guidelines and censorship practices. Changes that have resulted in the removal of hundreds of personal accounts belonging to sex workers, and an algorithm that favours “fucking acai (fruit) bowls” as Jacq wrote. In her post, Jacq ended by saying “I don’t know what’s next for folx like us...I don’t know where to go” (jacqthestripper, 2019). Figure 1: Sex workers continue to face increased censorship on platforms like Instagram, which the above post from Jacq alludes to. Image Credit: @JacqtheStripper via Instagram Instagram, like many other social media platforms and websites, has spent the last year tightening their screening processes, censoring ‘sexually explicit’ content and feminized bodies, all in attempt to eliminate the risk of sex trafficking taking place through their software application. In April of 2018, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), were passed into United States’ (US) law as the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017. This law makes online service providers liable for certain content that third-party users may post to their site, something that previously was protected under Section 230 1 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act; The Safe Harbour Provision. Website operators are now federally liable for publishing information designed to facilitate sex trafficking or otherwise facilitate sex trafficking and can be taken to court if content deemed inappropriate in the context of either FOSTA or SESTA occurs. To protect themselves, website operators have been quick to shut down forums, sections, or whole sites, where sex trafficking could feasibly happen. Craigslist has removed their personals section. Backapges.com has been seized by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. The sites’ two owners are facing a federal investigation. At the same time website owners were scrambling to re-shape their platforms, free speech advocates identified FOSTA/SESTA as a threat to the first amendment that “diminishes the voice of the individual online”1 (Electronic Frontier Foundation, 2018a). Immediately
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