Sex Workers Explain Why the SAFE TECH Act Will Break the Internet

In 2018, Congress passed the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), a law ostensibly designed to curb human trafficking by holding websites and online platforms responsible for user content that might facilitate sexual exploitation.

More than two years later, it's still unclear whether the law has actually achieved those goals. But among sex workers, the consequences were felt immediately: sites like Backpage and Craigslist Personals shut down, eliminating sources of income for thousands of precariously-employed workers. According to a 2020 survey of 98 internet-based sex workers, 99 percent of...