I POSTED A PREVIOUS VERSION OF THIS ON A DIFFERENT THREAD BUT THOUGHT IT REALLY WAS WORTHY OF IT'S OWN THREAD. ALSO NOT CLAIMING TO BE AN EXPERT ON THIS LEGISLATION OR ANYTHING ELSE - JUST MY THOUGHTS AND PERSONAL OBSERVATIONSSo John, whats your take on
The US no longer differentiates between consensual sex work and sex trafficking.
I hadn't read the new statute until you asked but for some reason it was amended in December from making intent to "promote sex trafficking a crime" to making "promote prostitution a crime". As far as I can tell there wasn't much discussion of this amendment. When a law is expected to pass by a landslide of vote the lobbyists get pretty aggressive with sneaking in amendments. This law passed in the Senate 97-2. There were some concerns raised by several groups but even google backed off at the end. https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/11/...bill-into-law/
The pertinent portions of the statute as passed read:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-...bill/1865/text§ 2421A. Promotion or facilitation of prostitution and reckless disregard of sex trafficking
“(a) In General.—Whoever, using a facility or means of interstate or foreign commerce or in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, owns, manages, or operates an interactive computer service (as such term is defined in defined in section 230(f) the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f))), or conspires or attempts to do so, with the intent to promote or facilitate the prostitution of another person shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both.
“(b) Aggravated Violation.—Whoever, using a facility or means of interstate or foreign commerce or in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, owns, manages, or operates an interactive computer service (as such term is defined in defined in section 230(f) the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f))), or conspires or attempts to do so, with the intent to promote or facilitate the prostitution of another person and—
“(1) promotes or facilitates the prostitution of 5 or more persons; or
“(2) acts in reckless disregard of the fact that such conduct contributed to sex trafficking, in violation of 1591(a),
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 25 years, or both.
In addition to including the amendment to prostitution rather than trafficking the "intent" requirement creates this bizarre situation where a website either has to very closely regulate everything or totally ignore everything. Total control to avoid violation and no control. Pretty harsh stuff. With the penalties involved all these websites are going to go foreign meaning they will be totally unregulated by any U.S. federal or state regulations.
The effects on the business and the websites has been huge:
1) BP got seized and the founders all arrested. I never used BP. From what I've read on here, I'd compare BP gals to an escort on here that has opted out of reviews and whose photos are not verified, risky.
2) TER is totally gone if you're using a U.S. IP address. If you get a foreign IP through TOR or some other service, you can access TER but you can't get any info: contact, reviews, links, favorites, etc. about any provider that is located in the U.S. I'd guess 95% of the listed providers are in the U.S. A few of the savvy providers are claiming they are based in Canada or elsewhere to try and get around this. If they successfully do so you can access their info, but unless you know they are actually in your area you can't find them with any geographic search. TER was free to search including contact info. If you wrote 2 reviews a month it was totally free, if not it was $30/month to get access to complete reviews. Ever serious U.S. punter I know has had a TER membership at one time or another.
3) P411 is based in Canada. As of today I can still access their info in the U.S. but they're are about 1/10th the size of TER and don't allow reviews or provide specific favorite information. The sent out message a few days ago saying they are also no longer accepting new clients or providers as members.
There are some other smaller sites still up and running as of today which I assume are not based in the U.S. I assume TER will sell off the business to foreign investors who will move operations and all ownership out of the U.S. but they have not done so thus far.
Basically right now it's fubar. I've been told by a few of the gals that the regulars are still mostly around but that new business is almost non-existent with the big websites gone.
Strange times in the U.S. I also used to think the attorney-client privilege was sacrosanct but after the seizure of computers and records from President Trump's personal attorney I'm no longer sure about that either. Regardless of anyone's personal opinion of Pres. Trump (let's not go there), this seizure was truly shocking.