Online Sex Trafficking Research Articles

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Sexual Violence Survivors and Censorship on the Social Media Platform TikTok.

Sexual violence is a public health threat in the USA and past research has found that survivors who seek support and disclose their experiences tend to have greater positive outcomes, such as positive life changes, reduced post-traumatic stress disorder, and fewer depressive symptoms. While social media have become an important site of disclosure, over-moderation of sex and sexuality on social media platforms due to the passing of the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act may inadvertently lead to the removal of survivors' posts and hinder their ability to build communities of support. In line with critical discourse analysis, this study examined the discursive strategies utilized in online disclosures made by sexual violence survivors on the social media platform TikTok to determine if they make use of algospeak, a neologism referring to the strategy of misspelling words or using coded language to avoid detection and deletion by site moderators. Analysis of the data indicated that sexual violence survivors do make use of algospeak, as well as direct and indirect language, to share their disclosures, and that, while TikTok claims to provide space for survivors' stories, its guidelines and approach to language about sex and sexuality may create barriers to building supportive communities.

Unrevealing the Role of Social Media on Online Sex Trafficking: A Case Study and Conceptual Model of Cyber Prostitution in Indonesia

Online prostitution is an example of cybercrime which is increasingly happening in today's digital era. Even though online prostitution cases have been well documented, in Indonesia itself there is no criminal law regulation that specifically addresses prostitution cases that occur on social media. Likewise, there is a lack of research that discusses the process of how online prostitution cases can occur from start to finish and social media interventions in these cases. The average previous research only focused on law violations that occurred at the final stage or at the exploitation stage. This indirectly ignores the role of social media in the process of building trust between perpetrators and victims (trust building), the process of trading or advertising (advertising), and the process of transactions between perpetrators and potential buyers (transactions). Therefore, in this study the author will discuss the role of technology in online prostitution cases and their relationship with criminals, victims and members of the police. The research design used by the author is Research & Development Level 1. The data in this study were obtained using in-depth interviews with informants and analysed by a deductive approach adapted from Nunamaker's research. Based on the results of the data analysis that has been carried out, the author finds that the social media most used by the actors is the MiChat application as much as 44%, Facebook 26%, WhatsApp 12% and other applications as much as 18%. In addition, this research also produces a conceptual model that describes the various processes that occur in online prostitution cases and the role of each social unit and social media. The conceptual model has been tested and validated by experts using the rating scale method. Obtained a percentage value of 86.67%. The results of this assessment prove that the conceptual model created is very feasible.

“This is Not a Slippery Slope” Versus “The Queer Sex Panic is Just Beginning”: Discourse About FOSTA-SESTA in Ideologically Diverse U.S. Mass media, 2017–2023

This research analyzes mass media coverage of The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and Stop Enabling Online Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), two landmark 2018 bills that changed how sexual content is moderated by internet service providers in the United States. Using critical discourse analysis, I compare the framing of 101 news stories about FOSTA-SESTA published in mainstream U.S. newspapers, feminist media, and LGBTQ magazines over the course of 7 years. Findings describe coverage of online sex work, online child sexual exploitation, and free speech concerns that preceded and followed the landmark ruling from 2017 to 2023. I show FOSTA-SESTA's progression as a topic of discourse during the 2020 presidential election and compare differences between coverage in ideologically diverse U.S. media. While mainstream news originally supported FOSTA-SESTA's efforts to restrict the tech industry and prevent online child sexual exploitation, alternative media tended to present skeptical arguments that supported sex workers and other marginalized communities. Journalism industry interventions are discussed.

“Difficult to Just Exist”: Social Media Platform Community Guidelines and the Free Speech Rights of Sex Workers

The 2018 passing of FOSTA (Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act) and SESTA (Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act) set new limits on the free speech protection of Section 230 of the 1996 Communication Decency Act. In the aftermath, many social media sites shut down forums used by sex workers, and on some sites sex workers were systematically deplatformed or shadow banned. Social media platforms are critical spaces for sex workers. In addition to using them to safely do their work, social media platforms offer a place to communicate explicitly about their profession and find community support, particularly for sex workers from marginalized communities who are often physically isolated and lack support networks. We performed a qualitative analysis of Community Guidelines from seven social media platforms (Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Snapchat, and Tumblr). Our research focused on guidelines related to nudity, sexual content, and solicitation. The restrictions placed on content by social media platforms have serious implications for the ability of sex workers to do their jobs safely, advocate for themselves, and find community support online. Community guidelines, as they relate to sex workers, need a more nuanced approach to balancing free speech rights and preventing harm that prioritizes the sometimes competing needs of marginalized communities.

The Use of EMOJIS in Online Human Sex Trafficking Ads

Technology has dramatically changed the way criminals conduct their illicit activities. Specifically, the Internet has become a major facilitator of online human sex trafficking. Traffickers are using these technologies to market their victims which presents new challenges for efforts to combat sex trafficking. This study used knowledge management principles and natural language processing methods to develop an improved ontology of online sex trafficking ads. The language of these ads is constantly evolving; therefore, this study explored the role of a new type of indicator, emojis, to the ontology of human trafficking indicators.

Non-consensual sharing of images: Commercial content creators, sexual content creation platforms and the lack of protection

In this article, we explore the experiences of commercial content creators who have their content (videos, photos, and images) misused. This article reports from a mixed-methods study consisting of 16 interviews with content creators; nine interviews with practitioners who support sex workers and interviews with seven adult service website (ASW) operators. These qualitative data are supported by 221 responses to a survey from the content creators’ community. We describe how content creators experience blackmail, threats of exposure and recording without knowledge, stalking, harassment, doxing, ‘deepfakes’ and impersonation. We conclude that the online sex work environment may not be as safe as previous research has demonstrated, and that commercial content creators are often ignored by governance and platforms following sex workers’ complaints regarding their content being misused. We reflect on the forthcoming UK Online Safety Bill as compared to the US Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act/Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (SESTA/FOSTA) law which have seen implications across the globe for digital sex workers. We offer solutions for ASWs to act more responsibly.

Correction to: Exploring the relationship between super bowls and potential online sex trafficking

Correction to: Exploring the relationship between super bowls and potential online sex trafficking

Exploring the relationship between super bowls and potential online sex trafficking.

Sex trafficking is one type of human trafficking, which involves scenarios where individuals are not paid and are forced to engage in forced sex, forced prostitution, and sexual slavery. Online advertising is increasingly used by traffickers as an anonymous and efficient method to exploit victims. Large sporting events have been linked to increases in sex trafficking, although there is limited empirical evidence to support this claim. The goal of this study is to answer the following question: What is the relationship between Super Bowls and potential online sex trafficking? Using time series Poisson analysis of secondary data on online sexual service advertisements in Florida during the 2020 and 2021 Super Bowls, which took place in Miami and Tampa, Florida, respectively, the result indicates an increase in online advertisements that exhibit indicators of sex trafficking during the two Super Bowls. The paper concludes by providing recommendations for federal, state, and local law enforcement for improving sex trafficking responses during large sporting events and outlines a future research agenda on the relationship between large sporting events and sex trafficking.

Internet Governance Through Site Shutdowns: The Impact of Shutting Down Two Major Commercial Sex Advertising Sites

In the two weeks after the U.S. Congress passed a package of anti-sex trafficking bills on March 21, 2018, two of the largest online commercial sex advertising platforms ceased operation. On March 23, Craigslist voluntarily removed their personals section, which had been dominated by advertisements for commercial sex. And on April 6, the Department of Justice seized Backpage.com, the largest online platform for commercial sex advertisements. Our research examines the impact of these shutdowns on a variety of important outcome variables, notably prostitution arrests and violence against women—variables that the prior literature has shown were impacted by the introduction of commercial sex advertising platforms. We employ a generalized difference-in-differences model by exploiting cross-city variation in the preshutdown usage of the two shuttered sites. We find no causal effect of the shutdowns on any of the outcome variables we measure. Further analysis suggests that these null results are likely due to the fluidity of online markets. Our data show that the majority of advertisers and users of Backpage and Craigslist’s personals quickly moved to other (often off-shore) commercial sex advertising portals. Our results highlight the challenges that governments face in reducing online sex trafficking, as the market for commercial sex advertising appears agile enough to quickly disperse to offshore sites after a few popular domestic sites are shut down. Our results have general implications for the governance of other illegal activities online. This paper was accepted by D. J. Wu, information systems. Supplemental Material: Data and the online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4498 .

FOSTA: A Transnational Disaster Especially for Marginalized Sex Workers

The Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) has caused immeasurable economic harm and compromises workers' safety and harm reduction practices. The law has had the most harmful effects on the most marginal sex workers—people of color, transgender and non-binary people, people with disabilities, and working-class sex workers. Further, while FOSTA is a U.S. law its harms reverberate worldwide. Empirical data already demonstrates the damages of FOSTA to sex workers. With draft bills proposing to study the law (S.3165 - SAFE SEX Workers Study Act), and pending legal challenges, scholars continuing to gather data can help demonstrate to the U.S. Congress that reliable evidence unequivocally shows that they should repeal FOSTA. There is a need for intersectional analysis that explores the uneven impact of FOSTA, especially its effects on transgender and non-binary sex workers, who, alongside Black, Indigenous, and Latinx, and disabled sex workers, are often at the highest levels of risk. In this article, drawing from 34 in-depth interviews with transmasculine and non-binary sex workers, expanding existing studies documenting the harms of FOSTA on sex workers, I provide empirical evidence showing how the law has adverse effects on the most marginal and that such results are not limited to the U.S.

A Critical Analysis of the Enactment of the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2018

This paper presents a critical analysis of the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2018 (FOSTA), and the debate in the United States Congress that led to its enactment. Although the stated intention of this law was to protect victims of trafficking and for websites to be held accountable for their role in facilitating trafficking, FOSTA was controversial. It was predicted that FOSTA would be ineffective at achieving these goals and that sex workers would be disproportionately affected.
 
 Two methodological approaches were used in order to understand why and how FOSTA was enacted - phronetic analysis (Flyvbjerg, 2001) and Bacchi’s (2009) the what’s the problem represented to be approach. These approaches guided the process of analysis of congressional debates related to FOSTA, and the collection and analysis of additional data.
 Based on this analysis, this paper argues that lawmakers and other stakeholders created and disseminated a powerful narrative about sex trafficking in order to convince lawmakers to vote in favor of FOSTA. Those who spoke out against this narrative were ignored or silenced, and those who were expected to be most impacted by FOSTA (e.g. sex workers) were excluded from the discussion. This article gives insight into the lawmaking process and how it can be shaped by various actors and ideologies, and how sex workers are impacted by legislation aimed at curtailing sex trafficking.

Deplatforming sexual speech in the age of FOSTA/SESTA

ABSTRACT The 2018 US anti-sex trafficking laws Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) were intended to limit the use of online communication platforms as illegal sexual commerce hubs. Several years later, sex trafficking prosecutions have plummeted, and US law enforcement agencies lament the loss of internet sites like Backpage where they previously identified victims. Instead, a range of serious consequences like the diminishment of global sex workers’ rights and the chilling of sexual speech abound. FOSTA/SESTA are analyzed as part of the deplatforming of sex, and as having emboldened technology corporations to make sweeping changes to the sexual content that can exist on mainstream platforms like Google. Digital platforms are central to sexuality, and thus we must articulate and defend our rights against government intrusion and overreaching corporate content moderation. Citizens deserve to pursue consensual sexual lives and protecting the ability to do so, even when that entails challenging laws and oligopolistic technology corporations’ policies, is a social justice mandate.

Sex‐positive criminology: Possibilities for legal and social change

AbstractThis article provides an introduction to sex‐positive criminology and its goals for change. Sex‐positive criminology draws from the “thick desire” organizing principle, which is a rights‐based approach to human sexuality, as well as from positive sexuality approaches. It also draws from critical, queer, and feminist criminological traditions and abolitionist sensibilities. We discuss examples that pertain to key tenets of sex‐positivity: consent and bodily autonomy, education, medical access, harm reduction, and ways to increase agency. Main topics of discussion include addressing deeply harmful and sex‐negative laws and policies that perpetuate state violence, such as coerced or forced sterilization, criminalization of abortion and pregnancy loss, sexual and physical assault of sex workers by police, criminalization through medically inaccurate laws, and legislation such as Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act that puts marginalized populations at risk. Throughout, we reflect on possibilities for sex‐positive laws and policies and the social impacts they would have, such as improving health and well‐being.

Being Seen after Going Stealth

Being Seen after Going Stealth

Anti-Trafficking in the Time of FOSTA/SESTA: Networked Moral Gentrification and Sexual Humanitarian Creep

Globally, sex workers have highlighted the harms that accompany anti-prostitution efforts advanced via anti-trafficking policy, and there is a growing body of social science research that has emerged documenting how anti-trafficking efforts contribute to carceral and sexual humanitarian interventions. Yet mounting evidence on the harms of anti-trafficking policies has done little to quell the passage of more laws, including policies aimed at stopping sexual exploitation facilitated by technology. The 2018 passage of the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the corresponding Senate bill, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), is a case study in how efforts to curb sexual exploitation online actually heighten vulnerabilities for the people they purport to protect. Drawing on 34 months of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with sex workers and trafficked persons (n = 58) and key informants (n = 20) in New York and Los Angeles, we analyze FOSTA/SESTA and its harmful effects as a launchpad to more broadly explore how technology, criminalization, shifting governance arrangements, and conservative moralities cohere to exacerbate sex workers’ vulnerability.

Laypeople’s Knowledge and Misconceptions of Sex Trafficking Influenced by Training Formats

ABSTRACT Despite the global epidemic of sex trafficking, laypeople and professionals possess little knowledge about trafficking. Lack of awareness engenders failed victim identification, victim-blaming attitudes, re-victimization, and dissipated justice system resources. To address this paucity of awareness, the current research evaluated the efficacy of brief online sex trafficking trainings. Participants were 268 adults recruited nationwide in the United States. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three sex trafficking trainings (facts-only, stories-only, combination). Participants completed pre-training measures of myth endorsement, perceived knowledge, and actual knowledge of sex trafficking. Immediately post-training, participants completed measures of perceived knowledge, actual knowledge, and training satisfaction. Following a one-week delay, participants again responded to measures of myth acceptance, perceived knowledge, and actual knowledge. Regardless of training condition, participants showed improvements in “myth endorsement reduction”, perceived knowledge, and actual knowledge post-training. Compared to the stories-only and combination training conditions, participants in the facts-only condition expressed the greatest reduction in myth endorsement, greatest perceived knowledge, greatest actual knowledge, and greatest training satisfaction. Findings indicate promise for a brief online sex trafficking training using the facts-only format. We discuss research for further investigation of sex trafficking trainings and policy and practice recommendation for professionals.

Textualism and the Modern Explanatory Statute

The explanatory statute is a largely forgotten legislative tool. Once common, the explanatory statute was a retrospective act that identified an ambiguity or erroneous interpretation of a prior law and then directed the legislature’s view of the correct interpretation. Although now rare, the explanatory statute is not dead. Just a few years ago, Congress enacted an amendment to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act—a now hotly contested topic—with the hallmarks of an explanatory statute. In the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 (“FOSTA”), Congress concluded that courts had over-extended Section 230 immunity to preclude claims by sex trafficking victims and so clarified that the immunity should not be construed to impair those claims. So far, however, courts and commentators have taken a narrow view of FOSTA and assumed that it preserves only those claims specifically enumerated in the statute. This view proceeds from an underappreciation for explanatory statutes and their proper application. Indeed, given their rarity, little has been written about how to approach statutes of this sort under the prevailing textualist methodology. This Article aims to fill that gap by proposing a generally applicable textualist framework for analyzing modern explanatory statutes. When applied to FOSTA, that framework yields a perhaps surprising result: A sound, textualist reading of FOSTA may invite federal courts to recalibrate the scope of Section 230 immunity, even outside the context of sex trafficking claims.

Disparities in HIV-related risk and socio-economic outcomes among trans women in the sex trade and effects of a targeted, anti-sex-trafficking policy.

Marginalization of sex work presents numerous risks for trans women (TW) engaged in the sex trade, including criminalization, traumatization, and contracting HIV. We identified socio-economic and HIV risk disparities among trans women sex workers and others who do sex work (TWSW/OWSW), and evaluated these disparities for TWSW/OWSW compared to TW not engaged in sex work from pre- and post-implementation of the US 2018 "Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act" and "Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act" (FOSTA-SESTA). We analyzed 429 trans women (TW) from the Trans*National cohort study (2016-2019). Generalized estimating equations (GEE) characterized differences in socio-economic and HIV risk outcomes for TWSW/OWSW compared to TW not engaged in sex work over the study period. Adjusted, pre-to-post law changes in these outcomes for TWSW/OWSW versus TW not engaged in sex work were compared using difference-in-differences GEE regression analyses. Over 18 months, TWSW/OWSW had higher adjusted odds of being unstably housed, having income from criminalized sources, experiencing transphobic hate crimes, experiencing discrimination from police/courts, being incarcerated, meeting sex partners in the street/public settings, meeting sex partners on Craigslist or other online forums (except dating apps), or engaging in condomless anal intercourse, (p<0.01 for all comparisons); TWSW/OWSW also had a higher mean number of income sources (p=0.03). One difference-in-differences analysis showed additive interaction: the adjusted mean number of income sources reported by TWSW/OWSW compared to those not engaged in sex work decreased from pre-to post-FOSTA-SESTA (from 1.79 to 1.48 for TWSW/OWSW and from 1.52 to 1.47 for TW not engaged in sex work; p=0.01). Disparities in socio-economic and HIV-related risk outcomes exist for TWSW/OWSW in San Francisco. There is an urgent need for comprehensive, long-term follow-up data of TW to accurately analyze policy effects, especially given the recent enactment of a number of other policies targeting TW.

'I've Never Been So Exploited': The consequences of FOSTA-SESTA in Aotearoa New Zealand

Aotearoa New Zealand’s 2003 decriminalisation of sex work has reduced the exploitation of sex workers, as well as the health and safety risks in the industry. Nevertheless, United States-driven criminalising policies still influence sex workers abroad. The Fight Online Sex Trafficking and Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Acts (FOSTA-SESTA) effectively criminalised websites where sex workers advertise. Shortly before that, the FBI shut down the internationally used Backpage.com, leading many sex workers in both countries to return to the streets or brothels. These events contributed to the rising dominance of one advertising website, NewZealandGirls.com. Drawing on twenty semi-structured interviews and four observation cases with sex workers in Auckland, in this paper, I explore the international consequences of FOSTA-SESTA and the closure of Backpage on my participants. I show that this punitive approach to segments of the online sex industry has not only placed sex workers in greater financial insecurity, but has reduced their ability to control their working conditions. These outcomes, I conclude, have undermined the positive impacts of decriminalisation, while exacerbating socioeconomic, racial, gender, and legal inequalities in Auckland’s sex industry.

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