This is true of every intermediary liability system, and it's been true since the earliest days of the internet, and it keeps getting proven to be true. Six years ago, Trump signed SESTA/FOSTA, a law that allowed platforms to be held civilly liable by survivors of sex trafficking. At the time, advocates claimed that this would *only* affect "sexual slavery" and would not impact consensual sex-work.

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But from the start, and ever since, SESTA/FOSTA has *primarily* targeted consensual sex-work, to the immediate, lasting, and profound harm of sex workers:

https://hackinghustling.org/what-is-sesta-fosta/

SESTA/FOSTA killed "bad date" forums where sex workers circulated details of violent and unstable clients, killed online booking sites that allowed sex workers to screen clients, and killed the payment processors that let sex workers avoid holding unsafe amounts of cash:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/09/fight-overturn-fosta-unconstitutional-internet-censorship-law-continues

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SESTA/FOSTA made voluntary sex work more dangerous - and also made life harder for law enforcement efforts to target sex trafficking:

https://hackinghustling.org/erased-the-impact-of-fosta-sesta-2020/

Despite half a decade of SESTA/FOSTA, despite 15 years of filternets, despite a quarter century of notice-and-takedown, people *continue* to insist that getting rid of safe harbors will punish Big Tech and make life better for everyday internet users.

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As of now, it seems likely that Section 230 will be dead by then end of 2025, even if there is nothing in place to replace it:

https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/bipartisan-energy-and-commerce-leaders-announce-legislative-hearing-on-sunsetting-section-230

This isn't the win that some people think it is. By making platforms responsible for screening the content their users post, we create a system that only the largest tech monopolies can survive, and only then by removing or blocking anything that threatens or displeases the wealthy and powerful.

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Filternets are not precision-guided takedown machines; they're indiscriminate cluster-bombs that destroy anything in the vicinity of illegal speech - including (and *especially*) the best-informed, most informative discussions of how these systems go wrong, and how that blocks the complaints of the powerless, the marginalized, and the abused.

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Image:
EFF
https://www.eff.org/files/banner_library/yt-fu-1b.png

CC BY 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

eof/