I decided to research this problem with adult payment services closing more deeply, and I do not like what I am finding. It is now my opinion that these closures may be the direct result of the passage of the FOSTA/SESTA legislation, which Trump signed into law on April 11, 2018. This may be the tip of a tidal wave that could shake many parts of the adult services business. This may be a topic that the models are already discussing extensively in their private forums. I have no way to see those conversations, and I apologize if I am duplicating that content.
FOSTA/SESTA is anti sex trafficking legislation. The problem is that - as usual - politicians twisted the language of the bill to completely confuse criminal acts of sex trafficking with consensual acts by individuals who have nothing to do with sex trafficking. I cannot find the language in the bill that passed into law on April 11, but the version that was being considered based on the original FOSTA bill made it illegal to operate “an interactive computer service” with “the intent to promote or facilitate the prostitution of another person.” Someone who is more up on this issue, please update us on what is the relevant language in the bill that became law on April 11. I really hope they dumbed down this language.
The way the bill was supposed to be written was to attack people who force people - against their will - into prostitution. The language as written will be used by politicians and district attorneys to attack websites that enable all kinds of sex work simply because the site "facilitates" behavior that might only represent a small fraction of the website.
What also makes this bill a threat to the entire online sex industry is that it removes the Section 230 protections of the Communications Decency Act. As a result, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and even a web hosting service, all become liable for criminal penalties if they host content that facilitates prostitution. Even though - technically - most sex work is not prostitution, many of these sites do not want to get into the business of reading your content and making legal judgments about what is and what is not allowed behavior. Many of them could resort to just wiping out adult content as a way to minimize their legal risks.
When the First Choice news came down and I read about the bank's liquidity problem, at first I thought it was an issue specific to the bank. What triggered all of my suspicion and research was the news that ePayments - which does not use any bank to issue its own Mastercards - suddenly stopped issuing cards and said it was reviewing its policies. Then I read that ePayments was no longer accepting wire transfers denominated in US Dollars. That was a clue to me that ePayments is distancing itself from the US market and does not want to be subject to US regulation. Now that I see FOSTA/SESTA is law, it all becomes clearer what is going on here. This is all the start of a big squeeze on every part of the online sex industry.
This is a truly depressing moment for free speech. I really did not believe they were going to pass this thing into law, and I underestimated the whole situation.
FOSTA/SESTA is anti sex trafficking legislation. The problem is that - as usual - politicians twisted the language of the bill to completely confuse criminal acts of sex trafficking with consensual acts by individuals who have nothing to do with sex trafficking. I cannot find the language in the bill that passed into law on April 11, but the version that was being considered based on the original FOSTA bill made it illegal to operate “an interactive computer service” with “the intent to promote or facilitate the prostitution of another person.” Someone who is more up on this issue, please update us on what is the relevant language in the bill that became law on April 11. I really hope they dumbed down this language.
The way the bill was supposed to be written was to attack people who force people - against their will - into prostitution. The language as written will be used by politicians and district attorneys to attack websites that enable all kinds of sex work simply because the site "facilitates" behavior that might only represent a small fraction of the website.
What also makes this bill a threat to the entire online sex industry is that it removes the Section 230 protections of the Communications Decency Act. As a result, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and even a web hosting service, all become liable for criminal penalties if they host content that facilitates prostitution. Even though - technically - most sex work is not prostitution, many of these sites do not want to get into the business of reading your content and making legal judgments about what is and what is not allowed behavior. Many of them could resort to just wiping out adult content as a way to minimize their legal risks.
When the First Choice news came down and I read about the bank's liquidity problem, at first I thought it was an issue specific to the bank. What triggered all of my suspicion and research was the news that ePayments - which does not use any bank to issue its own Mastercards - suddenly stopped issuing cards and said it was reviewing its policies. Then I read that ePayments was no longer accepting wire transfers denominated in US Dollars. That was a clue to me that ePayments is distancing itself from the US market and does not want to be subject to US regulation. Now that I see FOSTA/SESTA is law, it all becomes clearer what is going on here. This is all the start of a big squeeze on every part of the online sex industry.
This is a truly depressing moment for free speech. I really did not believe they were going to pass this thing into law, and I underestimated the whole situation.
