FSC Creates #StopSESTA Info Page

CHATSWORTH, Calif.—The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) has launched a special web page dedicated to providing helpful information for adult industry professionals and supporters who wish to aid in the effort to defeat Senate Bill 1693, or SESTA, which goes to the U.S. Senate floor Monday, March 12.

The #StopSESTA page lays out background details about the bill and its companion measure FOSTA, which passed the House of Representatives February 27, and provides easy guidelines for calling, writing and tweeting Senators to urge them to vote against the bill Monday.

"SESTA is dangerous, misguided legislation that will cost sex worker lives, and push consensual sex work underground," FSC executive director Eric Paul Leue said. "This is our fight, and it is important that we stand by those who provide direct services. But make no mistake, this law is dangerous for anyone with a sex-related business."

In a press release, FSC elaborated that while SESTA "ostensibly goes after sex traffickers, and websites that enable them" the bill "does not distinguish between consensual sex work and sex trafficking, giving state attorneys the ability to prosecute any sex-related business. ... Currently, only California and New Hampshire have laws separating pornography from prostitution. SESTA would give each state attorney general wide lattitude to prosecute adult companies under federal anti-trafficking legislation."

Added Leue, "Under SESTA, a zealous state attorney general could now prosecute a cam operator in North Carolina for facilitating trafficking based on a conversation between a performer and a fan, or go after a clips site based on content created by a third-party in Alabama. There is no safe harbor, and the will at the state level is there."

The #StopSESTA web page can be found here