“On April 11, President Donald Trump signed into law a measure that its supporters say is necessary to combat human trafficking. The bill is a combination of two measures — the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act and the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (SESTA-FOSTA) — and was passed following two years of bipartisan advocacy. 

And while the goal to end sex trafficking is a much needed and noble one, sex workers and their advocates say the new law will make consensual-sex work more dangerous and obscure the online activities of sex traffickers, making them more difficult to find and prosecute.

The Department of Justice defines sex trafficking as when “a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.” SESTA-FOSTA targets online platforms and makes them liable for what their users post, say and do on their forums by revising the Communications Decency Act, a law that previously protected websites from being liable in civil court for their users’ actions on their platforms….”

https://www.pghcitypaper.com/news/a-pittsburgh-chapter-of-the-sex-workers-outreach-project-opens-amid-new-legislation-7781397