THE IMPACT OF FOSTA

On 2018-07-25, Representative Ann Wagner (R-MO-2) delivered a floor speech titled "THE IMPACT OF FOSTA" in the House. The speech addressed the environment and also covered crime and justice.

THE IMPACT OF FOSTA

Congressional Record, Volume 164 Issue 125 (Wednesday, July 25, 2018) [Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 125 (Wednesday, July 25, 2018)] [House] [Pages H7165-H7166] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] THE IMPACT OF FOSTA The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Wagner) for 5 minutes. Mrs. WAGNER. Mr. Speaker, in April, my bill, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, or FOSTA, became law. FOSTA allows Federal, State, and local prosecutors to go after the online businesses that are trafficking our children. Signing FOSTA into law has decimated the online sex trade that fuels human trafficking in America. Scores of major websites that promoted sex trafficking and prostitution have shut down, and countless lives have been saved. Our communities are better off now because of FOSTA: fewer victims are being trafficked; buyers are no longer able to easily purchase women and children; and fewer pimps are getting their payday. The online slave trade has never been more fragile than today. After passage of FOSTA, global ad volume declined 87 percent from the daily average. Websites that dominated the illegal sex trade shut down for fear of being prosecuted. Websites like Massage Tolls, The Erotic Review, and Escorts in College are gone. Household names like Reddit, Google, PayPal, and Microsoft updated their terms of service to ensure that platforms aren't being abused by traffickers. Additionally, the Department of Justice shut down backpage.com, and its owners were arrested. Right now, we have this criminal enterprise on its heels. Buyers and pimps don't know where to turn, and traffickers are getting 90 percent fewer responses than they got on Backpage and the other leading trafficking sites that shut down. The bottom line is websites are doing everything they can to avoid criminal liability, while trying to keep their criminal enterprise alive. But the loopholes that they were utilizing no longer exist. Financial institutions are also cracking down on accounts used by trafficking. CC Bill, the payment processor of these porn and trafficking hubs stopped processing credit cards for websites that facilitate prostitution. {time} 1100 CC Bill was the domestic credit card processor of last resort, and websites are now struggling to find a viable alternative. Together, we are putting the online slave trade out of business. As trafficking becomes less profitable, fewer victims will ever be sold and raped. [[Page H7166]] FOSTA is striking fear in the hearts of America's pimps and online predators. Law enforcement is seeing real results, and that is why FOSTA is being called the most significant anti-trafficking law in nearly 20 years. Experts have repeatedly said that sex trafficking will flourish until market force of risk is increased and we create a real criminal deterrent. FOSTA establishes that deterrent, and as a result, fewer businesses will ever, ever enter the sex trade. Sex advertising is at a new low for this decade. And this Congress has demonstrated that we can and will hold accountable the businesses that profit from the sale of our most vulnerable. It is because of the massive bipartisan majorities of both the House and the Senate that FOSTA is law today. The results we are seeing in our communities are proof that Congress can, and does, work together to achieve real results for the American people. Lives have been saved, fewer children and women are being sold into slavery, and trafficking and prostitution websites are being shut down. We are delivering real results for real people and our country is better off now because of it. ____________________