Senate Likely to Pass Bill Limiting Websites’ Immunity in Sex-Trafficking Cases - WSJ

WASHINGTON—Senate leaders are pushing ahead with legislation aimed at curbing online sex trafficking, despite last-minute efforts by some tech companies and their allies to soften or slow down the effort.

The measure, which the Senate is expected to consider next week, would help prosecutors and victims take to court websites that have facilitated the internet sex business by limiting the broad federal immunity online businesses now enjoy for actions of their users. The immunity law was adopted in the 1990s as a way to nurture the fledgling internet. Trafficking lawsuits against online businesses have usually been tossed out of court because of the immunity.

Backers of the legislation say it is needed to combat an epidemic of online trafficking, which often involves minors. Momentum has been growing for the legislation, and it is expected to pass the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) brought up the legislation late last week, and passage could come as soon as Tuesday. The Houselast month passed it by a wide margin after adding an amendment that concerned the online firms because it carves out an exception to the immunity rule that the companies want to preserve.

The tech industry has approached the legislation with caution. On the one hand, many companies don’t want to publicly oppose a measure aimed at curbing sex trafficking. But they also see the immunity law as a legal pillar of the internet and fear that removing it would subject them to costly lawsuits and erode a protection that has helped the internet flourish.

That quandary has left an industry typically aligned together on policy issues divided on tactics and sending mixed signals about its position.

For several years, big internet companies such as FacebookInc. and AlphabetInc.’s Google unit resisted any changes to the federal immunity law, fearing that carving out even a narrow exception for sex trafficking could open the door to exceptions for other harms perpetrated on the internet.

But determined efforts by advocacy groups as well as key lawmakers, including Sens. Rob Portman (R., Ohio), Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) and Rep. Ann Wagner (R., Mo.), have helped turn the tide on the issue. That has persuaded some big tech firms to switch to supporting the move.

In fact, Facebook has openly advocated for its passage. Just hours before the House vote, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said in a post that “we at Facebook support efforts to pass amended legislation in the House that would allow responsible companies to continue fighting sex trafficking while giving victims the chance to seek justice against companies that knowingly facilitate” the business.

Major tech associations also have splintered on their approach.

In the fall, as big internet companies were in the spotlight during investigations and hearings into the Russia-meddling scandal, the Internet Association endorsed the legislation.

But other tech groups that include many of the same members continued to fight, urging lawmakers to resist far-reaching changes or at least slow down the process.

The next battleground will come over proposed amendments to the legislation that have been circulated by Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), a longtime opponent of efforts to amend the immunity standard. His amendments would guarantee extra funding for prosecution of sex traffickers and would encourage tech businesses to take steps to combat trafficking on their platforms, without becoming targets for lawsuits.

Some tech advocates have been urging the Senate to adopt the amendments, saying they would make the legislation less harmful.

“If the Senate won’t pass Wyden’s amendments, it isn’t serious about protecting the victims of sex trafficking,” Berin Szoka, president of TechFreedom, a conservative group that receives support from Google, said in a press release on Friday.

But some victim-rights groups say the amendments could effectively kill the legislation, by sending it back to the House for another vote.

In a letter to senators, former Rep. Linda Smith, now president of Shared Hope International, said: “I urge you to not allow this incredible progress to be derailed by tweaks and refinements that will effectively ‘love this bill to death.’”

The Trump administration says it supports the effort, while expressing a few qualms about details of the new legislation, such as whether the law could punish conduct that occurred before it was passed.

http://archive.is/3Czmq