Senate passes anti-sex-trafficking bill opposed by tech companies

market watch ^

[MNDude]

Prosecutors and victims will have greater power to go after websites that have facilitated the online sex business, under a new bill passed by the Senate on Wednesday, and big tech companies fear it will open the door to greater regulation by Washington.

The Senate passed the bill, 97 to 2, and sent it to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it. The House passed it last month.

The bill’s passage marked a rare political defeat for the technology industry, which has become a powerful lobbying force in Washington in recent years. Large companies like Alphabet Inc.’s GOOGL, -0.16% GOOG, +0.19% Google long resisted any change to the immunity law, fearing it could lead to a greater erosion of their congressionally granted legal protections against being held liable for what users post online

[MNDude]

Doesn’t surprise me dirty Google would oppose this.

Sure seems to be a lot of anti trafficking legislation lately.

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[colorado tanker]

This is not good. What the bill really does is create an exception to the legal exemption for web hosts for the illegal activities of unaffiliated users. They chose sex trafficking because, well, everyone loathes sex traffickers. But now the door is open to create other exceptions.

Prosecutors going after internet services? What could possibly go wrong?

[Wolfie]

You can save your breath. When they get here...

Policy makers in Europe have been weighing efforts to hold tech companies liable for a range of internet abuses, including hate speech.

...people will wake up, but by then it will be too late.

[momincombatboots]

So faux outrage, got it.

[The_Republic_Of_Maine]

After ZuckerSmuck and Facebook are destroyed and Google pretty much bankrupt then the laws ca be repealed.

They have the money, we have the manpower and votes.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

This may hurt Google, or it may end up helping them by eliminating all potential future competition.

Currently it is very easy for anyone to upload a video to YouTube, and much more difficult for Google to figure out whether or not the video is acceptable.

Imagine how much more difficult it will be for any potential new entrant to try and compete with YouTube?

Any new entrant could decide to only allow videos after they have been reviewed, but that would severely limit the number of videos that could be uploaded or require the company to hire huge numbers of employees to review all of the content.

Google has big enough pockets that they can do a good enough job for long enough that all potential competitors end up going bankrupt.

So now everyone is stuck with YouTube which is run by a bunch of Soy Boys, SJWs, and feminazis.

Good luck getting anything even mildly conservative posted there anymore.

[eldoradude]

Will be used to shut down ‘hate speech’ sites like FR.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks MNDude.

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