When we hear things on social media about SESTA/FOSTA, we often don’t give it a lot of thought because we don’t realize just how much this law is about to fuck you up.

You might not think it directly affects you, but it does.

What if I was to tell you that SESTA/FOSTA is an excuse for platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and even sites like OnlyFans, Pornhub, and XVideos to ban you.

This isn’t a “what if” scenario. This is a reality that many of you are about to face if you escort and are open about it – this means if you advertise on platforms like Eros or are listed on websites like Porn Companions or other related known escort websites.

Each of the girls and 100s and 100s like them face very real ramifications for being open about escorting. While states like California have talked about no longer prosecuting girls who escort, that doesn’t mean other laws out there can make an escort’s life a living hell.

Look at these 4 girls in the image below. Three of the four list specific dates for specific cities they are visiting on their escorting “tour” and that’s not an uncommon practice in the escorting world.

But under SESTA/FOSTA that means social networking platforms and even tube sites and platforms with verified creator accounts (Yes, this includes OnlyFans, too), are now at risk of being in serious legal trouble for associating with known escorts.

On April 11, 2018, SESTA/FOSTA became law.

SESTA and FOSTA stand for: The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) and Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA).

These laws were meant to stop sex trafficking.

Justice Department officials claimed the law is potentially useful because it lets them push for longer criminal sentences and add more charges that might stick to defendants.

But in the end, that isn’t what happened at all. Instead of going after actual sex trafficking, it punished consenting adults. Anti-porn organizations have been fighting hard to push prosecutions under this federal law — not to stop “sex trafficking” but to punish porn stars. This bill claims to be about sex trafficking, but in the end, it’s just punishing consenting sex workers.

And shit is about to hit the fan.

Before we get into what this bill is meant to stop, let’s talk about what “sex trafficking” even means.

While historically, there have been inconsistencies and disagreements regarding the definition of human trafficking among politicians, practitioners, and scholars, however, for the purpose of this discussion, the legal definition of human trafficking is set forth in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) will be used.

In the TVPA, Congress defines severe forms of trafficking in persons as:

a) Sex trafficking in which 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; or

b) The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

The difference between sex trafficking and sexual assault is very small. Sex trafficking is when a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion. Sexual assault is when a sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion.

So what they are saying is, if a person is forced to do sex work, they are “trafficked.”

But SESTA/FOSTA is set up to punish anyone who escorts or, more specifically, anyone who is associated with anyone who escorts.

Like, say, a website like this one, XBIZ, or AVN publishes a story about a girl who will be appearing at an upcoming show like XBIZ Miami, or the AVN show in Las Vegas, or one of the many Exxxoticas. That sounds simple enough. We do this all the time.

But then say a girl while at that show gets busted for escorting. Under SESTA/FOSTA, every single person that promotes her appearance at that show could be found guilty.

Nobody wants to break a big law like that and risk going to jail, so what can they do?

They can stop associating with known escorts – this means any girl who publishes ads on sites like Eros or is listed on known escorting websites like Porn Companions.

These are all the companies that are at risk of having to do with any girl who escorts ….

• AVN
• XBIZ
• OnlyFans
• FanCentro
• Pornhub
• XVideos
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Snapchat
• Instagram

And the list goes on and on and on.

• Imagine losing your Twitter and your Instagram.
• Now imagine being banned from Pornhub and Xvideos.
• Now imagine sites like AVN, XBIZ, Fleshbot, Xcritic, etc., not being able to ever publish a press release about you.
• Now ask yourself, what porn production company wants to hire a girl to star in a movie they can’t promote?

I could go on, but I think at this point, you get the point, or at least I hope you do.

SESTA/FOSTA can fuck you up. It can ruin your life.

In the four years that SESTA/FOSTA has been law, there haven’t been any major prosecutions, but that’s about to change. Anti-porn organizations are pushing to make sure that someone, anyone – big – gets arrested for SESTA/FOSTA violations and that will have a chain effect.

Now everyone will run and hide and go out of their way to avoid any association with anyone who escorts. Now suddenly, you’re blacklisted and banned from everything.

At this time companies are using AI to do deep searches of the web and compile a database of known escorts. The question is, what will these companies do with this information?

I fear they will use it to start banning people from their platforms.

What if they start to share that database with other companies, and then they use it to ban you off their platforms too?

What will you do?

What can you do?

As long as SESTA/FOSTA are laws, there isn’t much you can do.

The real question then becomes, what are you going to do about it? You have a voice. You have a platform (for now) that reaches tens of thousands or, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of followers. Stand up for your own rights. Stand up for yourself – while you still can.

Because I promise you, it’s only a matter of time before you are removed from those platforms because they found out that you escort.

So what can you do? Is it all doom and gloom? Well, in many ways, it is. Your name has already been placed into a sex worker database if you are a known escort. There is no changing that. Removing your ads and names off of known escorting sites now won’t change anything. As of at least 2, possibly 3 weeks ago, a database – a new database – of known porn star escorts was created, and you can’t get your name off of there.

So what you can do is actually put in the effort to put an end to SESTA/FOSTA.

Contact the APAG Union. Contact the Free Speech Coalition.

Find out what you can.

Use your platform (while you still have it) to speak out against the harm this law is doing.

The lawsuit to stop it has failed. This means it falls on porn stars who have a social media following to use their platform to actually exert some influence over their followers. Demand their love and support. Get them to help you take action.

Check out FightForTheFuture.Org!

Now we need to pass the SAFE SEX Workers Study Act, which directs Congress to fully study the devastating impacts of FOSTA/SESTA so we can develop better, evidence-based internet policy.

Take action here: https://t.co/wg7lOAjeCe

— SWOP Los Angeles (@SwopLosAngeles) April 11, 2022

In the meantime, contact the APAG Union (@apagunion) and the FSC (@fscarmy) to see exactly what specifically you should be tweeting, what letters you should be writing, and what you should be asking your social media followers to do.

Use your Instagram and use your Twitter before they are taken away from you.