Latest Court Ruling on Backpage Underscores Need for Congress to Fix Law, Pass Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act

Senator Portman, photo from cleveland.com

Courts Have Consistently Ruled that Congress Must Fix Communications Decency Act In Order to Protect Trafficking Victims 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In Sacramento, California yesterday, Superior Court Judge Lawrence Brown cited Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in dismissing pimping charges against Backpage.com, providing further momentum to the bipartisan effort to fix the law to ensure that federal and state prosecutors can hold the company accountable for facilitating online sex trafficking, as well as ensure that victims can get the justice they deserve.  Recently, U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and more than two dozen of their bipartisan colleagues introduced the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act to fix the law. 

In his ruling, Judge Brown said it is up to Congress to amend the Communications Decency Act:

“If and until Congress sees fit to amend the immunity law, the broad reach of section 230 of the Communications Decency Act even applies to those alleged to support the exploitation of others by human trafficking.” — Judge Lawrence Brown, Sacramento Superior Court, August 23, 2017

Senators Portman and Blumenthal issued the following statement in response to the court ruling:

“This court ruling underscores the need for Congress to act, and to act with urgency.  Every day that goes by, more women and children are trafficked online, and this must stop.  It’s time to hold these online traffickers accountable for their actions, and that’s why Congress must pass the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act.” 

When victims have attempted to seek justice against websites like Backpage that knowingly facilitated the crimes against them, courts have generally sided with the company, citing the blanket immunity granted by the Communications Decency Act (CDA).  While well-intentioned, the CDA was never intended to protect sex traffickers who knowingly facilitate criminal activity.  In court rulings across the country, judges have made clear that it is Congress’ responsibility to act to protect sex trafficking victims and fix the CDA.  That’s exactly what the narrowly-crafted Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act would do.  In addition to yesterday’s court ruling in Sacramento, here's what several previous court rulings have said:

•  “This is a hard case — hard not in the sense that the legal issues defy resolution, but hard in the sense that the law requires that we, like the court below, deny relief to plaintiffs whose circumstances evoke outrage… The appellants' core argument is that Backpage has tailored its website to make sex trafficking easier. Aided by the amici, the appellants have made a persuasive case for that proposition. But Congress did not sound an uncertain trumpet when it enacted the CDA, and it chose to grant broad protections to internet publishers. Showing that a website operates through a meretricious business model is not enough to strip away those protections. If the evils that the appellants have identified are deemed to outweigh the First Amendment values that drive the CDA, the remedy is through legislation, not through litigation.” — United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, March 14, 2016 

• “Congress has declared such websites to be immune from suits arising from such injuries. It is for Congress to change the policy that gave rise to such immunity.” — United States District Court, Eastern District of Missouri, August 15, 2011

• “Congress stuck a balance in favor of free speech in that Congress did not wish to hold liable online publishers for the action of publishing third party speech and thus provided for both a foreclosure from prosecution and an affirmative defense at trial. Congress has spoken on this matter and it is for Congress, not this Court, to revisit.” — Superior Court of the State of California, County of Sacramento, November 16, 2016