SW here to second this comment as well as note that while deepfake porn seems to disproportionately target women, it has the capacity to do so to anyone and the article doesn't seem to use that frame of reference either. Reducing the problem to something "tech bros" need only to pay attention to is not helpful and arguably counter-productive.
"Climate Chaos" is certainly apt - things are becoming verifiably hotter but also more unpredictable and volatile. I was a proponent of using 'climate change' fairly exclusively but this comment has helped reframe that, thank you.
Long time reader, first time commenter. Career sex worker with many years experience from online work to in person, including service provider or companion. I also happen to have written my undergrad thesis on the topic of international sex trafficking.
FOSTA-SESTA became US law in 2018, a day after Backpage was taken down from the web. Because of the wide and vague net that it casts, it has harmful effects on both online and in person workers. Under the guise of spearheading anti-sex-trafficking sentiments, it essentially kneecaps internet platforms by logistically forcing them to not only censor types of content and users, it also ripples into the financial sector. This compounds when considering factors like cash being preferred but extremely difficult to do anything with it without raising flags, while at the same time the every day average client is not using crypto as payment and cash related or payment processor apps have long since also capitulated to F-S. Additionally, the only ad site I use to advertise my business has also dropped the ability to pay with anything except BTC of all things.
An insidious problem inherent in FOSTA-SESTA related policies or behaviors that I can veritably confirm is that it conflates all forms of sex work with sex trafficking -- insinuating that like trafficking, it is inherently exploitative. This cements stigma but also removes the agency I have as someone who chooses the industry that I do and my lived experience as someone who has used both online and in person sex work to help save my own life, get out of abusive living situations, establish financial independence, and also put myself through more school. I have watched how the internet and society at large have become more hostile and paternalistic to people with stories like mine since I started many years ago, long before OF was even a thing, and I think even some earlier comments that have since vanished here are a good example of that.
This is not to say that sex trafficking shouldn't or can't be dealt with - it certainly should. But I don't think a lot of people realize that the reality of sex trafficking usually starts at home, for instance, not between two consenting adults in a hotel room. Not only that, but FOSTA-SESTA actually helps to make conditions that lead to being further marginalized (and potentially trafficked) to increase.
