GAO Releases Report on Online Sex Trafficking and Enforcement Actions
Last month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report entitled Sex Trafficking: Online Platforms and Federal Prosecutions. The report examines Department of Justice (DOJ) enforcement actions against online platforms that promote sex trafficking from 2014 to 2020. Two events in 2018 shifted the landscape of the online sex market and therefore the landscape of online sex trafficking.
The report explains that in April of 2018, a large-scale online commercial sex platform was permanently shut down by federal authorities. This website, backpage.com, was used primarily for buying and selling commercial sex. FEDagent reported on the indictment of backpage.com founders at the time. After the site was seized, thousands of those in the sex market fragmented and spread to various other online platforms. For example, classified advertising for sexual services became more common as well as “hobby boards,” which are review sites for sexual services, and “sugar dating” services, which commercially connect individuals for romantic and possibly sexual relationships.
Shortly after authorities shut down backpage.com, Congress passed the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 (FOSTA). This legislation added a new section to the federal criminal code to impose penalties on people who facilitate prostitution and sex trafficking online. Section 3 of FOSTA includes a provision for GAO to report on criminal restitution and civil damages as allowed under FOSTA.
Because of the temporal proximity of the takedown of backpage.com and the passage of FOSTA, GAO was unable to attribute the various changes in the online sex market solely to one or the other. GAO reported that the new landscape of the online commercial sex market has made it more difficult for law enforcement to gather tips and evidence to investigate and prosecute criminal activity. Much of this illegal activity has relocated overseas or onto social media and can involve complex payment systems.
From 2014 to 2020, DOJ brought at least 11 criminal cases against those who control platforms in the online sex market business, but more than half of the cases remain pending. The report states that “Criminal restitution has not been sought and civil damages have not been awarded under section 3 of FOSTA.” DOJ officials have brought one case under a criminal provision in section 3 of FOSTA. According to DOJ officials cited in the report, prosecutors have not brought more cases with charges under section 3 of FOSTA because the law is relatively new and prosecutors have had success using other criminal statutes.