LOS ANGELES — In an encouraging sign for sex workers, California State Representative Ro Khanna and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have reintroduced the SAFE SEX Workers Study Act, which aims to study the effects of FOSTA-SESTA.
As Elizabeth Nolan Brown reports in Reason magazine, the law was passed in 2018 and targets online content promoting sex work, making it illegal for websites to host ads that facilitate prostitution. Critics of the law have argued that this was "overreach" and ultimately chilled free speech online and promoted censorship.
The SAFE SEX Workers Study Act directs the Department of Health and Human Services to study the impact of FOSTA-SESTA on the mental health and working conditions of sex workers, including how the law has curbed their access to important tech resources such as social media and banking tools. It would also examine the impact of sex workers' interactions with law enforcement and direct the Department of Justice to investigate how the law has impacted human trafficking investigations and prosecutions.
Khanna is a longtime critic of FOSTA-SESTA who described it as "draconian" shortly after it was signed into law.
"It did not just go after bad actors; it went after sex workers' livelihood and safety," he told Reason in 2019.
At that time, Khanna responded by introducing a bill to study the impact of the new law on sex workers, as he was convinced that data would prove his point. Warren introduced a companion bill in the Senate. After failing to move those bills forward, both reintroduced their bills again in 2022. However, Khanna found even less support in the House on his second attempt.
On Tuesday, the bill was reintroduced a third time in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, where it already has three co-sponsors: Senators Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, and Ron Wyden. Meanwhile, the House version already has seven co-sponsors.
Ricci Joy Levy, the president and CEO of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, continued her organization's crusade against FOSTA-SESTA by lending her support to the SAFE SEX Workers Study Act.
"Woodhull urges members of Congress to take the opportunity presented by the SAFE SEX Workers Study Act to investigate not only the consequences of SESTA/FOSTA on the health and safety of sex workers and survivors of trafficking but also free speech more broadly," said Levy.
Former President Donald Trump signed FOSTA-SESTA into law. With Trump returning to the White House in January and the Republican Party taking control of both houses of Congress, the SAFE SEX Workers Study Act is considered a long-shot effort toward repealing the law, though Khanna and Warren clearly refuse to give up the fight.
Their decision to reintroduce the bill on Dec. 17 was timed to commemorate the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.