Brown Joins Portman to Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Ensure Justice for Human Trafficking Survivors

Washington, D.C. - August 1, 2017 - (The Ponder News) -- U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined U.S. Sen. Rob Portman’s (R-OH) bipartisan bill to ensure justice for victims of sex trafficking and ensure that websites like Backpage.com, which knowingly facilitate sex trafficking, can be held liable and brought to justice.

“We need to bring all traffickers to justice – no matter how they carry out this heinous crime,” said Brown. “With evolving technology, we must ensure the law keeps pace with this modern-day slavery. I am pleased to join Senator Portman in making sure law enforcement can protect Ohioans from online predators.”

“Stopping trafficking is one of the great humanitarian and human rights causes of the 21st century,” said Portman. “Our bipartisan investigation showed that Backpage knowingly facilitated sex trafficking on its website to increase its own profits, all at the expense of vulnerable women and young girls. For too long, courts around the country have ruled that Backpage can continue to facilitate illegal sex trafficking online with no repercussions. The Communications Decency Act is a well-intentioned law, but it was never intended to help protect sex traffickers who prey on the most innocent and vulnerable among us. This bipartisan, narrowly-crafted bill will help protect vulnerable women and young girls from these horrific crimes.”

The bipartisan Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act would clarify Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to ensure that websites that knowingly facilitate sex trafficking can be held liable so that victims can get justice. This narrowly-crafted legislation offers three reforms to help sex trafficking victims. The bipartisan bill would:

Allow victims of sex trafficking to seek justice against websites that knowingly facilitated the crimes against them;

Eliminate federal liability protections for websites that knowingly assist, support, or facilitate a violation of federal sex trafficking laws; and

Enable state law enforcement officials, not just the federal Department of Justice, to take action against individuals or businesses that violate federal sex trafficking laws.

A full summary of the bill can be found here, a section by section here, and the text here.

Brown has also been working on the Abolish Human Trafficking Act to support survivors of human trafficking and help local, state, and national law enforcement on the front lines of the fight against human trafficking. The bill was voted favorably out of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in June. The next step to passage is a vote in the full Senate. The Abolish Human Trafficking Act includes a provision based on a bill Brown introduced earlier this year which would create a Human Trafficking Coordinator in each of the country’s federal judicial districts and a National Human Trafficking Coordinator at the Department of Justice to help the Department better coordinate its efforts to prevent and prosecute human trafficking cases. This would help improve public outreach to raise awareness of human trafficking; ensure that data on human trafficking is properly collected; and collect restitution for survivors