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SESTA halted, but the fight isn’t over

Yesterday, the Senate Commerce Committee voted SESTA (S.1693) out of CommitteeSESTA would partially repeal section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA230) in the case of sex trafficking. CDA230 is what prevents Internet service providers from being sued by what people post on their sites.

SESTA would upend CDS230 by making sites liable for the what users post on them or how they use the service. It would allow sites to be sued or even face criminal charges for facilitating, a vague term, sex trafficking. It would favor wealthy companies with large monitoring infrastructures and lawyers and likely would not help fight sex trafficking.

Thankfully, Senator Ron Wyden also announced that he is placing a public hold on the bill. His action stops SESTA for now, but it will be back. We have to win over the Senate and make sure this bill never succeeds.

Senator Ed Markey is on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee, but we haven’t found how he voted yet. We need contact Senators Warren and Markey and show them how harmful  SESTA would be to the Internet. Please call Senator Elizabeth Warren at (202) 224-4543 and Senator Ed Markey at (202) 224-2742.

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