Dear all

Yesterday, a Senate hearing was held in Washington DC to discuss a proposed bill, called “Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act”, or SESTA (bill S.1693). As we noted in a message to this list earlier this month, SESTA aims to address the problem of online sex trafficking by creating new holes in the intermediary liability rules for websites hosting user-generated content.

For yesterday’s hearing, we submitted a letter in support of the current legal framework for freedom of expression and intermediary liability protections to the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation. In our letter, we explain that, without the protections for internet platforms, afforded by the Communications Decency Act (CDA) Section 230 and similar laws, there would be significant legal barriers to building and sustaining collaborative projects like Wikipedia.

The existing notice and takedown systems have proven to be scalable and effective solutions to remove illegal content. The current legal protections allow us to abstain from editorial decisions and empower the communities to develop and enforce their own content policies. It is clear that Wikipedia is no place for sex trafficking and content that would violate these policies is removed swiftly.

SESTA would open the door for state specific obligations for platforms, which is in conflict with the nature of the internet that unites people across borders. Despite its laudable goal, the bill endangers projects like Wikipedia which would not be possible in an environment where website hosts are required to constantly monitor for possible violations of rules and defend against a multitude of lawsuits. Open platforms have significantly expanded free access to the world's knowledge, and new rules should not come the expense of an open internet and collaboration online.

Best,

Jan

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