Even After Defeat, Google's "Neutral" Algorithms Cannot Let Go
It was a great day for survivors of human trafficking with the passage of a clean FOSTA-SESTA bill in the US Senate. Once signed by the President, survivors and state and local law enforcement will have the legal tools to hold websites accountable that are knowingly facilitating human trafficking. Sen. Wyden's amendment that would have killed the bill was defeated (crushed) and he withdrew his other amendment knowing that it would suffer the same fate.
The anti-human trafficking and survivor groups were able to pass this legislation against incredible odds. It is truly a David vs Goliath legislative victory. To beat big tech and the millions they spent to defeat this legislation with just hard work, determination, and virtually no resources is truly amazing. The House Vote was 388-25 and the Senate vote 97-2. The scare tactic of crying SOPA is dead.
Yet, if you do a Google search all you find at the top of the search results are negative stories on the House Senate passage of the bill. You do not see the unbiased New York Times story, Politico, and the other dozens positive stories. This is what scares me about the power of Google. There is a lot of talk about fake news, but the real threat to democracy is biased news delivery by the a company that controls 90% of the search market around the world. Google says that the algorithms are unbiased, yet when you search for FOSTA, Net Neutrality, or other Google and tech policy priorities the search results mirror the policy views being promoted by Google.
We should all be worried about this power. There may be multiple news outlets, but when those news outlets are crushed by the power of search you are left with only one voice. There is the old question, if a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound? The answer, only if Google wants the sound to be heard.
Google Search Results for FOSTA 3/22/2018
Top stories
Reason.com
16 hours ago
Congress just censored the internet and put sex workers, trafficking victims in even more danger
The Outline
11 hours ago
Congress OKs sex-trafficking bill that critics say will “censor the Internet”
Ars Technica
13 hours ago
H.R.1865 - 115th Congress (2017-2018): Allow States and Victims to ...
- https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1865
Summary of H.R.1865 - 115th Congress (2017-2018): Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017.
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FOSTA Passes Senate, Making Prostitution Ads a Federal Crime ...
- https://reason.com/blog/2018/03/21/senate-passes-fosta-sex-trafficking-bill
16 hours ago - Another downside: Under FOSTA, any attempts by a website or app to filter out bad content could lead to more legal liability. The only way for companies to stay safe will be to completely give up on content moderation and trying to stop illegal ads from getting through. An amendment toFOSTA, offered by ...
FOSTA is a bad bill thats put sex workers and trafficking victims in ...
- https://theoutline.com/.../congress-just-censored-the-internet-sex-workers-and-sex-traf...
11 hours ago - The House and the Senate have both passed the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (or FOSTA for short), but don't let its name fool you: it will do essentially nothing to stop sex trafficking, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. If signed into law by the president, FOSTA will ...
The Senate Just Passed a Bill That Puts Sex Workers In Danger ...
- https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/3kjnwn/fosta-sesta-vote-passed-senate
15 hours ago - The SESTA-FOSTA bill makes platforms more liable for their users' speech, and that's not good for anyone.
Why Sex Workers Are Opposed to Sex-Trafficking Bill 'SESTA' - The Cut
- https://www.thecut.com/2018/03/sesta-anti-sex-trafficking-bill-fosta.html
2 days ago - FOSTA, which was introduced in the House by Republican representative Ann Wagner, stands for Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act. Essentially a different version of the same legislation, FOSTA conflates sex trafficking and sex working by widening its scope to include websites ...
House Vote on FOSTA is a Win for Censorship | Electronic Frontier ...
- https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/02/house-vote-fosta-win-censorship
Feb 27, 2018 - The bill passed today 388-25 by the U.S. House of Representatives marks an unprecedented push towards Internet censorship, and does nothing to fight sex traffickers. H.R. 1865, the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), allows for private lawsuits and criminal...
FOSTA Would Be a Disaster for Online Communities | Electronic ...
- https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/02/fosta-would-be-disaster-online-communities
Feb 22, 2018 - Frankenstein Bill Combines the Worst of SESTA and FOSTA. Tell Your Representative to Reject New Version of H.R. 1865. The House of Representatives is about to vote on a bill that would force online platforms to censor their users. The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (...
The anti–sex trafficking bill SESTA/FOSTA will hurt the internet.
- https://slate.com/.../the-antisex-trafficking-bill-sesta-fosta-will-hurt-the-internet.html
Mar 14, 2018 - 27, the House passed a bill (388–25) called the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, or FOSTA. (This combined House version is also called the “FOSTA-SESTA package” because an earlier version of FOSTA did not have elements of SESTA in it, as I'll discuss in a minute. It's worth ...
Congress OKs sex-trafficking bill that critics say will “censor the ...
- https://arstechnica.com/.../congress-oks-sex-trafficking-bill-that-critics-say-will-censor...
13 hours ago - Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) voted against the bill, which is also known as the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA). It already passed the House of Representatives and is expected to be signed by President Donald Trump. The bill changes Section ...