In Kinkly.com’s effort to remain fair and transparent, as we exposed the possible war on pornography that could come from a Trump presidency, we also need to explore Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s possible stance when it comes to passing laws that might restrict one's freedom in the guise of bettering the landscape of protecting children from sexual materials.
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As explored here only briefly, there are some sure questions over Kamala Harris’s past record when it comes to sex workers and truncating the public's sexual freedoms. This Fast Company article explores the lady’s record even deeper. It seems that the Democratic nominee was one of the key players in taking down Backpage and in lending support to the passing of the seemingly intended anti-sex trafficking FOSTA-SESTA law.
Plus. she also supports KOSA.
FOSTA-SESTA
FOSTA-SESTA has come under harsh criticism since its passing. In fact, it has been charged with increasing dangers to sex workers.
The FOSTA-SESTA legislation amends Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, making computer service providers accountable for content posted on their websites. If that content is seen as advertising prostitution or sex work then the law, as it was passed, comes down heavy on these sites and their providers. The problem is that FOSTA-SESTA invokes a grey area on how it distinguishes sex trafficking (bad) and consensual sex work (bad or good depending on your moral view). By cracking down on online portals for where sex workers might ply their trade, the legislation might be backing sex workers into a corner, literally and figuratively, of where they might advertise. And some of those corners could be out and about in some places not so safe.
Claiming to be smart on crime and a progressive prosecutor back in her days as San Francisco District Attorney and California Attorney General, Harris supported FOSTA-SESTA.
Backpage
As California Attorney General, Harris was instrumental in bringing down Backpage.com. From an investigation by Harris’s office, the CEO of Backpage, Carl Ferrer was hit with nearly a dozen charges of various forms of pimping. Surely those charges leveled at him for pimping minors needed to be enforced, but as this article and plenty of other reporting have indicated, post-Backpage’s closure, just like with FOSTA-SESTA truncating the sites they could work off if, sex workers were left with one less haven with Backpage gone.
KOSA
Sorry for all the abbreviations, but...
A vocal supporter of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), Harris is surely behind the implementation of safety settings on social media companies to keep minors off their platforms. But the myriads of free speech issues that come from even a shallow dive into KOSA are troubling to many.
Once again, under supposed child protection, even measures attempted from those with clean hands and a true heart could lead to overall freedoms being truncated in ways nobody could ever dream. KOSA could very well end up as a sweeping censorship bill, keeping young people from accessing information they could surely use. For instance, with the KOSA legislation limiting certain features of various sites, they could very well increase the potential for cyberbullying and harassment.
The ripple effect of a bill like this could be enormous.
Harris=Trump?
There’s not much common ground to be found between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Be you right/left/center you’d agree that these U.S. Presidential candidates are opposites. But it is interesting to note where both come down on freedom of sexual expression and work for adults.
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