Beatty bill to fight sex trafficking passes the House

WASHINGTON — Rep. Joyce Beatty's bill aimed at allowing attorneys general and sex trafficking victims to sue websites that aid in sex trafficking passed the House late Tuesday — a bill similar to one that Sen. Rob Portman is pushing in the Senate.

The bill passed the House 388–25. Beatty is the lead Democratic co–sponsor of the bill. Beatty, a Jefferson Township Democrat, joined Rep. Ann Wagner, R–Missouri, in pushing the bill.

Passage of the bill is the latest battle in a long–standing fight against sites such as Backpage.com, which is believed to be the largest online trafficker of human beings.

For years, the site cited a 26–word provision in the 1996 Communications Decency Act to protect itself from litigation. That provision aimed to protect website operators from third parties that might post harmful or illegal material on their site.

Internet companies have balked, however, arguing that the bill would subject them to unnecessary litigation and would limit their freedom of speech.

Portman, a chair of the Senate's Permanent Committee on Investigations, has investigated Backpage.com, releasing a report in January 2017 laying out how the site has sold people, including children, for sex.

He has authored the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act and applauded the House move Tuesday, urging the Senate to quickly pass the bill "so we can allow trafficking survivors to get the justice they deserve but have long been denied."

Speaking on the floor Tuesday, Beatty described the bill as a tool aimed at ending sex trafficking.

"We won't solve the problem of human trafficking overnight, but if we get this bill signed into law, we will make it harder for traffickers to exploit the innocent and keep countless children, women and men out of the cycle of abuse," she said.

This article was originally published by The Columbus Dispatch on February 28, 2018.