President Trump signed SESTA/FOSTA into law in April 2018. The law expanded civil and criminal liability for online platforms by expanding liability for platforms used by third parties to engage in sex trafficking. It also created a new federal crime promotion or facilitation of prostitution, which could include communities collecting and distributing information about violence, connecting with clients for the ability to screen or workers directly sharing safety techniques on-line.

NCLR worked with sex worker rights, LGBTQ, anti-trafficking, and technology organizations to oppose the bill. While NCLR opposes trafficking, we believed sex workers who warned they would be harmed by the law, because it would cause them to be kicked off-line and forced back on the streets where its more dangerous to trade sex.