Ann Wagner: “I thank the gentlewoman from Alabama for yielding. Mr. Chair, in recent years, sex trafficking has moved from the…”

“I thank the gentlewoman from Alabama for yielding. Mr. Chair, in recent years, sex trafficking has moved from the streets to the internet. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has witnessed an 846 percent increase in suspected child sex trafficking reports. Eighty-one percent of these reports concern online trafficking facilitated by websites that help traffickers post advertisements of child victims. I find it hard to imagine that if a neighborhood business hosted a slave auction, the auctioneer would not be considered liable. But that is actually what is happening with websites like backpage.com and hundreds others. I have spoken with State and local prosecutors across America who want to hold online advertisers accountable for facilitating traffic and promoting prostitution, but they cannot. Section 230 has been interpreted so broadly that courts have ruled in favor of backpage.com in criminal and civil cases, despite the website's clear criminal conduct. These rulings defy congressional intent. Twenty-two years ago, Senator Jim Exon from Nebraska, the sponsor of the Communications Decency Act, stated that ``the information superhighway should not become a red-light district.'' Section 230 was an amendment to the CDA that intended to motivate websites to screen explicit content in ``good faith,'' and to shield websites from unfair liability for third-party content.…”