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Sex workers in Australia say American law is creating devastating losses back home

JESSI had just returned to work when she opened her laptop and found devastating news. It’s changed her life and other Aussies’.

Matt YoungMatt Young
@MattYoung
6 min read
April 23, 2018 - 3:28PM
Sex workers across Australia, including Jessi, pictured, have described their shock over recent website closures that could force them onto the street. Picture: Twitter @JuniperJessi
Sex workers across Australia, including Jessi, pictured, have described their shock over recent website closures that could force them onto the street. Picture: Twitter @JuniperJessi

“HAVE you heard about the fiasco?”

It’s not every day you receive an SMS like this. I was looking at the text, sent from an “agent” who specialises in managing sex workers. She was reaching out for my help.

“Do you know about Backpage and Cracker?”

Mila Jovi is well-connected in the Australian escort business and, little did I know at the time, she was about to open the floodgates and give me an insight into the world of escorting like never before.

“Backpage was raided by the FBI last week and as a consequence the site was pulled along with any other affiliated sites like Cracker,” Mila said.

“This hurts the sex industry and there are huge implications.”

Last week, US President Donald Trump signed a combined bill into law known as FOSTA (Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act) SESTA (Stop Enabling Sex-Trafficking Act) in the hope of combating illegal sex trafficking online.

The bill has good intentions — it aims to toughen sex trafficking laws, making it illegal to knowingly assist, facilitate, or support sex trafficking.

But in doing so it has claimed unsuspecting victims as far as Australia.

The move means that what has been dubbed one of the most important pieces of internet legislation, Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which upheld freedom of speech laws that protected publishers from liability, has been amended — and it’s thrown everything into a spin.

FOSTA-SESTA has shattered the Act, creating a loophole that means publishers would be responsible if users are found posting ads for prostitution on their website.

Soon enough I was being bombarded by sex workers wanting to share their story.

“It’s hit us very hard,” one Australian sex worker told me via Twitter.

“My number one advertising platform is now gone because of American laws!”

Users were shocked to log on to Backpage and find this message.
Users were shocked to log on to Backpage and find this message.

The bills make social media sites including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Craigslist liable for the actions of their users and in turn dozens of websites have been forced to shut down or modify their services in an attempt to self-censor. Backpage and Cracker were also victims of the new bill while Craigslist’s infamous Personals are gone as well.

“US Congress just passed HR 1865, ‘FOSTA’, seeking to subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully.

“We can’t take such risk without jeopardising all our other services, so we are regretfully taking Craigslist personals offline,” the website reads.

“Hopefully we can bring them back some day. To the millions of spouses, partners and couples who met through Craigslist, we wish you every happiness!”

A lot more are expected to disappear as the online downfall continues.

What followed Mila’s texts were a wave of Australian sex workers contacting me to tell their stories, of their dumbfoundment at seeing their profiles disappear, of fears over their safety and where they will get the money to pay their rent.

These sites were like the internet’s version of your local classifieds. If you wanted sex — and you wanted to pay for it — Cracker and Backpage were your first port of call. The problem is, the websites are American and therefore they are subject to the changes taking place thanks to FOSTA-SESTA. Thousands of Australian sex workers have felt the pinch because they used those websites to advertise their services, screen clients and communicate with others in the industry.

“I think it happened quite quickly from when it was first proposed and voted in the Senate, but for Australian workers a lot of them weren’t paying any attention,” Melbourne-based sex worker Summer Knight told news.com.au.

“People didn’t realise how serious it was until it was quite late.”

Summer said Backpage was the “first huge effect” Australian sex workers have felt in the country since the passing of the bill, but she anticipates she’ll soon be booted from Twitter, where she has more than 30,000 followers. She’s been booted from Instagram at least four times already.

“If you remove sex workers from the internet, you’re increasing sex trafficking because the internet provides a safe place for sex workers to find their clients. If you don’t have that place, the most marginalised escort sex workers are far more likely to turn to pimps who will exploit and take advantage of them.”

For Raven, who specialises in high volume, short-notice bookings, she’s seen her client list cut in half.

“I was dumbfounded,” she told me over the phone last week.

Raven said before the sites shut down, she was seeing 10 clients every day on average. Last week, she said she saw approximately four clients a day.

“I have been so quiet this week. Some clients that I would normally see every fortnight, I haven’t seen or heard from. My phone has been really quiet this week.”

Others say they are in more desperate situations.

“I think it’s the reason I ended up in hospital as well, because the stress, the tension, I couldn’t cope and literally collapsed.”

Jessi was talking to me from her hospital bed where she was preparing for her second round of back surgery.

She had just returned to work after her first spinal surgery when her main source of income, Backpage, went down for good. She said it accounted for 95 per cent of her client base.

“On Backpage you could take $10 and turn it into $1000,” she said from her hospital bed in Sydney.

Jessi said that the stress of the FOSTA-SESTA bill led to her relapse in health and that she was in tears when she realised what had happened online.

“It’s a devastating loss. I cried for about half an hour when I found out and I wasn’t the only one.

“It was like waking up and you’ve lost your business pretty much, you’ve lost your livelihood, you’ve lost your bread and butter, they way you keep a roof over your head.

“I am up to my eyeballs in arrears and bills from being sick and surgery and now that I’m finally able to work properly they’ve taken my advertising away.”

An online fundraiser has been set up by Jessi’s best friend claiming “she faces homelessness” if she doesn’t receive the financial help she needs.

“I know exactly how easy it is to become homeless and particularly with Sydney and Sydney’s living expenses, they’re completely exorbitant. Even with sex work, there is no comparison. There’s a lot of women out there like me. I’m not the only one.”

Mila Jovi says she “introduces” people to the sex industry.
Mila Jovi says she “introduces” people to the sex industry.
Sex worker Jessi doesn’t know how she’ll pay her bills. Picture: Twitter @JuniperJessi
Sex worker Jessi doesn’t know how she’ll pay her bills. Picture: Twitter @JuniperJessi

But it’s not just the woman feeling the heat.

Gay and transsexual sex workers have also lost websites critical to their business, including gay dating hook-up sites where they are able to chat with their peers and exchange information on health and safety.

“There were a large range of sites that went down. I’d say we lost at least half the sites we use,” Cameron Cox, CEO of Sex Worker Outreach Project (SWOP) and a sex worker himself, told news.com.au.

“A lot of people are feeling the pinch very much. We all have rent to pay, some of us have family responsibilities — we’re not all young gay and carefree, if you know what I mean.

“Sex work isn’t for most people the most profitable exercise, it’s not Pretty Woman like Hollywood likes us to believe. Most of us make a fairly average wage and we’re not too far ahead paying the rent or phone bill.

“We have people who come to SWOP who are in a situation where they really need that next job to put food on the table to pay rent or bills.”

Mr Cox said street-based work has increased “four- to five-fold” in the last few weeks in the United States and there are fears over a rise in the number of missing sex workers.

“That’s extremely dangerous. They’re being forced to work in a situation they’re not experienced in with no support or access to information.

“We’re seeing an increase in the reports of sex workers who have gone missing over the last three weeks. Things have fallen apart really quickly.”

Despite the doom and gloom, Mila told me there is a way people can help.

An Australian-based website, Crockor, is picking up steam as an alternative classifieds portal for Australian sex workers. In the meantime, Mila urged the average Australian to “support and donate to sex work organisations, be vocal about sex worker rights and start conversations online by retweeting, liking and sharing as much as you can”.

“If you have friends who are sex workers, check to see how they are doing because many struggle unnoticed.

“Finally, if you’re a client, please make a booking.”

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/sex/sex-workers-in-australia-say-american-law-is-creating-devastating-losses-back-home/news-story/09139a2f0d631cd7284090d2336ca517