Hacker Cinema
I Am Jane Doe
2017 · Film · documentary · 91 min
Directed by Mary Mazzio
Chronicles the epic battle that several American mothers are waging on behalf of their middle-school daughters, victims of sex-trafficking on Backpage.com, the adult classifieds section that for years was part of the Village Voice.
3 positivefrom 3 commenters
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4 comments on Hacker News
Watch "I am Jane Doe". https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6398054/?ref_=tt_urv
https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/4/13/17172762/fosta-sesta-backpage-230-internet-freedom
Women and children were kidnapped, drugged, and raped. Sex with these women and children was offered to paying men via ads in Backpage.
When some of these women escaped they noticed their images were still being used in these ads. They tried to i) get Backpage to stop using these images of them being raped (sometimes of them as children being raped) and ii) get Backpage to take more corporate responsibility about taking adverts from traffickers.
For some reason people seem to think this is about people who chose to sex work. It isn't. It's about people who were forced into it.
Backpage declined to take down the images, and declined to stop taking ads. They then made it easier for people to place those ads; they helped people evade law enforcement; they gave people advice about what language to use when placing those ads.
They got away with it because S230 means they're not responsible for what their users do, even though they're coaching their users about how to evade law enforcement.
To understand the story a little more regarding Backpage and its criminal activities, I'd highly recommend watching "I am Jane Doe" on Netflix. It is a documentary exposing the child prostitution and human trafficking Backdoor facilitated.
There is an interesting documentary on Netflix about this legal fight with Backpage, "I Am Jane Doe"
It's incredibly misleading (as tends to be the case with proposed bills) to market the bill as a "sex-trafficking bill," since it's aiming to make websites responsible for the content that's posted by users.
It would literally destroy the internet as we know it. Imagine the liability on websites like Reddit and even HN which rely purely on user-posted content.
It was absolutely at the top of the company.
See the photo caption: "In court: (from left) Carl Ferrer, James Larkin, Andrew Padilla and Michael Lacey are sworn-in prior to testifying before the Senate earlier this year. Photograph: Cliff Owen/AP" -- these people knew Backpage was being used to traffic children to be raped, and they fought in court to be allowed to continue to do so.
The I am Jane Doe film is a good documentary that covers the events.