Why free speech advocates oppose a law to battle sex trafficking

The 1996 law Section 230 is widely seen as a foundation of the Internet economy.

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[blacke]

But create a task force, and smash every single ad suggestive of an offer for sex on Backpage.

Law enforcement already use the site to catch traffickers and they fear that if it gets taken down, their jobs will become that much more difficult.

sorry, but that's an absurd stance to take. do the police not investigate some bank robberies because then it'd be harder to catch bank robbers?

(ok, i admit they do this with speed traps, but those are more a case of the cops acting as tax collectors than safety officers. really, when was the last time you saw a speed trap in a place where speed 10mph over the posted limit was actually dangerous?)

Bad analogy.

This wouldn't be so much about the robberies but rather the banks themselves, and forcefully shutting down those banks that have too many robberies.

 

[blacke]

But create a task force, and smash every single ad suggestive of an offer for sex on Backpage.

Law enforcement already use the site to catch traffickers and they fear that if it gets taken down, their jobs will become that much more difficult.

sorry, but that's an absurd stance to take. do the police not investigate some bank robberies because then it'd be harder to catch bank robbers?

(ok, i admit they do this with speed traps, but those are more a case of the cops acting as tax collectors than safety officers. really, when was the last time you saw a speed trap in a place where speed 10mph over the posted limit was actually dangerous?)

Bad analogy.

This wouldn't be so much about the robberies but rather the banks themselves, and forcefully shutting down those banks that have too many robberies.

and that is exactly what i'm saying and that they're trying to do: shut down the web sites/banks to stop solicitation/robberies

web sites = banks
traffickers = bank robbers
solicitation = robberies

but robbers gonna rob and solicitors gonna solicit, shutting down the sites/banks won't change that a bit.

Your previous comment made it sound like you equated the sites with the robberies, not the bank itself. Either that or you expressed yourself badly.

The problem with shutting down the more open sites is that it gets harder to actually find all the solicitations in the first place, and thus harder to investigate and act on them. It also ads to the problem of "out of sight, out of mind" in that since it's now not done "out in the open" politicians can claim that they have solved the problem while actually having done jack shit about it.

The one you responded to said nothing about not investigating every robbery, just that if all cash trading moved under ground then it would most likely become much harder to police. That is a legit concern for law enforcement.