4 chapters across the catalog
A male sex worker named Nate provides an update on the industry following the government crackdown on Backpage and Craigslist. He confirms the "Dvorak Rule" that sex workers get more attractive as the economy worsens. Nate notes that the industry has moved to sites like RentMen.com and argues that the crackdown was more about taxation than stopping trafficking.
The passage of SESTA and FOSTA legislation has led to the shutdown of platforms like Backpage.com, forcing sex workers to migrate to decentralized platforms like Mastodon. Specifically, many have moved to the "switter.at" instance to post advertisements via hashtags. This shift highlights the potential for distributed, non-walled garden platforms to gain adoption as traditional social media sites increase censorship and tracking.
Craigslist Personals Shutdown, Hookers, and S3 Buckets
Following the passage of anti-sex trafficking legislation (FOSTA-SESTA), Craigslist shut down its personals section. This has forced sex workers to find new ways to advertise, such as using coded language in "items for sale" listings or creating independent websites. The shift highlights the difficulty of censoring the internet, as users can easily move to Amazon S3 buckets or other decentralized hosting services.
SESTA-FOSTA Bill, Internet Immunity and Sex Trafficking
The US Senate is poised to pass the SESTA-FOSTA bill, which limits the legal immunity of websites in sex trafficking cases. Critics argue this legislation marks the beginning of a broader crackdown on "unlawful content" and could lead to the banning of protocols like Tor. The bill is seen as a fundamental shift in the regulation of the internet, potentially ending the era of broad platform protections under Section 230.
