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While violence is a pervasive threat to sex workers, experts say online suppression can exacerbate the isolation and stigmatization of those who engage in sex work.

Dr. Francesca Sobande, a lecturer of digital media studies at Cardiff University who studies how sexism and inequality manifests in media and the marketplace, says that in addition to physical danger, online suppression can add to stigmas facing sex workers and impact their ability to find work.

\"Online suppression is symbolically violent,\" Sobande told ABC News. \"Certain people are demonized in our society, especially LGBTQ, black women and transgender people.\"

\"[FOSTA-SESTA] inhibits people's ability to use these platforms, and that can result in losses of income that exacerbate already precarious living situations,\" she continued.

Advocates believe the reported negative impacts of FOSTA-SESTA came about because legislators are unfamiliar with the needs of sex workers, and even when advocacy organizations warn of misguided legislation like FOSTA-SESTA, warnings rarely reach lawmakers.

\"Most offices had never confronted this issue before, so they were scared to oppose something under the umbrella term of anti-trafficking,\" Tyrone Hanley, senior policy counsel for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said. \"It's tough to confront decades' worth of outdated anti-trafficking efforts when people conflate sex work and trafficking.\"

To draft the new bill, legislators engaged with advocates like Hanley.

\"PHOTO:Rep.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
PHOTO:Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talks with reporters at the Capitol, Dec. 18, 2019, in Washington, DC.
>

The ACLU sent a letter of opposition to the Committee of Commerce, Science & Transportation when FOSTA-SESTA was first introduced back in 2017, warning: \"We are concerned that the bill would significantly chill the explosion of online political, artistic, and commercial speech without improving the plight of sex trafficking victims.\"

These concerns are echoed in the SAFE Sex Workers Study Act, in addition to the finding that the absence of online access has actually led sex workers who had always worked independently to encounter increased solicitation efforts from third-party traffickers.

The SAFE Sex Workers Study Act is co-sponsored by nine legislators, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and has received support from Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

\"We hope the bill encourages lawmakers to think about reform to protect the health and safety of sex workers,\" said Hanley. \"There's an epidemic of violence against transgender women of color and sex workers in this country.\"

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