Tech companies fear repercussions from a new bill to combat human trafficking

The likes of Amazon, Facebook and Google are about to go to war with the Congress over the most unlikely of causes: Human trafficking. A new bill by Sen Rob Portman (R-OH)— backed by 19 other lawmakers from both parties — would open the door for state attorneys general and victims alike to take legal action against social networks, review websites, advertisers and others that don’t do enough to combat users who post exploitative content. But the proposal is already drawing opposition from Silicon Valley, where tech companies want to put an end to human trafficking — but don’t want to do so in a way that also subjects them to new lawsuits.

The fight centers on a website for classified ads called Backpage, which investigators — in Congress and elsewhere — long have alleged is a haven for illegal prostitution and underage exploitation. For years, though, Backpage has dodged significant scrutiny with the help of a portion of federal law that generally spares website owners from being held liable for the third-party content posted by their users. The legal shield is known as Section 230, and it’s part of the Communications Decency Act. And for many in Silicon Valley, it’s something of a holy grail: They claim the 1996-era rules allowed the internet to evolve without fear of lawsuits. To that end, Sen Portman and his allies want to weaken that shield just a little bit, ensuring “that websites that facilitate sex trafficking can be held liable and that victims can get justice,” they said in a statement. Their proposal would give state attorneys general new power to prosecute offenders, while allowing victims to sue those websites — and potentially others, like the ad networks that support them.