On September 19, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved S. 1848, the Trafficking Victims Protection (TVPA) Reauthorization Act, sponsored by Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN). The current TVPA (P.L. 113-4) is set to expire at the end of September. 
The logo of Child Soldiers International
The bill would modify the criteria for determining whether a country meets the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking, extend the authorization for programs to combat trafficking in persons (including the Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons within the Department of State), and urge the president to work with the private sector to “explore, develop, and use technology” to strengthen federal law enforcement’s ability to end trafficking and criminal networks.
The measure contains provisions to develop child protection strategies in Watch List countries, prevent the use of child soldiers, and support the integration of anti-trafficking interventions at multinational development banks.
On September 19, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing on S. 1693, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act of 2017, sponsored by Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH). Also known as SESTA, the bill proposes to eliminate criminal immunity for internet platforms that “knowingly” facilitate sex trafficking.
The legislation stems from long term efforts to stop internet companies, such as Backpage.com, from facilitating sex trafficking (see The Source, 1/13/17). Sponsors of the bill argued that internet companies should be held liable for trafficking content posted by third parties, while witnesses opposed to the measure contended that SESTA could increase liability for internet platforms, such as Google and Facebook, that act in good faith.
The following witnesses testified:
- Xavier Becerra, attorney general, State of California, former Member of Congress;
- Eric Goldman, professor, Santa Clara University of Law;
- *Abigail Slater, general counsel, Internet Association; and
- Yiota Souras, senior vice president and general counsel, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Excertps from Abigail Slater’s statement:
Engineers at companies including Google have worked with Thorn and the Hovde Foundation to develop a tool called Spotlight, which harnesses artificial intelligence to comb through millions of ads online and flag potential child victims. This tool is now used by law enforcement in all 50 states, and agencies using it have seen a 60% reduction in their investigation time. In a single year, Spotlight helped identify over 6,000 victims and 2,000 traffickers. With advances in machine learning technology, we can continue to improve this technology and make it even more broadly available.
In May 2016, Facebook hosted over 75 engineers from across the industry, including Microsoft and Google, as well as from child safety NGOs, such as NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children), Thorn (Tech Innovation to Fight Child Sexual Exploitation), and InHope (Internet Association for Internet Hotlines), for the first-ever cross-industry child safety hackathon to develop tools and products that enhance child online safety. The 2017 hackathon expanded in scope and reach, and one of the prototypes that came out of the hackathon is a tool that will enable people to match known photos of missing children against online trafficking ads.
The Thorn Technology Task Force, which includes 20 technology companies ranging from Microsoft to Snap, is creating networks of digital defenders to develop new strategies to fight their adaptive adversaries.
Twilio and Salesforce Foundation partnered with Polaris and Thorn to develop the Internet Association for Internet Hotlines, which allows victims to text the shortcode “BeFree” for a discreet and time-efficient way to access the hotline.
Amazon Web Services powers a number of tools, such as the Federation for Internet Alerts, which provide life-saving child abduction alerts as well as facial recognition technology that aids police in the fight against sex trafficking.
Match Group is working with THORN to pilot new technology that would use THORN data to automatically detect users who attempt use Match Group sites to disseminate information associated with known sex traffickers and remove them from the sites. These are just a few of many examples that grow by the day. Recognizing the role technology plays in providing solutions is key to understanding why a narrow, targeted approach is the only way to truly achieve our goals: undermining companies’ incentives to experiment and participate in the innovation that targets criminal activity will only undermine our fight against trafficking.
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