WOODHULL FREEDOM FOUNDATION et al v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA et al

Filing 5

MOTION for Preliminary Injunction by HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, ERIC KOSZYK, JESSE MALEY, THE INTERNET ARCHIVE, WOODHULL FREEDOM FOUNDATION (Attachments: #1 Declaration of K. D'Adamo, #2 Declaration of R. Levy, #3 Declaration of D. Pokempner, #4 Declaration of E. Koszyk, #5 Declaration of J. Maley, #6 Declaration of B. Kahle, #7 Declaration of A. Lutnick, #8 Declaration of A. Levy, #9 Declaration of K. Mehlman-Orozco, #10 Text of Proposed Order)(Corn-Revere, Robert)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
WOODHULL FREEDOM FOUNDATION,
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, ERIC KOSZYK,
JESSE MALEY, a/k/a ALEX ANDREWS, and
THE INTERNET ARCHIVE,
Plaintiffs,
v.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
and JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS, in his
official capacity as ATTORNEY GENERAL
OF THE UNITED STATES,
Defendants.

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Case No. _______________

DECLARATION OF KATE D’ADAMO
Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746, I, KATE D’ADAMO, hereby declare as follows:
1.

The facts contained in the following affidavit are known to me of my own

personal knowledge, and if called upon to testify, I could and would competently do so. I am a
sex worker rights advocate who for more than 10 years has focused on economic justice, antipolicing and incarceration and public health issues related to sex work. I received a bachelor of
arts degree in political science in 2006 from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis
Obispo and a master’s degree in international affairs in 2012 from The New School University.
2.

I am a member of the board of directors of Plaintiff Woodhull Freedom

Foundation. My previous work includes serving as the National Policy Advocate at the Sex
Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center. In that position, I focused on laws, policies and
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advocacy surrounding individuals who trade sex, including the criminalization of sex work, antitrafficking policies, and HIV-specific laws.
3.

Prior to joining the Sex Workers Project, I was a community organizer and

advocate with the Sex Workers Outreach Project and Sex Workers Action New York. In this
role, I developed programming to promote community building, provided peer support and
advanced political advocacy to support the rights and well-being of people engaged in the sex
trade both on and off the job.
4.

I have has also participated in coalitions such as the Human Rights for All

campaign, which sought to incorporate sex worker rights within the Universal Periodic Review,
and was a founding member of the Persist Health Project.
5.

As part of my advocacy for sex workers’ rights, I worked with a broader coalition

to oppose the Allow State and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (H.R. 1865)
(“FOSTA”) and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (S. 1693) (“SESTA”) as they moved
through Congress.
6.

Along with a coalition of other sex worker advocates, sex workers, and their

allies, I helped create the website Survivors Against SESTA, www.survivorsagainstsesta.org.
The coalition who created Survivors Against SESTA were concerned about the impact the law
would have on sex workers and the websites and other online services they rely upon to stay
safe. The website was created to support sex workers, to disseminate information about the bill
and potential advocacy that individuals could engage in, and to gather and post information
about sex workers’ legal rights and how they can work safely.
7.

The organizers of Survivors Against SESTA also held multiple calls with

members of the sex worker community throughout the United States to disseminate the

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information we had collected. Additionally, advocates, both in association with Survivors
Against SESTA and independently, organized know your rights trainings and community meetups in multiple cities with the goal of sharing information about the then-pending legislation and
connecting organizers with people who would affected by the law.
8.

The organizers of Survivors Against SESTA arranged the first national sex

worker lobby day on June 1. Dozens of sex workers and their allies traveled to Washington, D.C.
to meet with their representatives’ offices. At the same time, advocates in cities throughout the
country hosted events to help with education and outreach for sex workers’ rights. On June 2, sex
workers and their allies arranged rallies and marches in 15 cities across the country.
9.

Survivors Against SESTA also decided to document some of the impact of the

legislation. Even before FOSTA became law, the creators of Survivors Against SESTA and the
broader community advocating on behalf of sex workers began noticing that certain websites and
online services used by sex workers were changing their policies, removing certain services, or
shutting down completely. It appeared to us as though many were doing so out of fear and
uncertainty regarding their potential liability under SESTA.
10.

For example, the online classified ads website Craigslist, www.craigslist.com,

shut down its personals section on March 23, publicly attributing the closure to the Senate’s
passage of FOSTA. In a post on its website, Craigslist wrote:
US Congress just passed HR 1865, "FOSTA", seeking to subject websites to
criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals
unlawfully.
Any tool or service can be misused. We can't take such risk without jeopardizing
all our other services, so we are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline.
Hopefully we can bring them back some day.
To the millions of spouses, partners, and couples who met through craigslist, we
wish you every happiness!

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See https://www.craigslist.org/about/FOSTA.
11.

Around the same time, Reddit published an announcement that specifically

banned “Paid services involving physical sexual contact.” See
https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/863xcj/new_addition_to_sitewide_rules_re
garding_the_use/. Reddit began to remove several “subreddits” relating to sex, including:
r/Escorts, r/MaleEscorts, r/Hookers, and r/SugarDaddy. Elizabeth Nolan Brown, “Hours After
FOSTA Passes, Reddit Bans ‘Escorts’ and ‘SugarDaddy’ Communities,” REASON (March 22,
2018 10:35 am), https://reason.com/blog/2018/03/22/reddit-bans-escort-subreddits. The
moderator of the r/sexworkers subreddit—which is described as “a community forum for sex
workers, clients, and even those unaffiliated with the industry to come together and ask questions
and share resources”—received a warning that the subreddit could be shut down if administrators
felt that it infringed on Reddit’s new policy. Tina Horn, “How a New Senate Bill Will Screw
Over Sex Workers,” ROLLINGSTONE (March 23, 2018),
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/controversial-anti-sex-trafficking-bill-screw-oversex-workers-w518323.
12.

Additionally, VerifyHim. a tool that helps sex workers avoid abusive clients and

describes itself as “the biggest dating blacklist database on earth,” said at the around same time
that it was “working to change the direction of the site.” Nitasha Tiku, “Craigslist Shuts Personal
Ads For Fear of New Internet Law,” Wired (March 23, 2018),
https://www.wired.com/story/craigslist-shuts-personal-ads-for-fear-of-new-internet-law/.
13.

In the days before and after FOSTA became law, several other online platforms,

websites and services either changed their behavior or shut down entirely. Some examples
include:

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The Google Play Store Google Play updated its policy to ban explicit content such as
“promotional images of sex toys” and “apps that promote escort services.”
https://play.google.com/about/restricted-content/inappropriate-content/sexually-explicitcontent/. Google also began deleting explicit content that users uploaded to its Google
Drive service and also appeared to lock out users from the service. Samantha Cole, “Sex
workers are reporting that their Google Drive files are mysteriously locked or vanishing,”
Motherboard (March 21, 2018),
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9kgwnp/porn-on-google-drive-error.

•

Eventbrite, the online ticketing and event service, updated its policies to prohibit events
that would “constitute or promote . . . explicit sexual activity or pornography.”
https://www.eventbrite.com/support/articles/en_US/Troubleshooting/communityguidelines.

•

The “adult-ad forum” CityVibe.com disappeared two days after the President signed
FOSTA. Elizabeth Nolan Brown, “The New Law That Killed Craigslist’s Personals
Could End the Web As We’ve Known It,” THE DAILY BEAST (Mar. 23, 2018),
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ the-new-law-that-killed-craigslists-personals-could-endthe-web-as-weve-known-it.

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Pounced.org, a personals website serving the “furry” community, shut down, explaining
that as a free site staffed by volunteers, it could not manage the news burden created by
potential liability under section 2412A if it did not have the protection of section 230:
“FOSTA changes that in a way that makes sites operated by small organizations
like pounced.org much riskier to operate. FOSTA essentially says that if we
facilitate the prostitution of another person we're liable. If you read FOSTA
carefully the bill says "or facilitate" - the problem is that "or facilitate" is illdefined.

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...
“We don't promote prostitution or sex trafficking. We're a personals site for the
furry community, our goal was to allow members of our community to have a
personals site dedicated solely to the community, and we've tried to serve our
community well.
“The problem is, with limited resources and a small volunteer staff, our risk for
operating the site has now significantly increased. Now if someone posts an ad
looking to exchange sex for something to pounced.org, and we don't catch it, is
that facilitating prostitution? Is it enough to simply re-train our volunteer staff and
update our terms of service?
“Do we try to filter advertisements and forum posts? Do we ask our volunteer
staff to take on the burden of reviewing all personal ads to insure we're in
compliance - and what if they miss one? If we try to implement filtering will it be
anything other than intrusive and ineffective, given the resources of a small
organization like ours?
“And we must now account for the fact that our liability to operate a service such
as pounced.org has unequivocally increased, especially given that FOSTA
explicitly makes this a criminal liability.
“We now can be held accountable for the actions of others using our service.
...
“In many ways this bill targets small sites like ours directly, it favors
organizations with the resources to invest in filtering technology, paid staff and
legal support staff. It is less of an impediment for big organizations, while doing
significant harm to small organizations like ours, which service niche
communities like ours. Our larger competitors are not likely to find a large market
in servicing the furry community, and so our community will suffer.”
http://pounced.org/why.html.
•

The Erotic Review, a review website for sex workers with forums and other features, shut
down its advertising forums for users in the United States and later blocked access by any
U.S. visitor. https://www.theeroticreview.com/na.asp.

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The adult live streaming website MyFreeCams changed its policies to specifically ban its
performers and its users from engaging in any transactions, including offering to meet up

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in person in exchange for anything of value.
https://wiki.myfreecams.com/wiki/Rules_and_Guidelines.
•

First Choice Pay, an online payment processer and platform used by online adult
livestreaming performers, stopped receiving or processing payments shortly after passage
of FOSTA. https://firstchoicepay.custhelp.com/.

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A number of other adult websites, such as www.myscarlettbook.com,
www.escortdesign.com/, and www.getluckyhere.com, shut down.
14.

I declare under penalty of perjury of the laws of the State of _________ that the

foregoing is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.
Executed on this ___th day of June 2018 at _____________.
______________________
Kate D’Adamo

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