Everyone agrees that sex crimes are bad. Everyone agrees
that child exploitation is worse than bad, and that people trafficking is also
a heinous crime. All of these crimes have been linked to the crime underworld
and even to terrorism which rely on proceeds of these crimes to fund terror
attacks and criminal enterprise.
For this reason, it is good and right that checks are
applied to put a stop to these criminals. However, the problem arises when
bureaucracy rubs up against personal freedoms and impinges on upstanding
citizens’ everyday lives.
Obviously, it is hard to find exactly where to place the
line between safety and freedom, and many people may think that the world of
sex for sale, people trafficking and even modern slavery are a million miles
away from their comfortable world of work, play and the pursuit of as much
leisurely nookie but the sad truth is that you probably see exploited people
and victims of trafficking and forced prostitution almost every day that you
spend in any big city. These criminal enterprises hover on the edge of
respectable society for the simple reason that they need to present an honest
front to the world. These days very few people can live entirely off the grid,
so criminals need a clean cover story through which they can operate and funnel
their dirty money.
Governments have long been engaged with a battle with
internet service providers, with the governments demanding access to
information and wanting the providers to closely monitor what their clients
post and do on the sites they host. Internet service providers have long
resisted interfering with their clients, citing free speech and generally
displaying reluctance to disrupt their revenue stream.
As a result, frustrated with this impasse, the US government
has recently enacted a law which makes internet service providers fully
responsible for the content that their clients put on their websites. This move
will ensure that potential crimes are looked for and vetted far more thoroughly
than at present – the threat of a criminal charge, a large fine and potentially
even being shut down is a great incentive to close down any criminal
enterprises operating on their platforms.
This is great for law enforcement, who will probably benefit
massively – at least at first, until the criminals find another way of
operating their affairs – from this new law, but it does not bode well for the
man or woman on the street – in a word, you and me.
Returning to the idea of where to place the line between
criminal enterprise this new law now means that each individual internet
service provider gets to decide what is permissible and what is not.