Thread by @hackinghustling

Press Release: Congress Advances EARN IT, Ignoring Sex Workers’ Continued Concerns

Sex Workers Warned You. You Didn’t Listen.

#section230 #EARNIT #FuckEARNIT #LetUsSurvive

hackinghustling.org/earnit-act-adv…

Hacking//Hustling, a collective of SWers, survivors, and accomplices working on technology issues, are outraged by yesterday’s unanimous Senate Judiciary Committee vote, which moves #EARNIT (S.3398) towards becoming law.

#EARNIT crystallizes that the devastation #FOSTA wreaked on our SWering community was intentional.

#EARNIT uses the same tactics to attempt to erase SWers, communities of survivors, and harm reduction materials from the internet.

#EARNIT shows no regard for the negative impact on SWers AND survivors.

#EARNIT #FuckEARNIT #section230

Before SESTA passed, SWers expertly predicted its impact. Sex workers knew that this law would lead to the deaths of our community members.

#EARNIT #FuckEARNIT #section230

Our predictions were proved correct with horrifying immediacy after the bill’s passage. Since then, sex workers have been the only ones documenting its impact and calling for a holistic approach to addressing violence. #EARNIT #FuckEARNIT #section230

hackinghustling.org/erased-the-imp…

Our knowledge of online harm reduction and the impact of section 230 legislation is immense, yet still ignored. At this stage, our exclusion is active erasure.

Despite small changes to the #EARNIT Act, the bill:

-Falsely declares FOSTA-SESTA a win that should be replicated.

-Relies on a law enforcement-led commission of actors, who are best served by the erasure of SWers online, to determine best practices for the internet (Sec. 3).

#EARNIT

-Disregards the health and safety of SWers, prioritizing tech companies’ bottom lines instead (Sec 4(a)(4)).

#EARNIT

-Forces private companies 2 police themselves out of fear of liability 2 countless state laws, a process which incentivizes being overly broad instead of precise (Sec 5).

#EARNIT

-Offers a remedy only accessible to a tiny fraction of CSAM (child sexual abuse material) survivors (Sec 5).

-Neglects to invest in preventing child sexual violence.

-Incorrectly assumes that survivors and SWers are two separate populations.

Survivors of Abuse Deserve Better

We need something new. We need to create spaces where solutions are developed by impacted communities and step away from prosecutors and policing as our only answer and lawsuits as our only recourse.

#EARNIT #section230

Survivors—CSAM survivors, s e x working survivors, queer survivors, incarcerated survivors, struggling survivors, survivors who are still angry, survivors who are at peace, and people who want to one day consider themselves survivors—should be leading this conversation. #EARNIT

Instead, @SenBlumenthal and @LindseyGrahamSC have purposefully created conditions under which impacted people will not only remain unsafe, but as with #FOSTA-#SESTA, be pushed into further marginalization and violence as well.

The backers of #EARNIT champion FOSTA-SESTA as a win, they celebrate the removal of life-saving resources as a win. We are not collateral damage and these are not unintended consequences.

#EARNIT is yet another bill that neglects and obfuscates actual violence prevention measures in favor of expanding the very criminalization and speech suppression that make marginalized people more vulnerable to violence in the first place.

#FuckEARNIT #section230

So what's next?

In the coming months, Sen. Graham and Sen. Blumenthal will continue to celebrate the impact of FOSTA-SESTA and push EARN IT forward. At Hacking//Hustling, we’ll be trying to push back and share as much information as we can.

HackingHustling.org/events #EARNIT

A Legal Literacy Panel on Tuesday, July 7th at 7PM ET (with EARN IT updates that are accessible for impacted communities, not just lawyers). #EARNIT #FuckEARNIT #section230

eventbrite.com/e/legal-litera…

A 3-part Digital Literacy Lunch Series on July 15th, 16th, and 17th from 12PM-1:30PM ET, where we will work to demystify the tools and platforms that we use to work and organize. #EARNIT #FUCKEARNIT #LetUsSurvive

eventbrite.com/e/community-ca…

-Planning additional Call-in Days with the House of Representatives and Senate (date TBD).

-Creating more resources for harm reduction as we move on and off platforms.

#EARNIT #FUCKEARNIT #LetUsSurvive

-Listening to you! If there is a gap in our programming, we welcome suggestions on what will best serve our diverse community at this time. #EARNIT #FUCKEARNIT #LetUsSurvive

HackingHustling.org/contact

In the meantime, we want to focus this conversation on one thing: coming together as survivors and centering healing, acknowledgment, and community support.

More resources can be found on the bottom of this page!
hackinghustling.org/earnit-act-adv…

Survivor’s Agenda is a forming project from MeToo founder, Tarana Burke, and other anti-violence advocates, which looks to build collective power to end sexual violence.
survivorsagenda.org

We encourage checking out their opening video describing the project and the toolkit on how to hold kitchen table conversations on sexual violence.

youtube.com/watch?v=F9DYVy…

survivorsagenda.org/get-involved-p…

Pure Love is an honest, vulnerable and intimate talk show about creating sustainable relationships with our children, normalizing the sex talks, and shifting the culture of sexual abuse.

igrivera.com/pure-love.html

Generation Five (since closed) is a collective from the Bay Area, which sought to use transformative justice to end child sexual abuse in five generations. generationfive.org

Generation Five have resources for transformative justice approaches, understanding child sexual abuse, and resources for survivors. generationfive.org

Love with Accountability is a collection of essays from survivors of child sexual abuse, which explores how we can disrupt and end the inhumane child sexual abuse pandemic, humanely.

lovewithaccountability.com/about-lovewith…

eventbrite.com/e/policing-wit…