• Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Never, ever, EVER trust ANYONE who says they’re doing something “for the safety of children”. The war against porn and sex work has been co-opted by christian fascists.

    Make no mistake, there is a hysteria around “child trafficking” nowadays, and that hysteria is being harnessed to pass laws that suppress our freedoms. SESTA/FOSTA has put the lives of countless sex workers at risk by forcing them back into the shady world of pimps and back alleys. The Texas ID law is pure government surveillance, and Project 2025 explicitly linked any trans people’s mere existence as “pornographic” and thus subject to all anti-porn laws.

    Human trafficking is real. Child abuse is real. And it needs to be fought against.

    But never EVER trust anyone who goes to the media and starts shouting about “our children”. It’s a fucking scam, and it’s usually making things worse for the people they claim to want to protect.

    NCOSE, the organization that co-sponsored Traffickinghub, was previously known as Morality in Media, and used to rail against sex shops, push abstinence education, and once boycotted Disney for offering partner benefits to gay couples. The group’s president, Patrick Trueman, has served at multiple far-right organizations designated as anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

    Laila founded Traffickinghub while on staff at Exodus Cry, an anti-trafficking organization that describes porn as a public health crisis. Its founder once called homosexuality an “an unspeakable offense to God.” One of its tax filings described a mission of “abolishing sex trafficking and the commercial sex industry,” which would seem to include porn.

    https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/world/an-activist-tried-to-take-down-trafficking-on-pornhub-did-she-do-more-harm-than-good/ar-BB1qM6Ue

    Fuck this bitch. Did she help some children? Maybe. But that’s not why she did it.

    • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Wow, great article, but it has even more info pointing out that this is a far right attack on sexuality that is using “trafficking” as its trojan horse:

      Laila founded Traffickinghub while on staff at Exodus Cry, an anti-trafficking organization that describes porn as a public health crisis. Its founder once called homosexuality an “an unspeakable offense to God.” One of its tax filings described a mission of “abolishing sex trafficking and the commercial sex industry,” which would seem to include porn.

      Helen Taylor, vice president of impact at Exodus Cry, told The Independent in an email that the group seeks to neither demonize LGBTQ+ people nor end legal pornography, and that it works to defend queer people, who are often singled out as victims of sexual exploitation.

      “Exodus Cry has no campaign to bring down the porn industry,” she said. “We focus on identifying instances of sexual exploitation in the porn industry and calling for change, recognizing that Big Porn needs regulation.”

      The questions over Mickelwait’s associations are likely to persist. The 2022 990 tax form for her new group, Justice Defense Fund, filed in late 2023, has the names of three of its four main officers “withheld for security reasons,” and lists only one contributor, their name also “restricted.”

      These partnerships, as well as Mickelwait’s penchant for describing Pornhub in terms like calling it a “terrorist” organization, made her efforts seem counter-productive to some, painting the industry as irredeemable and evil rather than imperfect.

    • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Never forget that the IRS spearheaded the biggest CSAM takedown in history by taking down a site called “welcome to video” they even caught a boarder patrol agent. So whenever someone says they want to protect children, remind them that we should be funding investigative agencies like the IRS and OSHA.