March 7, 2018 Hon. Mitch McConnell Majority Leader U.S. Senate 317 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Hon. Charles Schumer Minority Leader U.S. Senate 322 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 2051 Hon. John Thune Chairman Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation 511 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Hon. Bill Nelson Ranking Member Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation Hart Senate Office Building, SH-425 Washington, DC 20510 Hon. Charles Grassley Chairman Senate Committee on the Judiciary 135 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Hon. Dianne Feinstein Ranking Member Senate Committee on the Judiciary 331 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Dear Senators, As Internet companies, we are eager to contribute to the fight against online sex trafficking. We are determined to do more to stop this evil, both by supporting effective legislation and by maintaining protections granted by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that enable us to address problematic content. Section 230 has not only enabled companies like ours to launch and grow, it has also made it legally feasible for us to contribute to the fight against criminal activity online. Any changes to these rules require careful consideration and an assessment of the impact they will have on law enforcement, victims, and our own content moderation and abuse detection activities. We support efforts to improve this regime in the context of the current debate on H.R. 1865 and S. 1693. Congress can and should target websites that are designed to ​support and profit from online sex trafficking. ​We too want to move quickly to address the scourge of online sex trafficking, while enhancing the ability of law enforcement and safety professionals to go after bad actors online. Devoting more law enforcement resources to investigating and prosecuting online traffickers and the rogue websites that actively support them is an important step in the right direction. To make these initiatives focused and effective, we similarly support amendments to the current regime to clarify that platforms are empowered to contribute to the fight against trafficking and other crimes without triggering unforeseen or unintended liability. ​While we support the ultimate goals of ​H.R. 1865 and S. 1693, we echo concerns from the Department of Justice about how those bills redefine “knowledge” under existing trafficking statutes. As the Department of Justice noted, the bill creates ambiguity around when a platform has culpable knowledge of trafficking activity, potentially making it harder for law enforcement to prosecute bad actors and creating uncertainty for companies that want to comply with the law. We are eager to work with the Senate to improve the bill, particularly to make it feasible for smaller companies to implement. We would be pleased to discuss potential changes with members of Congress as the Senate continues to consider the pending legislation. Sincerely, Engine Automattic Cloudflare GitHub IAC/InterActiveCorp Match Group Medium Patreon Pinterest Reddit Twitter, Inc. Wikimedia Foundation Yelp