H. R. 1865

One Hundred Fifteenth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT T H E S E C O N D S E S S I O N
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday,
the third day of January, two thousand and eighteen

An Act
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to clarify that section 230 of such
Act does not prohibit the enforcement against providers and users of interactive
computer services of Federal and State criminal and civil law relating to sexual
exploitation of children or sex trafficking, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Allow States and Victims to
Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017’’.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

It is the sense of Congress that—
(1) section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47
U.S.C. 230; commonly known as the ‘‘Communications Decency
Act of 1996’’) was never intended to provide legal protection
to websites that unlawfully promote and facilitate prostitution
and websites that facilitate traffickers in advertising the sale
of unlawful sex acts with sex trafficking victims;
(2) websites that promote and facilitate prostitution have
been reckless in allowing the sale of sex trafficking victims
and have done nothing to prevent the trafficking of children
and victims of force, fraud, and coercion; and
(3) clarification of such section is warranted to ensure
that such section does not provide such protection to such
websites.
SEC. 3. PROMOTION OF PROSTITUTION AND RECKLESS DISREGARD
OF SEX TRAFFICKING.

(a) PROMOTION OF PROSTITUTION.—Chapter 117 of title 18,
United States Code, is amended by inserting after section 2421
the following:
‘‘§ 2421A. Promotion or facilitation of prostitution and reckless disregard of sex trafficking
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Whoever, using a facility or means of interstate or foreign commerce or in or affecting interstate or foreign
commerce, owns, manages, or operates an interactive computer
service (as such term is defined in defined in section 230(f) the
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f))), or conspires or
attempts to do so, with the intent to promote or facilitate the
prostitution of another person shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both.
‘‘(b) AGGRAVATED VIOLATION.—Whoever, using a facility or
means of interstate or foreign commerce or in or affecting interstate

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or foreign commerce, owns, manages, or operates an interactive
computer service (as such term is defined in defined in section
230(f) the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f))), or conspires or attempts to do so, with the intent to promote or facilitate
the prostitution of another person and—
‘‘(1) promotes or facilitates the prostitution of 5 or more
persons; or
‘‘(2) acts in reckless disregard of the fact that such conduct
contributed to sex trafficking, in violation of 1591(a),
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 25
years, or both.
‘‘(c) CIVIL RECOVERY.—Any person injured by reason of a violation of section 2421A(b) may recover damages and reasonable attorneys’ fees in an action before any appropriate United States district
court.
‘‘(d) MANDATORY RESTITUTION.—Notwithstanding sections 3663
or 3663A and in addition to any other civil or criminal penalties
authorized by law, the court shall order restitution for any violation
of subsection (b)(2). The scope and nature of such restitution shall
be consistent with section 2327(b).
‘‘(e) AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE.—It shall be an affirmative defense
to a charge of violating subsection (a), or subsection (b)(1) where
the defendant proves, by a preponderance of the evidence, that
the promotion or facilitation of prostitution is legal in the jurisdiction where the promotion or facilitation was targeted.’’.
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for such chapter
is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 2421
the following:
‘‘2421A. Promotion or facilitation of prostitution and reckless disregard of sex trafficking.’’.
SEC. 4. ENSURING ABILITY TO ENFORCE FEDERAL AND STATE
CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAW RELATING TO SEX TRAFFICKING.

(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 230(e) of the Communications Act
of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(e)) is amended by adding at the end the
following:
‘‘(5) NO EFFECT ON SEX TRAFFICKING LAW.—Nothing in this
section (other than subsection (c)(2)(A)) shall be construed to
impair or limit—
‘‘(A) any claim in a civil action brought under section
1595 of title 18, United States Code, if the conduct underlying the claim constitutes a violation of section 1591 of
that title;
‘‘(B) any charge in a criminal prosecution brought
under State law if the conduct underlying the charge would
constitute a violation of section 1591 of title 18, United
States Code; or
‘‘(C) any charge in a criminal prosecution brought
under State law if the conduct underlying the charge would
constitute a violation of section 2421A of title 18, United
States Code, and promotion or facilitation of prostitution
is illegal in the jurisdiction where the defendant’s promotion or facilitation of prostitution was targeted.’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by this section
shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act, and
the amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply regardless of

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whether the conduct alleged occurred, or is alleged to have occurred,
before, on, or after such date of enactment.
SEC. 5. ENSURING FEDERAL LIABILITY FOR PUBLISHING INFORMATION DESIGNED TO FACILITATE SEX TRAFFICKING OR
OTHERWISE FACILITATING SEX TRAFFICKING.

Section 1591(e) of title 18, United States Code, is amended—
(1) by redesignating paragraphs (4) and (5) as paragraphs
(5) and (6), respectively; and
(2) by inserting after paragraph (3) the following:
‘‘(4) The term ‘participation in a venture’ means knowingly
assisting, supporting, or facilitating a violation of subsection
(a)(1).’’.
SEC. 6. ACTIONS BY STATE ATTORNEYS GENERAL.

(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1595 of title 18, United States Code,
is amended by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(d) In any case in which the attorney general of a State
has reason to believe that an interest of the residents of that
State has been or is threatened or adversely affected by any person
who violates section 1591, the attorney general of the State, as
parens patriae, may bring a civil action against such person on
behalf of the residents of the State in an appropriate district court
of the United States to obtain appropriate relief.’’.
(b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 1595
of title 18, United States Code, is amended—
(1) in subsection (b)(1), by striking ‘‘this section’’ and
inserting ‘‘subsection (a)’’; and
(2) in subsection (c), in the matter preceding paragraph
(1), by striking ‘‘this section’’ and inserting ‘‘subsection (a)’’.
SEC. 7. SAVINGS CLAUSE.

Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this Act
shall be construed to limit or preempt any civil action or criminal
prosecution under Federal law or State law (including State statutory law and State common law) filed before or after the day
before the date of enactment of this Act that was not limited
or preempted by section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934
(47 U.S.C. 230), as such section was in effect on the day before
the date of enactment of this Act.
SEC. 8. GAO STUDY.

On the date that is 3 years after the date of the enactment
of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall
conduct a study and submit to the Committees on the Judiciary
of the House of Representatives and of the Senate, the Committee
on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives, and the
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of
the Senate, a report which includes the following:
(1) Information on each civil action brought pursuant to
section 2421A(c) of title 18, United States Code, that resulted
in an award of damages, including the amount claimed, the
nature or description of the losses claimed to support the
amount claimed, the losses proven, and the nature or description of the losses proven to support the amount awarded.
(2) Information on each civil action brought pursuant to
section 2421A(c) of title 18, United States Code, that did not
result in an award of damages, including—

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(A) the amount claimed and the nature or description
of the losses claimed to support the amount claimed; and
(B) whether the case was dismissed, and if the case
was dismissed, information describing the reason for the
dismissal.
(3) Information on each order of restitution entered pursuant to section 2421A(d) of title 18, United States Code,
including—
(A) whether the defendant was a corporation or an
individual;
(B) the amount requested by the Government and the
justification for, and calculation of, the amount requested,
if restitution was requested; and
(C) the amount ordered by the court and the justification for, and calculation of, the amount ordered.
(4) For each defendant convicted of violating section
2421A(b) of title 18, United States Code, that was not ordered
to pay restitution—
(A) whether the defendant was a corporation or an
individual;
(B) the amount requested by the Government, if restitution was requested; and
(C) information describing the reason that the court
did not order restitution.

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.