Download full text
(external source)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v5i2.925
Exports for your reference manager
Freedom, commerce, bodies, harm: the case of Backpage.com
[journal article]
Abstract This article situates lawsuits against Backpage.com in the context of changing laws and norms of sexual commerce and trafficking, and of evolving legal interpretations of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 has been used repeatedly to shield internet service providers such as ... view more
This article situates lawsuits against Backpage.com in the context of changing laws and norms of sexual commerce and trafficking, and of evolving legal interpretations of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 has been used repeatedly to shield internet service providers such as Backpage.com from liability for content generated by third parties that has led to criminal harm to others; in this case, the trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of minors. Moving to a critique of the law as at times grievously detached from the realities it addresses, I compare the legal strategies and decisions in three prominent cases brought against Backpage.com in St. Louis, Tacoma, and Boston, respectively. This critique identifies the evacuation of gendered bodies and the harm done to them from the court opinions as an example of what Robert Cover has called the "interpretive violence" of the law, and of the judges who interpret and dispense it. I conclude by calling for courts and Congress to act together to disrupt the accumulation of interpretive precedent favoring freedom of commerce and speech over the protection of bodies from harm.... view less
Keywords
slave trade; exploitation; sexuality; legal theory; underage
Classification
Sociology of the Youth, Sociology of Childhood
Criminal Sociology, Sociology of Law
Document language
English
Publication Year
2017
Page/Pages
p. 3-15
Journal
Social Inclusion, 5 (2017) 2
Issue topic
Perspectives on human trafficking and modern forms of slavery
ISSN
2183-2803
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed