Abstract
For decades, sex work operated in the shadows—negotiated in alleyways, mediated by third parties, and shaped by constant risk. Today, much of it happens online, where a screen can mean the difference between autonomy and danger. But, when the law pushes an industry underground, it does not eliminate it; rather, it reshapes how it operates, often in ways that increase vulnerability and reduce accountability. Sex work is the exchange of specific sexual services for money. The experiences of people who engage in sex work are diverse and influenced by social structures and economic realities. The internet provides consensual sex workers with a sense of safety and community not previously available. Historically, sex work, often illegal, subjected individuals to high rates of violence and judgement. This forced sex workers to rely on procurers to encounter unsanctioned clientele and face the fear of prosecution, leading to an underreporting of violence. The digital age has profoundly reshaped the landscape of sex work, introducing new opportunities for safety, community, and financial independence, particularly for marginalized groups. ...
This comment examines how FOSTA-SESTA has reshaped the digital public sphere by incentivizing platforms to adopt algorithmic censorship, identity verification, and payment surveillance, thereby eroding First Amendment protections and disproportionately marginalizing online sex workers. It contends that, although platforms are formally treated as neutral conduits, legal pressure effectively deputizes them as private regulators of speech, transforming technical infrastructure into mechanisms of exclusion.
First Page
123
Recommended Citation
Fenny Gandhi,
Criminalizing the Platform: FOSTA-SESTA, Internet Governance, and the Erosion of Inline Speech,
29
U.D.C. L. Rev.
123
(2026).
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.law.udc.edu/udclr/vol29/iss1/12