camp2023-57026-eng-Sex_Workers_Versus_Surveillance_opus.srt

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 [MUSIC]

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 [MUSIC]

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 And we're running with a one minute delay.

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 Welcome, good evening, welcome to Digital Courage.

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 Tonight we're talking about sex workers versus surveillance.

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 If you're on the Fediverse,

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 you can add us with the hashtag #CCCcamp23DigitalCourage.

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 And without further ado, I'm gonna leave my field to the fabulous Maggie Mayhem.

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 >> [APPLAUSE]

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 >> Thank you so much for such a warm introduction.

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 And I am so happy to be here and to see so many people who are interested about

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 this topic that is so near and dear to my heart, really having a wonderful time.

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 Thank you so much to the Digital Courage Village for

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 accepting this talk and give me this space.

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 Thank you to everyone who has done any work or labor to make this camp happen.

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 I hope everyone has been having as much fun as I have been.

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 >> [APPLAUSE]

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 >> My name is Maggie Mayhem, and

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 it has been my pleasure to be a companion to people during times of sex, birth, and

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 death, all underscored by 20 years of experience with harm reduction.

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 Harm reduction is a practice that I think is so important.

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 It comes from the drug user community.

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 It was created by drug users.

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 It's intended for drug users.

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 But it ultimately has a belief that what we need to work for is any positive change.

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 And that is a theme that I hope that you will all consider as I go through this talk.

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 I am available on the Internet in many forms.

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 You will not find me on Facebook.

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 I am not there.

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 I am affiliated with some different organizations.

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 I am currently involved with the Distributed Denial of Secrets.

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 I am formally on the Sex Worker Outreach Project USA Board of Directors.

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 I am also a former trainer and leader with the Bay Area Abortion Support Team.

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 And doing reproductive rights activism is one of my other many hats.

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 Today we are gonna be talking about sex worker rights.

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 These are some of the things that we're going to be going over.

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 And one of the reasons that I'm in this room today is because sex workers

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 are a part of this community.

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 We're here.

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 We have always been here.

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 And we are never going away.

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 I also think that it is so important for the people who build, support, and

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 subvert our digital infrastructure to know about this community, what our needs are,

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 and what some of the challenges we face are, so that we can have a better,

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 safer future as we engage with our lives.

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 I'm gonna be doing a brief introduction to some very kind of basic sex worker

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 rights topics and jargon.

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 I'll be talking a little bit about tech.

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 I'll be talking about borders and information biopolitics.

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 And I will be doing a little bit of a talk about subverting surveillance.

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 I only have 45 minutes.

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 I have a lot of slides.

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 I tend to speak very fast, so my apologies to anyone who is a German speaker.

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 I'll do my best.

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 This talk is being recorded and it is being streamed.

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 But you can also feel free to take a picture of a slide if there's a big,

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 overwhelming block of text that you want to review.

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 Pictures of me are okay.

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 Cats out of the bag in terms of this content.

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 So I feel very comfortable with that.

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 As a content note, I will be talking a little bit about discussion of some human

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 trafficking and abuse.

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 So be aware that that is something that might come up.

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 And I trust that you will know yourselves and that if you're here today,

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 you're prepared to hear some conversation about that.

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 There is a chant in the sex worker rights community when there has been labor

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 activism, and I would like to share that with you.

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 This came out of a unionization struggle at a strip club in San Francisco.

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 There were lots of protests and one of those chants was,

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 when sex worker rights are under attack, what do we do?

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 Get dressed, fight back.

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 So let's do that.

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 What is sex work?

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 Sex work is a very broad umbrella term.

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 It covers so many different kinds of labor.

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 There's also a lot of other language.

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 Some of it is very dehumanizing, but people sometimes reclaim it for themselves.

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 They may use it as a self identifier.

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 It's also, there's some language that is part of criminal, legal, or

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 penal codes that may still be used, but

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 it may not be favored by people in the trade themselves.

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 There is such a diversity of things that people do in terms of erotic sexual

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 commerce.

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 Instead of breaking things down into legal or illegal, because there is so

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 much variation about what that might mean in any given location,

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 I would like to think about it more in terms of high contact and lower contact.

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 But that does not mean visibility necessarily, because there are people who

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 have less contact with their clients and their customer base,

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 who are very highly visible, and that comes with its own risks.

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 But in general, it is the people who have the highest amount of immediate contact

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 with their clients and their customers who face the brunt of violence,

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 and extreme violence at that.

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 They also face risks of infection, exposure, and also to say that those

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 infections are not necessarily just sexually transmitted infections.

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 That includes any possible disease exposure, including COVID,

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 tuberculosis, any bug that's going around.

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 They are up close and personal with people.

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 So the population of people who are performing outdoor sex work are very,

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 very visible on our public streets.

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 They are subjected to the highest amount of violence, and they also face the highest

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 amounts of criminalization.

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 They're the people who are really at the center of this conversation.

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 It's also important to note that there is a great deal of intersectionality in terms

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 of who is the brunt of this violence.

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 People of color, especially people who lack citizenship status in the place

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 where they are working, are particularly at risk.

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 People who may be transgender, gender nonconforming, they also face a great deal

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 of violence in what they do.

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 There's a lot of overlap in the International Day to End Violence Against Sex

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 Workers and the Transgender Day of Remembrance, where there are people in the center.

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 And those people in the center are just so, so important, and the rights

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 conversation is really about them and the overlap and why they are facing those

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 types of consequences for work where other people might experience more safety.

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 There's also some ambiguity.

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 People may engage in multiple forms of sex work over the course of their career.

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 Some people may use different types of personas.

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 They may do little bits to keep them separate.

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 They may have different names that they use for different forms of work, but

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 different -- uh-oh.

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 I think it's just a sensitive cord.

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 I can keep talking.

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 Oh, okay.

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 Maybe it needs to be taped down.

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 We'll get through it.

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 I have an idea.

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 Let's try that.

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 Let's see if that little bit of support -- problem solve it.

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 There can be some ambiguity that goes on.

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 Criminalization and stigma also mean that people may hide their participation in the

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 trade, so they may not be disclosing.

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 They may not be as open about what they do.

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 People may also need fronts, not rants.

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 Fronts are plausible deniability.

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 For example, I'm a former sex worker.

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 I'm absolutely retired.

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 Never happens anymore.

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 That's long in the past, you know, or as good as the next offer is.

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 Sex trafficking is of significant concern, and I want to talk about what that actually

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 is in detail, so this is where we're going to have some real talk going on.

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 There's a spectrum of participation in terms of sex work.

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 There are people who essentially are, you know, part of this trade by choice because

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 it's -- they find enjoyment or pleasure out of it, and they are real.

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 They are part of our trade.

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 There are people who are here by circumstance.

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 They're kind of in the middle.

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 It's the work that they're doing because it meets their needs, but maybe something better

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 will come along, or maybe they'll pay off that debt.

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 Maybe they'll be more established.

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 They'll secure their housing.

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 They'll be able to move on to something else, something that they would rather be doing.

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 And there are people who are in this trade by coercion or by force.

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 They may not be consenting adults.

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 They may not be over the age of 18.

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 They may be people who were given a false bill of goods about what kind of work they

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 might be doing in their path of migration.

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 They might be people who are in an intimate partner violence situation in their relationship

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 where a partner or even a parent or a loved one compelled them to do this work.

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 Rights encompass all of these people.

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 Rights are not predicated upon empowerment.

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 Rights are about addressing the way power imbalances have lethal consequences.

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 So rights are necessary for that.

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 Respectability politics have no currency with me.

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 That's not what this struggle is fundamentally about.

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 So understanding that there is this range is a very important thing to really think

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 about.

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 Human trafficking for non-sexual labor represents the overwhelming majority of cases, and that's

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 simply because there is more labor in this world that is non-sexual than there is labor

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 that is sexual.

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 Human trafficking is also about the food that we eat, the clothing that we wear, the things

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 that we do every day where we don't have as many people jumping up to talk about their

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 rights and the way that they are being trafficked.

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 Criminalizing sex work isn't going to have a benefit for the people who are being trafficked

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 in that way.

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 Those types of laws and penalties don't necessarily correspond or come to support them in the

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 situation that they are facing.

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 And oftentimes anti-trafficking organizations will really do a lot of shock and awe to talk

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 about how hard and brutal human trafficking in sexual cases is, and I'm not going to deny

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 it.

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 It can be absolutely abhorrent and it can be brutal.

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 And there is that brutality that is present in all forms of human trafficking.

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 The more you look into that, the more that that can be seen.

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 When we treat people as disposable, when we treat people as individuals that we can just

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 have, do our labor and disregard and throw away, bad, bad, bad things happen.

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 There are multiple regulatory models of sex work.

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 Legalization is one of them, and oftentimes it's what a lot of people think would be the

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 best because we have this idea that legal means good, illegal means bad.

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 But that's not necessarily the case because whenever there is a legal or regulated form

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 of sex work, there are going to be people who don't fit into that very well, who fall

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 into the cracks, and they still face significant penalties for their participation.

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 And in one case, I think it's really important to say that that's something that's happening

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 here in Germany.

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 I've had some conversations with people throughout the day who have been telling me that this

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 sounds like a very interesting talk, but here in Germany we have some regulated legal forms

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 of sex work, so we're doing pretty good.

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 This is not necessarily what people who are doing activism here have to say.

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 I'm going to drink some water and hope.

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 All right.

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 That's not necessarily what the activists here have to say.

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 And it's not my place to speak over the German sex worker rights activists who are doing

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 lots of hard work, who are the most informed.

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 But some of the things that they have wanted to address are the fact that licensing creates

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 a potential risk for data breaches.

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 If you have to apply for a license, if you have your information, your personal identifying

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 information and a photograph attached to this kind of work, you are at risk.

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 That's a database of people who are involved in sex work.

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 There are some people who might want to get their hands on it who don't have the best

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 intentions.

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 That could be very problematic.

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 They could be outed.

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 There are exclusionary zones where people can still be penalized.

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 And in general, just any time we have a form of policing, it is going to target marginalized

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 identities and people who are non-citizens may not have full access to the rights and

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 protections that come from a legal framework.

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 So if you want to know more in depth about what's happening here in Germany, it is upon

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 me to refer you to German sex workers themselves.

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 Hydra is that organization.

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 Their website is listed.

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 And this is a QR code that goes to a very detailed paper analyzing the policies that

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 are happening here.

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 This is the one that is in German.

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 And this is in the English.

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 This QR code will not be available for more than two weeks.

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 So it's really for those of you who are here in the audience.

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 If you're watching this later on, you can still get this information on their website.

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 Full criminalization is what we see in most of the world.

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 In most places, sex work is prohibited.

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 It is criminalized with a full set of laws detailing what that looks like.

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 And the reason that these laws can be so precise, they're so detailed, is because communication

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 and association are the only ways that we can distinguish a sex act that is commercial from

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 one that is recreational or relational.

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 So ultimately, it does become a matter of expression, the way people are communicating.

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 It comes down to the way people are dressing on the street, the way they can be visibly

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 identified.

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 It has to do with who they're associating with.

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 You know, if they're with someone who has already been known or identified as a sex

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 worker and they're in that company, you can be held accountable for their actions too,

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 or you can be lumped in with them.

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 So the fact that that's such a nebulous issue means that all of these laws are always going

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 to be, are going to have collateral damage and they're going to ultimately extend beyond

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 their "intended targets" because it's just not as clear what makes a legal sex act different

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 from an illegal one other than biases, judgments, stigmas, and perception of the people that

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 you're looking at when you're thinking about it.

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 The Nordic model, or end demand, is the, it sounds great on paper, it's the idea that

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 we could criminalize the purchase of sex only, but not the people who are selling it.

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 Asymmetric enforcement of laws will always infringe upon the fundamental rights of the

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 non-criminal party.

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 And one way to explain this is, if I told you that we were going to propose a law that

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 it was totally okay and totally legal to attend a concert, but not to be a musician playing

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 one, that would mean we're not going to have too many concerts because people would not

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00:16:32,660 --> 00:16:34,240
 be able to go there.

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 They're still going to be surveilled.

252
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 The whole event is going to be shut down.

253
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 It's going to be impossible to do.

254
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 So it does, it sounds really, really great, but it just doesn't work out that way in practice.

255
00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:57,120
 Decriminalization is the idea that we can just take the laws governing forms of sex

256
00:16:57,120 --> 00:17:03,560
 work off the book entirely and just move away from the form of policing.

257
00:17:03,560 --> 00:17:08,280
 Full decriminalization is never going to be possible in a world with any form of policing

258
00:17:08,280 --> 00:17:13,800
 and criminalization, in many ways for the same reason that end demand is problematic.

259
00:17:13,800 --> 00:17:21,500
 If we still have laws that criminalize people, then we can't actually accomplish decriminalization.

260
00:17:21,500 --> 00:17:25,480
 But this is the model that has been most preferred by people in the sex trade.

261
00:17:25,480 --> 00:17:31,240
 New Zealand is an example of a place that has had successful decriminalization happening,

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00:17:31,240 --> 00:17:35,900
 but it also too has its own limits because as I said again, when there's anyone in society

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 who is being criminalized, then this type of work can still be subject to penalties

264
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 and punitive reactions.

265
00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:50,980
 We've also been moving away from the idea that we need to criminalize or eliminate sex

266
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 work because it's a moral bad issue.

267
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 And we're moving on to a new era of humanitarian securitization.

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 That's the idea that we're going to have laws and surveillance and policies that aren't

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00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:10,240
 necessarily just intended to be mean and bad to people who are in the sex trade or with

270
00:18:10,240 --> 00:18:16,560
 a moralizing idea, but rather for humanitarian purposes to end trafficking.

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 The anti-trafficking movement relies on this.

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00:18:19,740 --> 00:18:24,320
 But humanitarian securitization is still a form of securitization.

273
00:18:24,320 --> 00:18:27,460
 It's still the implementation of mass surveillance.

274
00:18:27,460 --> 00:18:34,900
 It's still another way to justify establishing stronger policing, but it sounds good and

275
00:18:34,900 --> 00:18:39,840
 sometimes people don't realize it's creeping up on them too, even though they're not in

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00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:40,840
 the sex trade.

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 It just means that those apparatuses are emboldened and they have more money, they have more power,

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 they have further reach.

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 Violence not rescue is one of the ways that we can address the wrongs, the brutality of

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00:18:57,640 --> 00:18:59,160
 trafficking.

281
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 We really cannot arrest our way out of this kind of violence.

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00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:07,680
 We need to start establishing a world that provides resources for people, regardless

283
00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:10,560
 of how they came into the sex trade.

284
00:19:10,560 --> 00:19:15,480
 We need to have resources for people who are escaping intimate partner violence that have

285
00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:19,300
 very low barriers that are accessible beyond business hours.

286
00:19:19,300 --> 00:19:22,760
 We need to have a full set of resources and support for people who may have substance

287
00:19:22,760 --> 00:19:25,520
 use disorders that don't have barriers.

288
00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:30,280
 So the moment that they're ready to start detoxing or enter recovery, there's a place

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00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:35,400
 for them that's open, that has a bed where they feel safe.

290
00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:39,440
 Those places, all of these places have to be ready to handle people of all identities,

291
00:19:39,440 --> 00:19:43,640
 of all genders, of all races, of all kinds of relationship statuses.

292
00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:47,120
 They have to be safe spaces and there has to be enough of them.

293
00:19:47,120 --> 00:19:48,880
 They must be well funded.

294
00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:54,960
 They cannot just be something that are done cheaply or with so many barriers, they just

295
00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:58,600
 don't work for the people who need those resources.

296
00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:05,160
 All raids are going to be violent and rescue is just a nice way of saying a raid.

297
00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:06,160
 That's all that it is.

298
00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:07,960
 It's just a euphemism.

299
00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:14,880
 There are no teddy bears and hot cocoa when they come in to shut these things down.

300
00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:21,080
 The UN, UN AIDS, the World Health Organization and Amnesty International have all recognized

301
00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:24,840
 that the rights not rescue model is what is important and that decriminalization is a

302
00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:29,000
 step that will help protect the rights, the dignity, the health and the safety of people

303
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:30,500
 who are in the sex trade.

304
00:20:30,500 --> 00:20:38,240
 So it's not just me, it's some very big organizations and experts who do work in human rights.

305
00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:43,080
 It's also important to note that rescue industries receive most of the money and most of the

306
00:20:43,080 --> 00:20:46,040
 funds and there is a lot on the table.

307
00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:50,780
 They get a lot of money for a lot of programs and a lot of that will go to their overhead

308
00:20:50,780 --> 00:20:56,600
 or their staff budget and it doesn't necessarily go to a full range of services.

309
00:20:56,600 --> 00:21:01,680
 In the United States there's a very big anti-trafficking organization called Polaris.

310
00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:08,460
 They get millions upon millions of dollars and very often they would refer people who

311
00:21:08,460 --> 00:21:14,200
 were looking to get information or support who were in the sex trade to the swap USA

312
00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:19,720
 hotline and we funded that with volunteer hours and a very small budget from our like

313
00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:21,480
 meager ability to fundraise.

314
00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:27,040
 So we were doing work that they claimed to be doing without getting any of that monetary

315
00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:28,960
 support to do it.

316
00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:34,240
 We simply are just not necessarily eligible for the same kind of grants or we're not trusted

317
00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:38,760
 to be able to do this work within the community.

318
00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:41,640
 Police militarization budgets have all gotten so much bigger.

319
00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:47,520
 They get a lot more money to get a lot more tools and so there's all this money is not

320
00:21:47,520 --> 00:21:51,280
 going to sex workers themselves.

321
00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:56,400
 Having these types of laws can really result in a lot of censorship, limited speech for

322
00:21:56,400 --> 00:21:58,740
 everybody who is communicating.

323
00:21:58,740 --> 00:22:02,280
 The more surveillance networks we have the more people who will be caught in that kind

324
00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:05,440
 of a dragnet no matter what you're talking about.

325
00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:11,720
 So sexual speech and sexual education is all going to be potentially at risk and we are

326
00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:15,200
 definitely seeing consequences of that in the United States.

327
00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:20,400
 This also means that reproductive health information is going to be limited and we are seeing this

328
00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:23,560
 as a consequence as well.

329
00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:26,480
 Information for people who are looking for transgender resources or queer resources.

330
00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:31,120
 resources, they're going to lose those because it could possibly be associated

331
00:22:31,120 --> 00:22:35,720
 or people are going to be afraid to possibly be associated with trafficking

332
00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:41,240
 for having any of the buzzwords or the keywords that are the same or held in

333
00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:46,040
 common. So this collateral damage is important because these are resources

334
00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:50,920
 that we need that need to be really fully fleshed out because people have a

335
00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:55,080
 right to information, unrestricted information, they need to get the best

336
00:22:55,080 --> 00:23:03,280
 tools that they need to live their best lives. And in response to these shifts in

337
00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:08,280
 public perception, a lot of religious organizations have actually started to

338
00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:12,740
 do some deceptive things in their marketing and their practices so they

339
00:23:12,740 --> 00:23:17,080
 may sound like a secular organization but they're not. They're actually far

340
00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:24,440
 right Christian organizations. The Moral Majority was a group that started in the

341
00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:28,280
 United States in the 1960s. They are evangelical Christians. They are now

342
00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:34,440
 rebranded as the National Coalition to oppose sexual exploitation of children

343
00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:39,200
 and they chose that their name because it was so similar to another

344
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:42,920
 organization that had been long established to help children who were

345
00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:46,520
 missing or vulnerable, who were exploited. But the difference between

346
00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:50,880
 those orgs is in their ideological agenda. The legitimate one was really

347
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:55,680
 working with the hard reality that children who go missing or are exploited

348
00:23:55,680 --> 00:24:00,320
 are often being harmed by someone they know and love. It is often a parent. It is

349
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:05,520
 often someone in their family and it's not because there was a big bad sex

350
00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:09,360
 trafficker who threw them in a van. It's because there was someone they loved who

351
00:24:09,360 --> 00:24:15,600
 was hurting them and oftentimes it's also as simple as a custody dispute issue

352
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:20,200
 where parents have split and one parent has decided they don't like the

353
00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:23,040
 arrangement or how things have worked out and they're going to come take their

354
00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:27,520
 kid and go somewhere else far away that may not be safe or the best place for

355
00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:34,200
 them. One great example is there is a movie that is making waves in the US. I

356
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:39,480
 don't know if it's out here yet but it's called The Sound of Freedom and it's

357
00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:44,920
 simply a propaganda piece that has a lot of very very bad information and it

358
00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:49,760
 comes from some very bad practices. I don't know if anyone here is familiar

359
00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:54,760
 with Pizzagate. That was a problem in the United States. It was a conservative

360
00:24:54,760 --> 00:25:00,120
 political just nightmare where some people on the internet suggested that

361
00:25:00,120 --> 00:25:04,280
 there was a pizza parlor that was responsible for sex trafficking

362
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:09,040
 children. They were being held in the basement by Hillary Clinton and it was

363
00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:13,240
 going to be necessary to storm the pizza parlor to save the children and

364
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:18,600
 this was a bad tip. There were no children in the basement. It was just a

365
00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:24,600
 pizza parlor and someone showed up with a very large weapon and there was no one

366
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:28,000
 there to rescue. That was what was happening with the people who were

367
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:35,160
 making this happen. They actually started by traveling to the Caribbean

368
00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:41,400
 and they would try to set up their own stings. They were not professionals. They

369
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:43,800
 didn't have a background in this. They really didn't know what they were doing.

370
00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:48,400
 They were possibly driving up the demand for child sex trafficking by even trying

371
00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:53,720
 to facilitate this or make it happen and they would storm the situation with guns

372
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:58,000
 and they would terrify those kids. They would pat themselves on the back but

373
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:00,640
 they didn't make sure that those children were safe afterwards. No one

374
00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:04,840
 heard where they went or what happened to them. No one made sure they were okay

375
00:26:04,840 --> 00:26:09,960
 after experiencing that and they're just very misleading and when we have these

376
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:14,240
 propaganda pieces we're not able to do the work that we need to do to get

377
00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:20,920
 people out of these situations and into something safer. Here's some example of

378
00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:24,760
 some of these organizations. This is just one that I picked because I like to pick

379
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:30,640
 on them. The National Anti-Human Trafficking Coalition and they also

380
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:35,240
 encourage just a lot of religious volunteers to jump into work that they

381
00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:40,760
 are not trained or ready to do. So they have, this may not be clear on the slide,

382
00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:45,560
 but at their level four the highest honor is after you've volunteered enough

383
00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:51,400
 and done enough church work you too can join in on the rescue. So again people

384
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:56,480
 who just aren't ready to do this work and they can make situations worse. Some

385
00:26:56,480 --> 00:27:00,160
 of these organizations have also done a little bit of what we might call tourism

386
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:04,880
 of various sex trade districts where they would get people together in prayer

387
00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:10,740
 groups to get in a shuttle and go by outdoor sex markets to look and gawk at

388
00:27:10,740 --> 00:27:16,240
 the people who were there and you know pray the rosary but really that's

389
00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:22,520
 just that's not helpful and it's degrading. It's absolutely degrading. They

390
00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:26,560
 also collaborate with law enforcement so they may not actually be in law

391
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:30,880
 enforcement but they they like to work with them and sometimes law enforcement

392
00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:34,440
 really likes these groups because these groups can do things that they wouldn't

393
00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:39,280
 necessarily be able to do because they don't have the same types of policies or

394
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:44,480
 body cams or accountability. So there is that little bit of a joint partnership

395
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:50,360
 there with the rank amateurs who make everything worse. There's a fantastic

396
00:27:50,360 --> 00:27:54,520
 project called Rape That Rescue. It is a sex worker led project. It does cover

397
00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:59,640
 rescues internationally and it analyzes what the budgets are, what the outcomes

398
00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:03,280
 are and whether or not the people who are involved felt that their life was

399
00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:07,360
 better as a result of that rescue.

400
00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:13,480
 The US Department of Homeland Security is of course very concerned with human

401
00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:18,080
 trafficking because they want to have a good way to justify a lot of

402
00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:22,920
 surveillance that they're doing that is extending as far as possible to extend

403
00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:26,800
 that reach and I want to focus in particular with what they were doing

404
00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:30,760
 with the hospitality industry. They were doing a lot of mandatory training with

405
00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:38,280
 hotel chains to help people there spot the scourge of trafficking and here are

406
00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:42,720
 some of the indicators of human trafficking and some of these might

407
00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:47,000
 whether or not you're in the trade might sound familiar such as simply leaving

408
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:52,640
 the do not disturb sign up for multiple days in a row, having lots of technical

409
00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:57,200
 devices, anyone travel with a few computers or some extra things like that?

410
00:28:57,200 --> 00:29:03,760
 Very suspicious. Good reason to check in. You could be a trafficker. So some of

411
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:07,080
 these things might actually be kind of accurate and helpful but a lot of them

412
00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:12,120
 are also quite obvious. Sometimes their guides will have things like you know if

413
00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:16,640
 there's a child who's you know talking about overt sexual acts and looking for

414
00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:24,160
 money in the lobby be suspicious and yes perhaps that is suspicious but it's

415
00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:27,880
 interesting to see the other things that get thrown in there as reasonable cause

416
00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:32,440
 for a search or reasonable cause to call law enforcement in to investigate the

417
00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:39,760
 situation. The private sector of course is coming in to charge you know every

418
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:44,160
 kind of business possible with their model of training so lots of these

419
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:48,620
 companies are opening up and they have their own how to spot and stop human

420
00:29:48,620 --> 00:29:53,640
 trafficking. They're making a lot of money off of this industry and we have

421
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:57,040
 no way to tell if they're actually doing anything to prevent it. They just sell

422
00:29:57,040 --> 00:30:07,200
 courses and certification for people. Palantir, they're fun. We all love

423
00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:13,240
 Palantir. I think they are definitely being making fantastic use of the human

424
00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:18,520
 trafficking rhetoric to justify the expanded scope of the surveillance that

425
00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:24,480
 they have been doing everywhere that they possibly can and one of the things

426
00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:28,200
 they wrote in this article I thought that was quite interesting is to give

427
00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:33,120
 non-technical people a view of the world as discrete objects relationships and

428
00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:38,760
 they're describing data and that's a good thing right. We're all just data and

429
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:42,600
 relationships that can be mined and pulled for different purposes but they

430
00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:47,760
 can expand the scope they can keep growing especially when they have this

431
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:53,080
 type of a project that they can push to the forefront. We're not here to invade

432
00:30:53,080 --> 00:30:57,320
 your digital privacy and your rights we're just trying to find the bad guys

433
00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:04,380
 and that's all we'll do and they're getting some major contracts with the

434
00:31:04,380 --> 00:31:08,400
 US government and they are absolutely putting that to the forefront of their

435
00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:12,160
 website and their promotional materials. They're spending a lot of time going

436
00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:17,520
 into conferences and occupying a lot of space in this domain but I think we all

437
00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:24,040
 have some questions about what their intentions really are. This is a poster

438
00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:29,200
 that was made by traffic brothel workers in Thailand and these are people who

439
00:31:29,200 --> 00:31:32,900
 were experiencing some of the worst outcomes of trafficking and they had an

440
00:31:32,900 --> 00:31:40,080
 opportunity to to share some of that and what it was and this is some of the text

441
00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:43,840
 that they wrote to transcribe it in case it was hard to read on the poster and

442
00:31:43,840 --> 00:31:47,800
 this was the experience of people who were in the midst of trafficking who

443
00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:52,040
 were doing work that they wouldn't have chosen otherwise who were looking for a

444
00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:55,560
 different or a better kind of life and they made it a point to say that their

445
00:31:55,560 --> 00:32:00,640
 their income their savings their money was seized that they were locked up that

446
00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:05,040
 they were detained detained that they were interrogated by many people for

447
00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:09,200
 many long hours that they were forced and compelled to be witnesses even if

448
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:13,120
 that might be dangerous for them that they were held until their court case

449
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:16,320
 and did not have the ability to move freely in the place where they were

450
00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:20,600
 living that they were forced into retraining into industries that they

451
00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:24,840
 didn't necessarily find any better for example the garment industry that were

452
00:32:24,840 --> 00:32:28,680
 gonna save you and pull you out of the sex trade and now you're gonna go work

453
00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:33,440
 in front of a sewing machine not necessarily for much more money in fact

454
00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:37,360
 oftentimes less than they were making before they were not compensated by

455
00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:42,200
 anyone for their loss of wages or income their family was then having to do more

456
00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:46,200
 work to help support everybody they were of course worried because they're out of

457
00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:50,040
 contact and they don't know where their loved one is they had to deal with the

458
00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:53,720
 stigma and judgment of people after being subjected to a raid if you are

459
00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:58,800
 pulled out by a lot of police and dragged through town people tend to make

460
00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:04,400
 some pretty big judgments about that soldiers and other people were looking

461
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,800
 for more information about them and therefore asking questions of their

462
00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:12,600
 friends and their family and people in their community bribes have to be paid

463
00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:18,400
 they're sent back home where it could be dangerous to have this kind of you know

464
00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:23,320
 experience and this knowledge in your community where people might really have

465
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:28,380
 some serious judgment about that their family then has maybe some more debt to

466
00:33:28,380 --> 00:33:33,400
 pay and that regardless of whether or not they were rescued they had to find

467
00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:37,680
 a way to get back because that was the way the only means that they had to keep

468
00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:42,600
 making a living was to go back into really bad brothel conditions and since

469
00:33:42,600 --> 00:33:46,200
 nothing improved all they could do is go through the arduous journey once again

470
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:50,680
 go back into those conditions once again just recycling the experience

471
00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:57,800
 re-traumatizing over and over this is what raids look like and this is what

472
00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:02,920
 rescues look like I just have a few examples taken from the media about the

473
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:07,640
 dehumanizing type of photos that are used and the way that people who are

474
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:13,560
 victims are being treated Detroit Michigan this is Anaheim these guys look

475
00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:17,160
 so friendly isn't this exactly who you would want to see if you were having a

476
00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:25,600
 really bad day this is London this raid in particular was in SoHo and they

477
00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:30,240
 actually called the police or the media ahead of time to document what they were

478
00:34:30,240 --> 00:34:34,440
 doing I haven't included any of the photos that they were using of the

479
00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:39,120
 people inside but they were of course in their work gear and their negligee so

480
00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:42,560
 they were very vulnerable they were very exposed and this was about

481
00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:47,520
 gentrification about upsetting that type of industry not because they were

482
00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:53,800
 worried about anyone in it but because the real estate was really valuable of

483
00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:58,160
 course in India again here's some more of a dehumanizing stock footage that is

484
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:05,600
 used they have used that handcuff picture for like pretty much any non-

485
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:10,360
 western raid like that's the raid photo you see so that's probably not from that

486
00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:14,960
 exact raid and you can see the people who were arrested and what their ages

487
00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:18,840
 were and whether or not they were victims is really not fully taken into

488
00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:24,040
 consideration in New York there was a raid that went very very very horribly

489
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:28,720
 wrong and this was Yang Song who was in an Asian massage parlor that's where she

490
00:35:28,720 --> 00:35:33,080
 worked she had had previous negative experiences of sexual violence from the

491
00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:38,280
 police and they were so bad they were so traumatic that when she was

492
00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:42,640
 experiencing a raid once again rather than just kind of comply with what they

493
00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:47,480
 were saying and go along with them she jumped out of a four-story window where

494
00:35:47,480 --> 00:35:53,240
 she was working and she died to any members of law enforcement who may be

495
00:35:53,240 --> 00:35:59,800
 here with us today or watching from the comfort of their own homes I strongly

496
00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:05,920
 suggest that you find new employment because someday there may be people who

497
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:13,760
 come to rescue them too. Sex worker rights really are inextricably linked

498
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:17,920
 to migrant rights because oftentimes this is the only work that people have

499
00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:20,960
 when they are not considered full citizens in the places that they are

500
00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:26,240
 going it is just simply the only possible form of income that is available

501
00:36:26,240 --> 00:36:30,880
 and so that really has to be the important focus of what we're doing

502
00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:35,800
 because migration is something that has happened for a long time and it's

503
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:39,320
 something that we're gonna see more and more of with climate change we're gonna

504
00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:43,400
 see more people who are gonna be forced to leave their homeland not by choice

505
00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:51,800
 but because they are facing extreme danger or a total lack of resources. Of

506
00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:55,840
 course some more the ways that sex trafficking and sex work can be linked

507
00:36:55,840 --> 00:37:02,440
 to a lot of xenophobia and a lot of our anti-migrant sentiments for example the

508
00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:07,000
 Twitter account the border observer complaining about the sex workers who

509
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:11,400
 are available and the the rhetoric that they're using you can see is really it's

510
00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:17,160
 not one of care or concern or love it's about we need to stop this because these

511
00:37:17,160 --> 00:37:21,720
 people are coming and that's their intent and that is their dehumanizing

512
00:37:21,720 --> 00:37:28,680
 tone and again deportation is a big consequence of these laws there is no

513
00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:33,040
 guarantee for a victim that they will be given safety and a chance to stay in the

514
00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:36,180
 place that they have moved to in the long term they will not be granted

515
00:37:36,180 --> 00:37:41,600
 housing they're simply deported so we have to ask when people are rescued

516
00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:46,160
 because they were trafficked what were they offered what happened to them let's

517
00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:49,800
 follow up on that story we can't just end the sentence with they were rescued

518
00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:57,080
 we have to ask what does rescue mean another example of a Ukrainian OnlyFans

519
00:37:57,080 --> 00:38:01,800
 model who was barred from being able to evacuate from war because she was linked

520
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:07,120
 to her information and couldn't get over the borders so there is a lot of border

521
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:11,600
 problems that are happening right now where people simply cannot move because

522
00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:16,760
 they are being associated with sex work from their digital footprint so the

523
00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:21,160
 criminalization of sex work it does not alter a remedy the socioeconomic context

524
00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:25,080
 that precipitates entry into the trade whether that is by choice coercion or

525
00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:31,600
 force all sex workers all workers benefit from rights and solidarity and

526
00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:35,640
 destigmatization destigmatization protection from violence protection from

527
00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:40,480
 the police and the freedom of movement the world that we live in is what shapes

528
00:38:40,480 --> 00:38:44,320
 our choices and we cannot prosecute our way out of an inequitable world we

529
00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:49,000
 simply can't we have to change our world we have to make it better for the people

530
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:54,800
 who are trying to live thrive and survive in it so how do sex workers use

531
00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:59,360
 technology many different ways I'm running out of time so I'm going to

532
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:03,360
 really be rushing through this but they've had a long history of finding

533
00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:08,080
 innovations at the forefront of technology to facilitate their work and

534
00:39:08,080 --> 00:39:12,520
 they also help advance things like streaming video digital anonymous

535
00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:18,160
 currencies a lot of technologies that people use were really developed from

536
00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:23,080
 the use of sex workers and of course all those technologies have the other side

537
00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:27,520
 of harm and ways that there can be negative outcomes simply from how

538
00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:32,920
 prevalent they can be banking bans are increasingly a big one that that may not

539
00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:36,640
 be a form of criminalization but if you can't have a bank account you really

540
00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:41,280
 can't function in the place where you live automated license plate readers

541
00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:45,880
 deep web search tools all of these things can be used to create harm in the

542
00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:51,240
 lives of people in the sex trade and we can see a positive effect for example

543
00:39:51,240 --> 00:39:54,580
 this is a study on craigslist effect on violence against women in the United

544
00:39:54,580 --> 00:40:00,460
 States where craigslist was associated with a 17% reduction in the homicide

545
00:40:00,460 --> 00:40:06,520
 rate for women in the country 17% for all women and most of those was

546
00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:10,280
 understood to be involved in the sex trade some people have said this could

547
00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:13,840
 be a correlation or causation but I can tell you as an outreach worker that when

548
00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:17,760
 craigslist went down that we saw an eightfold increase in outdoor sex

549
00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:22,400
 workers that people were using phones to book ads and I don't have to tell this

550
00:40:22,400 --> 00:40:27,440
 crowd that opening an email can sometimes have a negative outcome but it is always

551
00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:32,000
 safer to open an email than it is to stick your head in a car window in a

552
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:36,280
 remote part of town where no one can hear you or come help you so having that

553
00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:41,720
 distance and ability to move indoors is very protective here's a migrant sex

554
00:40:41,720 --> 00:40:45,360
 worker who benefited and was actually able to move out of a trafficking

555
00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:49,920
 situation through her adoption of technology she was able to move away

556
00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:54,240
 from brothel and outdoor work and what is she using it's kind of blurry but

557
00:40:54,240 --> 00:40:58,800
 she's using a phone and she's able to clients and although she's still

558
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:03,680
 ambivalent being in the sex trade she's having a much safer experience of it and

559
00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:08,160
 she's making enough money to support her family so not perfect but better

560
00:41:08,160 --> 00:41:12,440
 project doxy spotting is another example of the way people are using technology

561
00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:17,880
 to harass sex workers they're using Google search kind of images to identify

562
00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:22,800
 and make a giant database and of course there are always going to be some limits

563
00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:26,720
 and our government this is a quote from president brought former president

564
00:41:26,720 --> 00:41:32,240
 Barack Obama about using technology specifically to target traffickers but

565
00:41:32,240 --> 00:41:37,280
 they really mean sex workers in general these are some examples of border

566
00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:43,080
 crossing issues that people are facing all over where they're finding that just

567
00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:47,200
 going or they are being identified and they are being halted and they're being

568
00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:52,880
 denied entry and this is happening more and more and more as AI and facial

569
00:41:52,880 --> 00:41:56,320
 recognition software gets more sophisticated so even though it may not

570
00:41:56,320 --> 00:42:01,860
 be apparent they are being recognized simply from these these smarter machine

571
00:42:01,860 --> 00:42:08,360
 tools sesta FOSTA in 2018 has had a major global impact because we live on

572
00:42:08,360 --> 00:42:13,120
 an American dominated internet so companies that are based in America of

573
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:17,440
 course have to answer to the policies that they have there so cloud flyer for

574
00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:21,760
 example based in the US does a lot of hosting and they certainly have to

575
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:26,800
 answer to this and people are being discriminated against not just for using

576
00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:31,880
 being doing commerce but for using these tools I still have two minutes I'm gonna

577
00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:35,840
 rush I see they're getting ready to kick me out digital safety has many

578
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:40,080
 interdependent axes and we have to reconceive of the fact that we don't

579
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:44,840
 just have external territorial borders anymore our borders are internal they

580
00:42:44,840 --> 00:42:49,080
 are omnipresent they are always watching us and they are distinguishing fit

581
00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:53,760
 citizens from unfit citizens so we can't just think of them as a place that we

582
00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:59,800
 cross one time this is gonna rush through this one of the some of the key

583
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:03,960
 things if you're traveling and you are a sex worker say as little as you

584
00:43:03,960 --> 00:43:08,600
 possibly can know as much as possible about what your crossing process will

585
00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:13,080
 be understand that there is going to be a lot more involuntary facial

586
00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:17,800
 recognition I experienced that on my flight from San Francisco over here for

587
00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:23,600
 the first time being about to board my plane I had to undergo facial recognition

588
00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:26,840
 biometrics literally right before boarding so that's going to be

589
00:43:26,840 --> 00:43:33,920
 happening to everybody so please use some of these practical steps please

590
00:43:33,920 --> 00:43:40,120
 look at the this show later to see what they are and remember that borders are

591
00:43:40,120 --> 00:43:44,680
 systems of domination but not absolute domination we can figure out some ways

592
00:43:44,680 --> 00:43:49,360
 to get around it this was a great paper got me real hot that some of these facial

593
00:43:49,360 --> 00:43:54,120
 recognition aren't always insurmountable so don't tell me the odds because the

594
00:43:54,120 --> 00:43:59,640
 odds are really bad this is some big technology it's very widespread instead

595
00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:03,840
 please let's talk about the goal and the goal is that people need to live freely

596
00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:07,800
 in this world and we need to support others in living freely in this world

597
00:44:07,800 --> 00:44:12,800
 too that's our goal these are pictures of me from my work in Maurya camp I was

598
00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:17,280
 there in 2015 before it burned to the ground and I am never going to forget

599
00:44:17,280 --> 00:44:20,920
 the people that I met and the work that I did there many of those people are

600
00:44:20,920 --> 00:44:26,840
 going to go on to do sex work voluntary or involuntary and I hope that they have

601
00:44:26,840 --> 00:44:30,880
 the best lives possible and that by teaching these things that can that can

602
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:34,640
 happen for them thank you so much

603
00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:49,520
 you

604
00:44:49,520 --> 00:44:52,100
 (gentle music)