Life in Limbo: Cryptocurrency and FOSTA as the Pillars of Cyber-Trafficking

Abstract

As the internet continually advances into Web 3.0, human traffickers thrive in using online platforms to prey on their victims, creating a new form of human trafficking: cyber-trafficking. In 2018, Congress passed the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (“FOSTA”) to dampen the stringent protection that 47 U.S.C. § 230 (“Section 230”) offered to internet intermediaries in cyber-trafficking litigation. However, Congress’s intended effect in passing FOSTA failed, as courts continue to interpret FOSTA narrowly, upholding the stringent protection that Section 230 offers internet intermediaries. Beyond FOSTA’s indifferent impact, governmental bodies struggle adapting to Web 3.0’s landscape, neglecting to intervene with traffickers’ use of cryptocurrency’s de-regulated nature to target victims. Consequently, FOSTA and cryptocurrency act as pillars reinforcing cyber-trafficking. Governmental bodies and courts must swing their ideological pendulums to adjust to the early age of Web 3.0 to protect potential victims from cyber-trafficking