Tech Giant Oracle Offers Support for McCaskill, Portman Bipartisan Effort to Curb Sex Trafficking
Press Release
U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill and a bipartisan group of Senators issued the following statement in response to the support of tech giant Oracle for their Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act:
"We are pleased with the growing support for the bipartisan Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, and welcome Oracle's important voice to this effort," said McCaskill, along with U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.). "It is an acknowledgement that this simple, bipartisan bill is the right prescription for fixing a fundamental flaw in the law that has enabled online sex traffickers to escape justice. It's time for Congress to act on this bipartisan bill."
Oracle senior vice president Kenneth Glueck wrote in a letter of support for the Senators' bipartisan Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act:
"We appreciate that, in keeping with your respective strong track records of supporting the growth of the Internet and information technology industry, you have worked hard to craft a thoughtful bill to hold bad actors liable. Your legislation does not, as suggested by the bill's opponents, usher the end of the Internet. If enacted, it will establish some measure of accountability for those that cynically sell advertising but are unprepared to help curtail sex trafficking."
McCaskill's Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act is the result of a two-year Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations inquiry, led by McCaskill and Portman, which culminated in a report entitled "Backpage.com's Knowing Facilitation of Online Sex Trafficking," and found that Backpage knowingly facilitated criminal sex trafficking of vulnerable women and young girls and covered up evidence of these crimes in order to increase its own profits. The measure has been endorsed by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and other anti-trafficking advocates and law enforcement organizations.
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