piano8950 32577 Report post Posted January 31, 2014 After a Congressional hearing Monday about preventing human trafficking at major sporting events, Rep. Chris Smith pledged to summon Twitter executives to Washington to address the prevalence of escorts on the social network, prompted by an investigation by TheStreet: Twitter has more than 1,000 escorts -- some of whom double as prostitutes -- listed on its network. Many of these accounts violate Twitter's terms of service, which should cause the profiles to be flagged or removed. Next, Smith says he plans to convene with Justice Department officials as he looks to eradicate the world's oldest profession from one of the hottest social networks in the world [/Quote] http://www.thestreet.com/video/12286240/blurred-blue-lines-how-escorts-and-prostitutes-advertise-on-twitter.html 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ice4fun 78407 Report post Posted January 31, 2014 All I can say is with so many truly important issues for lawmakers to be engaged in if this is all he can find to do with his time he is at best unneeded but most likely just a fucking nut. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nathalie L 112512 Report post Posted January 31, 2014 I hope this gets '0' traction. I love using Twitter and blocking our accounts will do absolutely nothing to prevent exploitation in the context of sex work. Human trafficking and consensual sex work between adults gets conflated all the time. It's so (so) frustrating. If anyone is curious about 'human trafficking' and what some folks are saying about it. I would suggest reading The Naked Anthropologist. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gia Wren Marlowe 67985 Report post Posted January 31, 2014 Twitter is huge for sex worker activism. It's one of the few places where we can get our voices heard by a larger public. There is also a lot of propaganda being tweeted constantly by abolitionists and without escorts online to counter them I worry about how their misinformation will spread. Yes, we can make non-escort accounts to fight them, but I don't think that would be as effective as hearing from self-proclaimed escorts themselves. If we have to hide our profession to use twitter it isn't as helpful. 3 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fortunateone 156618 Report post Posted February 1, 2014 Why does he say that the escort accounts contravene the rules of twitter? if they are not used for advertising for example, can't escorts and sex workers have twitter accounts like other people, to express viewpoints. Groups, and organizations, and non-people have accounts lol. i do not spend time on twitter, but it seems coincidental that this guy comes up with this idea not long after the I am not your rescue project twitter account got some media attention. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PistolPete 61421 Report post Posted February 1, 2014 The guy is a dickhead.....no rules of twitter are being broken, congressman hard at attempting work...at taxpayers dollars expense.I wish these guys would really look at poverty, the homeless, employment, actual human trafficking....and much much more. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Phaedrus 209521 Report post Posted February 1, 2014 Oh. My. God. There's escorts on Twitter? This is terrible! I never knew! I might get hooker-tweet-cooties or something! Honestly, I doubt this will go far. If it gets traction they *might* be able to pressurize Twitter to prevent advertizing or something like that, although even that's quite dubious. But the rest of it... the activism, the krakens, the random conversations, the Velociraptures... I suspect - and hope - that Twitter's response will be something like, "Fuck off, because Fourth Amendment." And if the worst happens, we'll all just go somewhere else, just like everything that used to be on CL is now on BP. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
