Another Escort Site Seized as FOSTA ‘Standing’ Ruling Looms

MIAMI — In early October, the FBI’s Miami field office and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office seized IndependentGirls.com, a forum for escort services that had a prolific number of ad postings — more than a quarter million.

The site, which started up in 1999 and was live up until last month, placed a focus on the South Florida market but also offered links to connections nationwide.

“IndependentGirls.com is not an escort agency,” the site claimed on its webpages. “We claim no responsibility for any actions taken by any individuals listed on this website. We are merely a referral service.”

While a “referral service” might have been indemnifying for an adult entertainment hookup service in 1999, all that came crashing down in 2018.

That’s when President Trump signed two new bills into law that chip away the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which grants immunity for website operators — the Stop Enabling Online Sex Trafficking Act (SESTA) and Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), which together make online platforms that knowingly allow sex trafficking to become liable for hosting the illegal activity.

While the IndependentGirls.com seizure, as well as the resulting indictment of operator Neil Steven Greenberg, wasn’t necessarily a result of a FOSTA prosecution, the statute continues to put a deep chill in the air.

The seizure of yet another website catering to erotic pairings has many escorts continuing to worry about their own financial sustainability in the business and the viability of the industry — particularly after the government’s seizures of such storied enterprises such as Backpage.com, MyRedbook.com and Rentboy.com.

“[It’s] an unfair business practice that has caused so much loss in our community,” Maxine Doogan told YNOT.

“Members have lost housing, the ability to be independent and in many cases the ability to self-supporting,” said Doogan, who takes a labor rights approach to prostitution as leader of the Bay Area-based Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project.

“Legislators must stop treating us like we’re disposable people and start treating us like our lives valuable by stopping the passing of these unconstitutional laws.”

So far, the Woodhull Freedom Foundation and other plaintiffs — the Internet Archive, Human Rights Watch, and individuals Alex Andrews and Eric Koszyk — are continuing their fight against the statutes in federal court. But any ruling over the constitutionality of FOSTA isn’t coming anytime soon.

A federal judge dismissed Woodhull’s case in 2018, ruling the plaintiffs lacked “standing” because they failed to prove a credible threat that they would be prosecuted for violating FOSTA.

Because the judge tossed the case on procedural grounds, he did not decide on whether FOSTA is constitutional.

Last month, Woodhull attorneys argued at a hearing that the plaintiffs don’t have to wait until they face prosecution before challenging a law regulating speech.

Woodhull lawyers at the hearing said that the vague prohibitions of the statute are causing users to censor themselves, creating a chilling effect. The statute also has reportedly generated increased risks for sex workers and frustrated law enforcement efforts to investigate trafficking, they said.

In the meantime, while the legal merits of the Woodhull case are decided, law enforcement has not flinched on probing and prosecuting escort sites.

“Our goal, as a law enforcement community, is to ensure that websites that facilitate human trafficking and child exploitation cease to exist and that the traffickers are held accountable in a court of law for their criminal exploits,” U.S. Attorney Fajardo Orshan said after the IndependentGirls.com seizure this month.

“There is no lawful market for companies or individuals that profit off of illicit commercial sex and the victimization of others.”

Greenberg, the IndependentGirls.com operator, first came to the attention of authorities with the South Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force after they were forwarded Facebook messenger messages involving a teen female. Greenberg now faces 36 counts of possessing child pornography, 36 counts of promoting child pornography, one count of unlawful sexual activity and one count of using a two-way device to facilitate a felony.

Those charges, as a result, led authorities to Greenberg’s online escort ad business.

In recent weeks, federal authorities have tipped off the next item on their radar. The Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department are reportedly investigating escort and massage sites Eros.com, EroticMonkey.ch and Rubmaps.ch to probe whether the sites participated in or knowingly facilitated trafficking, prostitution and money laundering. All three sites might be linked to one man, David Azzato, according to a source for the Wall Street Journal.

While Azzato has denied running any sites in the U.S. and claimed to have cut ties with Eros and Rubmaps, investigators believe he’s still involved based on evidence they’ve collected. Azzato reportedly lives in the United Arab Emirates and also is a real estate investor.

Eros had a call center in North Carolina that was raided by Homeland Security agents in 2017 as part of the investigation. The domain holders for Rubmaps and EroticMonkey, and the company holding the intellectual property for Eros, are all based in Europe.

Eros.com was the most visited escort ad platform in July, according to an analysis of visitor data compiled by Alexa. Rubmaps and EroticMonkey were the two most visited review sites that month, according to stats from ChildSafe.ai, which helps law enforcement combat sex trafficking.

“All three of those websites benefited substantially from the seizure of Backpage,” Rob Spectre, ChildSafe.ai’s founder and chief executive, told the Wall Street Journal.

Tracy Raggs, who oversees human-trafficking probes for Homeland Security, told the Wall Street Journal that since FOSTA took effect, scores of sex-for-sale websites have moved to jurisdictions outside the U.S.

“They have gone overseas where they know that we can’t touch them like we did Backpage,” Raggs said.