America prides itself on its free speech protections provided by the First Amendment. Yet the censorious specter of Anthony Comstock still lingers in modern-day law. The United States is hardly the only country with obscenity laws regarding free expression and speech, but Comstock's influence has spread to all corners of the world. Now it threatens to punish and jail creators, artists, unions, sex workers, cartoonists, writers, journalists, activists, reproductive health providers, minorities and the world as a whole under dictator-style governments that are rising everywhere.

Obscenity laws do little to nothing to benefit the public at large, using the vague definition of 'appealing to a prurient interest' to write laws that penalize disfavored expression and speech. We already have laws on the books to catch predators. Obscenity laws allow for the obfuscation and muddying of legal waters, making it that much harder to streamline law enforcement's efforts to break up sex trafficking rings and exploitative circles of ongoing grooming and abuse.pornographys of the Epstein trafficking operation were failed by a system that would rather prosecute them simply for being trafficked--A situation that happens far too often with the arrests and subsequent exploitation of trafficking victims by law enforcement officials and the politicians who back these abuses of power's than investigate and stem the tide of trafficking incidents happening in these circles of power and wealth. Campaigns against pornography and obscene works are a front to make it seem like they are heavily vested in child safety and anti trafficking when they have long enabled the systems that result in mass trafficking in the first place: poverty, false routes to gain citizenship offered by exploiters, the promise of meeting celebrities, grooming, abuse of authority, blackmail, isolation of victims from resources that could genuinely help them, corrupt individuals in law enforcement and the laws themselves purposely designed to punish legal speech while making it easier for this abuse to continue.

Censorship never saved a single victim, protected a single person, or rescued a single child. Comstock is a blank check for censorious interests and opportunistic criminals who censor to hide their crimes behind power. It gives them the opportunity to define obscenity as whatever they want it to mean at the expense of everyone's civil liberties. I am not saying that narrowing the scope of obscenity laws so that they target trafficking and exploitation is a silver bullet. But I am saying addressing these abuses would be more of a benefit to victims seeking justice than the complete eradication of pornography and adult material. More often than not, these laws also silence victims from speaking out effectively against abuse and about the abuses they themselves have endured t the hands of their tormentors. Sex workers who have undergone sexual abuse or assault can't even describe what happened to them on social media or anywhere online due to laws like FOSTA and SESTA. No one can have debates about sex or relationships because of laws like that. It's why I am vehemently opposed to KOSA, STOP CSAM, the interstate Obscenity Definition Act, and all bills like them being heard this year. These bills would enable state and federal-sponsored stalking, grooming, theft of personal data, the sale of personal sensitive information on the dark web and other unregulated sites in other countries, censorship, broad age verification that is insecure by nature, and the creation of more victims. I am not being hyperbolic, this has already happened in countries that have had these laws in place. 

We, the undersigned, call for either an end to obscenity laws or much more narrow definitions that point out true crimes, not what one community wants to be obscene.

Repealing laws such as Comstock would provide better protection to victims and free up resources to actively stop abuse and trafficking.