While the American Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 (FOSTA) has been heavily criticised by researchers and activists for the harm it inflicts on sex workers, many of these critics nevertheless agree with the Act’s goal of fighting sex trafficking online. This paper, however, argues that in American legal discourse, ‘sex trafficking’ refers not to human trafficking for sexual exploitation, but rather to all forms of sex work. As such, the law’s punitive treatment of sex workers needs to be understood as the law’s purpose, rather than an unfortunate side effect. This paper also demonstrates how the discourse of ‘sex trafficking’ is itself a form of epistemic violence that silences sex workers and leaves them vulnerable to abuse, with FOSTA serving to broaden the scope of this violence. The paper concludes by highlighting ways journalists and academic researchers can avoid becoming complicit in this violence.

中文翻译：

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“性贩运”为认知暴力

尽管研究人员和激进主义者对《 2017年美国允许州和受害者打击在线性贩运法案》（FOSTA）造成的伤害提出了严厉批评，但许多批评家仍然同意该法案旨在打击在线性交易的目标。 。然而，本文认为，在美国法律论述中，“性贩运”不是指为性剥削而贩运人口，而是指一切形式的性工作。因此，法律对性工作者的惩罚性待遇应被理解为法律的目的，而不是不幸的副作用。本文还展示了“性交易”的话语本身是一种认知暴力的形式，它使性工作者沉默并使他们容易受到虐待，而FOSTA则在扩大这种暴力的范围。