WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — The Free Speech Coalition is asking members to submit questions they want addressed by outside tech and legal experts prior to the FSC’s inaugural Leadership Conference on Thursday, Jan. 18.
FSC, in partnership with XBIZ, will bring representatives from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the British Board of Film Classification and law firms Taylor Wessing and Baker Hostetler to the conference to address how adult businesses will be impacted by new age-verification requirements in the U.K., privacy laws in the E.U., and net neutrality and SESTA legislation in the U.S.
“We face major challenges to the survival of adult businesses in 2018,” said Eric Paul Leue, the FSC’s executive director. “New regulations and legislation in the U.S., E.U. and U.K. could result in blanket bans, major fines and possible criminal liabilities. Unfortunately, many in our industry are still largely unaware of the danger posed — it’s time to sound the alarm.”
Companies that fail to comply with new, stringent age-verification laws will be locked out of the U.K. market later this year, and new data privacy laws in the E.U. will result in massive fines for companies that do not better secure user data, no matter where they are located. In the US, the repeal of net neutrality may presage a wave of corporate censorship, and the now-likely passage of SESTA and FOSTA could leave legal adult businesses vulnerable to federal charges.
“Because the issues are so complex, and the risk of non-compliance so high, we are bringing in legal scholars, leading technologists and locally based experts to discuss how these changes will affect adult businesses,” Leue said. “In order to make these sessions as effective and tailored as possible, we’re asking our members to submit questions on these topics in advance.”
Information about the individual issues, and bios about the panelists and speakers, can be found here. Questions can be submitted via the FSC’s online form.
