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Society & Culture

Ashton Kutcher and the anti-trafficking grift

podcast September 13, 2023


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Ashton Kutcher recently wrote a letter to a judge, asking for leniency for his friend and TV co-star Danny Masterson (Kelso and Hyde from That 70’s Show). It was surprising, because for the past decade Ashton Kutcher has been trying to rebrand himself as an anti-trafficking hero. Not just any anti-trafficking hero, but a tech guru type who could use the power of technology and venture capital to save the children. We take a look into his organization, Thorn. Like so many other “save the children” orgs before it, Thorn seems to be using rhetoric and misleading statistics about trafficked children to push laws that further criminalize and marginalize consenting adult sex workers.

 

Sex, lies, and surveillance: Something’s wrong with the war on sex trafficking: https://www.engadget.com/2019-05-31-sex-lies-and-surveillance-fosta-privacy.html

 

Real Men Get Their Facts Straight: https://www.villagevoice.com/real-men-get-their-facts-straight/

Ashton Kutcher Claims He Helped Cops Save Way More Sex-Trafficking Victims Than Authorities Say They’ve Found: https://reason.com/2017/02/15/ashton-kutcher-plays-sex-worker-savior/

The bogus claim that 300,000 U.S. children are ‘at risk’ of sexual exploitation: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/05/28/the-bogus-claim-that-300000-u-s-children-are-at-risk-of-sexual-exploitation/

 

SEX TRAFFICKING Online Platforms and Federal Prosecutions : chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-21-385.pdf

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