Why Does the Press Routinely Misidentify Prostitution as 'Sex Trafficking'?

Summary: "You needn't be engaged in espionage, or anything illegal, to benefit from better digital privacy practices," writes Associate Editor Elizabeth Nolan Brown in the controversial, provocative "Burn After Reading" issue of Reason. In "Personal Encryption 101," Brown lays out easy steps to keep your online communications safe from the clutches of "surveillance-happy state actors and data-harvesting advertisers." That said, since joining Reason in 2014, Brown's writing has focused on all sorts of black- and gray-market activities—especially sex work—that definitely do benefit from being secured. In this Reason Podcast, we talk with Brown about her award-winning work debunking press hysterics who routinely misidentify all prostitution as "sex trafficking," her belief that the psychological "harms that are unique to sex work right now are all harms that are related to the black-market aspects of it rather than the industry itself," what libertarian feminism looks like, and more. Brown is one of the founders of Feminists for Liberty, a group that is "anti-sexism & anti-statism, pro-markets & pro-choice." Audio production by Ian Keyser.