WASHINGTON — According to federal spending data, the Department of Justice (DOJ) under former President Donald Trump awarded nearly $240,000 in 2020 through a block grant to the controversial anti-porn group the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE). The grant, awarded to NCOSE by the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs and the National Institute of Justice, covers support for a “national assessment of demand reduction efforts” and to determine the “new developments in the primary prevention of sex trafficking.”
Mike Stabile, a spokesperson for the Free Speech Coalition, posted to Twitter a screenshot of the granted sum — $239,946 — in a multi-post thread discussing what he refers to as the “anti-trafficking industrial complex” being a “cash cow.”
NCOSE, formerly called Morality in Media, is a notorious opponent to the decriminalization of consensual sex work and considers legal pornography as a contributing factor to “sexual exploitation.” NCOSE’s religious conservative roots still show, no matter how the group markets itself to the mainstream audiences.
While it is unclear how the grant has contributed to the organization’s anti-porn efforts, the point is that the United States federal government awarded funds to fight “trafficking” to a group that considers legal and legitimate industrial activities to be contributors to be “trafficking,” absent the lack of evidence confirming such a theory.
In 2020, @NCOSE got nearly $240,000 from the Department of Justice to study "demand reduction efforts" in the fight against sex trafficking.https://t.co/NDLwbbkFQc pic.twitter.com/mCofpoKe8n
— Mike Stabile (@mikestabile) May 4, 2021
For instance, NCOSE has gone so far as to accuse groups like the American Library Association of being a facilitator of sexually exploitative content and exposing youth to porn. Of course, this claim is in no way true. However, anti-porn advocates buy into this bullshit and the NCOSE’s crusade to quash speech that they disapprove of, despite the blatant falsehoods.
NCOSE is also a coordinating source for a variety of state-to-state anti-porn legislation popping up in legislatures. The controversial porn filtering bill proposed by social conservatives in Utah is an example. The group is also a major proponent of the pseudo-scientific theory that legal porn consumption is a public health and safety crisis.
NCOSE has also filed baseless lawsuits against companies like Reddit, Twitter, Google, and others. These lawsuits all allege that these platforms are rife with CSAM content and that big tech isn’t held accountable for its actions. The group also takes issue with the third-party liability shield offered by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, claiming that this safe harbor is also somehow contributing to sexual exploitation. NCOSE also was a supporting organization for the FOSTA-SESTA legislation that directly harms sex workers and their ability to work.
