Fascist states. That’s who benefits by circumventing encryption, which is what Thorn lobbies for. The corps win, the authoritarians in government win, and the people lose. I just hope it’s due to naivety and not done intentionally because I already have too little faith in the world.

In 2017, Kutcher told Congress that 2,000 child-trafficking victims were identified in six months, thanks to Spotlight. Thorn’s impact report that year noted that 103 children were “rescued.” According to the FBI’s own numbers, they found 175 minor victims between 2009 and 2015

“Thorn builds products for police, not trafficking survivors,” says Sabra Boyd, a Seattle-based writer and consultant.

Spotlight is a blunt instrument that can’t do anything beyond identifying a survivor. Brian, the Seattle cop, acknowledged that taking a victim away from their trafficker and keeping them safe over the long term are two different things.

How many trafficked children identified by Spotlight, Bruggeman wonders, are harmed by police intervention, physically or psychologically?

“I just got a sense they really believe that their work is having some positive impact,” says Bruggeman, “and didn’t really seem interested in looking too deeply into any negative impact.”

Over the past two decades, the fight against child sex trafficking has become an obsession of the religious right and conspiracy theorists.

The crime becomes synonymous with big-screen narratives, like Taken or Sound of Freedom, which don’t reflect the reality that most victims are exploited by people they know.

“There’s really no sunlight on exactly how Spotlight operates, how its algorithms operate, and how people end up in their database,” says Trujillo.

Quite a damning article and it doesn’t even touch on the anti-encryption aspect.