LOS ANGELES — Last week, the National Center On Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), a leading War On Porn organization, pressured grocery-delivery giant Instacart to add the religiously inspired activist group as a “safety resource” to its popular app.
The adamantly anti-sex-work and pro-censorship group — which rebranded itself after years operating as "Morality in Media" — used the excuse of the COVID-19 to convince Instacart to add NCOSE as its only named "safety resource."
Upon reading the new official Instacart safety statement, and the gloating press release by NCOSE issued on Thursday, it is unclear how an organization that lobbies for a complete eradication of everything they define as “pornography” (which for them includes Sports Illustrated) has become a “safety partner” of an app-based grocery delivery service.
NCOSE’s release states they "alerted Instacart to COVID-19 trends where pimps and sex traffickers have been coercing victims to enter the gig economy and to hand any profits they make to their exploiters. NCOSE learned of this current tendency from direct service providers doing outreach to victims of sex trafficking across the U.S. Initially, COVID-19 quarantining seemed to reduce the demand for commercial sex, decreasing profits for these serial abusers. Despite sex buying increasing once more after the initial decline, NCOSE continues to hear that human traffickers are trying to increase their profits by pushing victims into the gig economy as well."
None of these statements by NCOSE about sex work could be independently verified, outside of "quarantine sex work panic" trend pieces that NCOSE themselves have originated, as Reason, for example, has recently reported.
“Instacart heard our concerns and proactively moved to address potential abuse and trafficking that its workers may be experiencing as a result of the pandemic. We are grateful for their quick actions to help,” said Dawn Hawkins, senior VP and executive director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
The Instacart safety statement now reads:
Resources: Learn more about important safety resources such as shopper injury protection, in the event that you are injured while shopping or delivering with Instacart. You can also find more information on trusted third-party safety organizations, such as the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE).
As far as XBIZ can ascertain, NCOSE — a well-funded, religiously inspired lobby responsible for the deceptive “porn is a public health panic” legislation pushed by evangelical lawmakers — has never offered any services related to “shopper injury protection.”