For balance, it's worth pointing out that many law-enforcement agencies now use the term "sex trafficking" to describe cases that are merely prostitution. This case appears to be no exception. Further reading about this case by Elizabeth Nolan Brown in Reason Magazine:

http://reason.com/archives/2016/09/09/the-truth-about-us-sex...

This article specifically refers to trafficked women. The linked Newsweek article says: "One of the pimps netted in a review board sting in 2015 admitted that many of the women were in debt bondage, and in fear for their lives or the safety of their families."

This is one of the reasons that many argue for the legalization of prostitution. If there is a state-regulated market for sex workers, is is much easier to identify and prosecute sex worker slavery and exploitation. It also becomes possible for sex consumers to restrict themselves to the regulated market, and thus avoid contributing to the exploitation of women and children. Without such a legalized market, cases of exploitation and slavery are no longer easily distinguishable from voluntary and of-age prostitution.

So most prostitution is sex trafficking, it seems.

Well that's the problem - "sex trafficking" literally means selling sex, which covers all prostitution. But it has also been used as a short form of "human trafficking of sex slaves" which is a lot more specific.

This story is a good example of how the tide of public opinion has turned against the tech industry. There’s no tech angle here - some percentage of people pay for sex, and some percentage of that group uses their work email to do so. Some of those work in tech.

These facts tell us precisely nothing about whether tech workers are more or less likely to pay for sex or engage in illegal behavior, or whether it’s a particularly bad problem at Microsoft or Amazon.

Was thinking the same thing. What about (rampant!) misdeeds from manufacturing company email addresses!

Per the usual, article conflates standard sex services with sex trafficking. See the Amnesty International position for a more reasonable and balanced position. Maybe it is time for legalized sex work. Or would that threaten too many womens' bargaining chip?

> Or would that threaten too many womens' bargaining chip?

Can you clarify what you mean by this please?

Sex work is quite legal, and pretty well -- even if not ideally -- regulated.

This article is just a link to Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/metoo-microsoft-amazon-trafficking-p... which goes into a lot more detail, but unfortunately also has auto-playing video.

Would be interested to see these employees' job titles.

The newsweek article claims 2 of them were directors.

I can see how Directors can afford to spend 30k - 50k a year for sex