After receiving intense public and political pressure, the online classified giant, Craigslist, finally blocked its adult services section – re-energizing the debate over decency and the First Amendment.
In what appears to be an act of bold defiance, Craigslist replaced on its U.S.-based portal sites on Friday the category “adult services” with “censored” in bold letters. The company refused to comment on whether the block was a temporary or permanent fix.
Lisa Thompson, liaison for the abolition of sexual trafficking for the Salvation Army, said there’s good reason to take this section down.
“Those pages are basically major portals by which people, seeking to buy sex from adults and children,” Thompson said, “try to find those who are supplying that need, pimps and traffickers.”
At risk for Craigslist is an estimated 30 percent of its revenue – or $36.6 million – from adult ads, which cost $10 each, not to mention a possible regulatory response by politicians looking to be elected or re-elected in November.
Although the federal Communications Decency Act provides Craigslist with legal cover –meaning it can’t be held liable for what users post on its website – the court of public opinion generated too much negative publicity for it not to acquiesce, even if temporarily.
A bipartisan cadre of 17 state attorneys general sent an open letter on Aug. 24 to Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist’s chief executive officer, and Craig Newmark, its founder, asking them to shut down the section. They also expressed their deep concern over the organization’s ongoing “blame the victim” response.
Touting everything from infringement on free speech, to making Craigslist a regulatory scapegoat, to thwarting law enforcement’s stealth tracking abilities, the first to come to the company’s defense were women’s groups, liberal blogs and technology companies.
Slate – an online magazine, bemoaned, “Where will sex ads go now?”
Danah Boyd, social-media researcher for Microsoft and liberal women’s rights activist, attempted to defend the ads, as a method for helping victims:
The visibility of illicit activities online makes it much easier to get at, and help, those who are being victimized.”
Thompson, however, put it into perspective.
“We would be outraged if we walked into the local coffee shop and on the bulletin board there were community announcements advertising 14-year-old girls for sex,” she said. “Yet, because it’s on the Internet, they think that they get some kind of pass to allow this type of advertising to continue.”
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat candidate for the U.S. Senate, as well as cosigner of the letter, was pleased with the shutdown. However, he said on Saturday that he wants to verify whether the site was temporarily or permanently blocked.
“The message here is put people over profits. These prostitution ads enable human trafficking and assaults on women,” Blumenthal said to The Wall Street Journal. “They are flagrant and rampant. Craigslist has lacked the wherewithal or will to effectively screen them out.”
Whether or not Craigslist permanently shuts down the adult ads, Dr. Janice Crouse, senior fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute, the think tank for Concerned Women for America, warns that the rest of the world is still being affected.
“They have self-censored the section here in the United States,” Crouse said, “but, they’ve done nothing with the international Craigslist.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Read the open letter to Craigslist from 17 state attorneys general.
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