Under pressure from several attorneys general, government officials, law enforcement and advocacy groups, Craigslist shut down its Adult Services section on September 3rd of this year. In place of the link to the once-popular hookup site, it now simply reads “Censored.” Although Craigslist did shut down the Adult Services portion of the site, and their director of customer service and law enforcement relations, William Clint Powell, has assured the House Judiciary Crime subcommittee that they have no intention of restoring it, the company itself is …
… still defending “Adult Services.”
In a nutshell, Craigslist claims that shutting down such a public and popular posting board will make it more difficult for authorities to investigate and catch child pornographers and child sex traffickers. The company’s lawyer, Elizabeth McDougall, argues that many advocacy groups agree with this sentiment, saying, “It’s much more difficult to find the victims now dispersed on these other sites that are noncooperative,” and not as well regulated. McDougall went on to say that “Craigslist made this decision to [shut down Adult Services] here but that does not mean it’s the company position that this is the right move.”
Me? I’m not quite sure what to make of this whole dispute. I’ve never used Craigslist – and I’ve certainly never used the Adult Services section – but I’m well aware of its popularity. I also understand the point that McDougall is making, especially since, prior to its removal, Craigslist had been forced to review every ad posted on the site in May of 2009. In theory, this would have made it very easy for Craigslist to hand off any suspicious-looking ads to the authorities for further investigation. But, if the government or advocacy groups truly believed that leaving Adult Services open would make it much easier for law enforcement to root out and shut down child porn and child sex trafficking rings, I can’t really see why they would have demanded that the section be shut down.
Ultimately, giving people a forum where they can easily hunt down prey still seems like a bad idea, whether it’s “regulated” and “watched” or not.
Oh good, we can’t see the sex traffickers’ ads, which means now sex trafficking doesn’t exist! Right?
U.S. Prosecutors: But teh prostitutionz are illegal! *flail*
I loved it