NY TIMES – Sep 4 – Craigslist, the popular Web site for classified ads, has blocked access to its “adult services” section and replaced the link with a black label showing the word “censored.” Law-enforcement say the adult ads helped facilitate prostitution. Ads cost $10 to post and $5 to repost, and are expected to bring in $45M revenue this year. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES
Mark Brooks: Craigslist needs to decide…does it support prostitution or not. It is profiteering from prostitution. As are other adult dating services. Just how alturistic do Craig and Jim want to get? Running events to educate and encourage the formation of charitable groups is great. But their yin, to that yang, is meandering them into the solacious fields of prostitution. When you do adult dating, you also do prostitution and all that that world plunders.
Though Craigslist has been silent in the past few days, their previous and unchanged position is that this is a free speech issue. They provide the forum for user-generated content. You type it, they post it. They are clearly within the law operating their Adult Services section. If a poster is doing something illegal (if the “massage” is more than a “massage”), that’s the user’s problem, not Craigslist’s.
You have to admire Craigslist in that they neither need nor want the money their Adult Services section was earning, and they can spit in the eyes of these state attorneys general. Without Craigslist there will still be prostitution.
Though Craigslist has been silent in the past few days, their previous and unchanged position is that this is a free speech issue. They provide the forum for user-generated content. You type it, they post it. They are clearly within the law operating their Adult Services section. If a poster is doing something illegal (if the “massage” is more than a “massage”), that’s the user’s problem, not Craigslist’s.
You have to admire Craigslist in that they neither need nor want the money their Adult Services section was earning, and they can spit in the eyes of these state attorneys general. Without Craigslist there will still be prostitution.
Being associated with adult services is a stick situation. Do you turn a blind eye and let users police themselves and trust them by not posting illegal services? But in doing nothing, do you encourage that behavior? I think because CL is so popular, it was right to remove the section. None of the major portals like FB, Yahoo, or Google publicly associate themselves with adult services. On the other hand, CL could use data from posters to narc on users and get the cops to apprehend those involved in such crimes.
Being associated with adult services is a stick situation. Do you turn a blind eye and let users police themselves and trust them by not posting illegal services? But in doing nothing, do you encourage that behavior? I think because CL is so popular, it was right to remove the section. None of the major portals like FB, Yahoo, or Google publicly associate themselves with adult services. On the other hand, CL could use data from posters to narc on users and get the cops to apprehend those involved in such crimes.