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Craigslist Lets Silence Do The Talking After Taking Down Adult Services Section

The powers that be at Craiglist are on lock down after deciding to close the site's Adult Services section leading into the Labor Day weekend, reports ReadWriteWeb. The company was responding to pressure from 17 states attorneys general, likely resulted from a torrent of bad press after CNN ran a special it calmly titled "Craigslist and Sex Trafficking" in which CL founder Craig Newmark came off looking poorly (Newmark later blamed his gaffs on mild Asperger syndrome and the fact that he hasn't been involved in running his namesake company in 10 years).

Craiglist has covered the Adult Services section with a black "censored" bar, which might be a touch sarcastic given the sensitive nature of the matter. And on Sunday, the New York Times intimated that the move could be a high-stakes stunt: "Using the word 'censored' suggests that the increasingly combative company is trying to draw attention to its fight with state attorneys general over sex ads and to issues of free speech on the Internet."

In a Huffington Post Op-Ed, Microsoft researcher Dana Boyd defends the classified service, citing the oft-used argument that banning these listings will only drive "pimps, child traffickers and other abusive scumbags" further underground. "Faulty logic suggests that if Craigslist is effectively a digital pimp who's profiting off of online traffic, why shouldn't it be prosecuted as such?" she writes, concluding, "Taking something that is visible and making it invisible makes a politician look good, even if it does absolutely nothing to help the victims who are harmed."

Under the headline "Censored Bar Won't Stop Online Prostitution," the AP says, "prostitution on the Internet is alive and well -- even, quite possibly, on Craigslist." According to AP, Craigslist has promised comment, but did not say when. "These adult ads are projected to bring in $44.4 million for Craigslist this year, so shutting down the whole section is serious business," writes Blackweb 2.0, calling the decision to shut down the section and slap the label on it "extremely odd."

Fast Company declares the development, "a classic case of sweeping the matter under the rug, since the Craigslist-censoring 'cure' doesn't do anything to stop the trade." And bitingly adds, "Go reactionary American media!"

Read the whole story at ReadWriteWeb »

5 comments about "Craigslist Lets Silence Do The Talking After Taking Down Adult Services Section".
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  1. Andre Szykier from maps capital management, September 7, 2010 at 3:27 p.m.

    This issue revolves around two legal issues:
    1. freedom of the press
    2. vicarious liability

    Press freedom is about reporting using journalism or engaging in commerce subject to legal rules. In the case of Craigslist, allowing users of their portal to offer or search for other third party (emphasis) services and goods makes them no different than newspapers, magazines and media in terms of liability, as long as the service or goods are regulated by local, state and federal interstate rules.

    For example, web porn sites offer media from third parties in order to create click through revenue even though the media is not owned by them. Case in point are RedHub.com and PornHub.com. Should someone post on a third party site media that violates legal rules, such as child pornography, R or P sites would immediately block that content; otherwise other media is not restricted. The same would go for Craigslist.

    2. Vicarious liability is one where a user or third party sues a company because they have liability from actions performed in the course of business. For instance, if you have an employee that causes harm to a customer (serving too hot coffee at McDonalds), the injured party will sue McDonalds as the party who is responsible for how business is conducated. Same goes for shopping malls, gas stations and so forth.

    With respect to vicarious liability, Craigslist could potentially be liable in that it has instituted rules for adult service publishers that require a credit card, an active telephone number and a publishing fee. However, there are other regulations that they follow for performing a commercial service on the Web that probably will shield them from such claims.

    Craigslist is just an example of efficient delivery of classified information electronically, something that newspapers have done for hundreds of years. To punish them for being a success goes beyond the legal ramifications of liability.

    In short, we need to understand that punishing a company for efficient delivery of information for which they are not a party to, is really what this is about; otherwise, any local authority for which its citizens can receive what they perceive is "bad" content, would quickly bog the Internet down in legal underwear.

    Let's not mix morality with business. Filter adult services that are clearly illegal and let the rest flow through to be visible in the market. Prohibition failed, and so will this.

  2. John Capone from Whalebone, September 7, 2010 at 7:09 p.m.

    Clint,
    The revenue figure was quoted from elsewhere (as indicated by the quotes around the section in question). It was cited by The New York Times, among others.

  3. Mark McLaughlin, September 7, 2010 at 7:27 p.m.

    Craig Newmark is a modern hero.

    Craigslist is an extraordinary act of generosity.

    Craig once taught me that 2 tenths of one percent (0.2%) of the people who use social networking platforms will act maliciously and their behavior will garner 99.8% of the attention from journalists and politicians.

    Craig just wanted to empower people who needed to find an apartment in San Francisco during the dotcom boom. Criag had an innate sense for the power of digital media combined with a huge respect for the abilities of the average human being to advance things on their own.

    Thus Craigslist.

    I have no insider information but I bet they pulled down the ADULT section because they just got tired of all the bullshit. Nobody is initiating law suits against Craigslist because they think they have a case, this is just a cynical tactic coming from people with resources who want to control what other people are allowed to do. You hate to give in to them but they do have a way of exhausting you.

    Only born-analog media companies with no grasp for the underlying model that perpetuates the success of a company like Craigslist would deduce that pulling down the Adult section of classified ads was a publicity stunt.

    Other comments about the lost ad revenue that make this decision "difficult to understand" reflect the writer's complete lack of understanding about the concept of "ad revenue" on Craigslist.

    If you think Craigslist exists to help Craig make money, you definitely don't know Craig.

  4. George McLam, September 8, 2010 at 6:14 p.m.

    Law Enforcement spends a lot of time out there baiting bad people so they can capture them. I find it odd that the AGs would rather shut down this magnet than they would use it to their advantage.

    I have often wondered if our government is really THAT STUPID that so many clearly obvious violations of laws are taking place in plain sight and they are clueless.

    Lawmakers seem to think that when they say "thou shall not do something" that people will stop doing it. IDIOTS! If anything, it makes more people DO it (more). Now we have a lot of laws that retrict law abiding citizens and even more criminals. Way to go .. NOT!

  5. Walter Sabo from HitViews, September 8, 2010 at 8:02 p.m.

    I wonder when Verizon is going to eliminate Adult Services from their Yellow Pages

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