Arguing that Craigslist facilitates rights abuses, an anti-prostitution group has joined Chicago Sheriff Thomas Dart's legal campaign against the site.
"By providing an anonymous
forum for johns to contact pimps, and pimps to contact each other, Craigslist is facilitating brutal abuses of human rights that deprive women and children of dignity and humanity, mocking the clear
prohibitions against sex trafficking of United States and international law, profiting from a contemporary form of slavery," the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women wrote in a friend-of-the-court
brief filed Thursday.
The group is backing Dart's effort to convince federal judge John Grady to order Craigslist to stop running adult ads. In March, Dart sued Craigslist for allegedly
facilitating prostitution with its "erotic services" listings. Dart requested an injunction against the site and monetary damages.
Craigslist subsequently replaced the erotic services ads with a
monitored "adult" section, but Dart said in court papers filed last month that many of the new adult ads still obviously relate to prostitution. Craigslist has said it created the erotic services
category (now the adult section) as a forum for ads for phone sex, erotic dancing, and other racy but lawful activity. The company also says
on its site that ads "suggesting or implying an exchange of sexual favors for money" are strictly prohibited.
Craigslist has been under intense scrutiny for its ads this year, much of it
triggered by the murder in April of masseuse Julissa Brisman. She was allegedly killed by a Boston University student who answered Brisman's ad on Craigslist's "erotic services" section.
In
court papers that are long on rhetoric, but nearly silent on legal issues, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women argues that Craigslist should shutter its adult ads out of a sense of corporate
citizenship. "Craigslist is powerful. With that power comes responsibility. Beyond the obligations of domestic and international law, Craigslist has a corporate social responsibility to stop the sex
trafficking and prostitution that occurs every day by way of its site."
But many Internet attorneys say that as a legal matter Craigslist is clearly protected by Section 230 of the
Communications Decency Act, which immunizes sites from liability when users post illegal ads. "The Coalition is free to make those kinds of policy arguments, but is making those policy arguments in
support of an unsupportable legal position," says Matt Zimmerman, a lawyer with the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation.
In fact, in a pervious lawsuit against Craigslist, the
7th Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Chicago), ruled that the site could not be sued for illegal housing ads placed by users.
Digital rights lawyers also say that without laws like the
Communications Decency Act, Web companies would not be able to provide the types of forums for users that now exist. Craigslist today is considered the biggest classifieds site in the world, with more
than 20 billion page views a month.
"Craigslist is a good example of the kinds of online services that can thrive because of the protections of Section 230," Zimmerman says. "If you say that,
despite the law, we should make the middleman responsible, that would have collateral impact."
Chicago isn't the only place where Craigslist is battling in court. The company is also embroiled
in litigation in South Carolina, where Attorney General Henry McMaster threatened to prosecute company executives for aiding and abetting prostitution. The site obtained a temporary restraining order
against McMaster in May, but he recently filed papers arguing that he
should be able to investigate and potentially prosecute company officials.