Adult ads permanently off U.S. sites, Craigslist says

[ericlp]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/15/AR2010091507061.html

Under pressure from law enforcement and Congress, Craigslist said Wednesday it had permanently taken down its adult services ads on its highly popular classified site in the United States.


The move is the first of its kind for a company that has become not only a place to buy used furniture and find apartments, but also a symbol of a free-speech, no-limit Internet. Craigslist yielded to the complaints of advocacy groups who say the firm's Web sites are being widely used in the global sex trade of women and children.



The San Francisco company complied, but not without hinting at what the actions of government officials could portend for the future of the Web.
After state law enforcement officials asked Craigslist to eliminate adult ads earlier this month, the company replaced those listings with a single word: "censored." It later dropped the label, but not before prompting protests from free-speech advocates.


I call BullShit. I've looked on the adult sites not like I could afford the 2-300 an hour charge or I'd risk getting an STD. I didn't see any child sex rings ...

As far as I'm concerned we might as well be in China. Censorship at it's finest. What's next??? Who will congress and paranoid sheep censor next?


Oh well! Welcome to China!

 

[dmcowen674]

I blame Craig's list unless they can show proof they were forced to censor their site.

 

[her209]

Under pressure from law enforcement and Congress, Craigslist said Wednesday it had permanently taken down its adult services ads on its highly popular classified site in the United States.

So the US government "flagged" off their Adult Services section.

The move is the first of its kind for a company that has become not only a place to buy used furniture and find apartments, but also a symbol of a free-speech, no-limit Internet.

I call bullshit on this. Craigslist is Flag Nazi central. Post something the flag Nazi's don't like, and they'll flag it.

 

[Throckmorton]

I don't understand how selling sex, which is illegal, can possibly be covered by free speech. Why did Craigslist even have an adult services section, even if it was somehow a right?

 

[alkemyst]

So the US government "flagged" off their Adult Services section.




I call bullshit on this. Craigslist is Flag Nazi central. Post something the flag Nazi's don't like, and they'll flag it.

It's not craigslist doing that, it's your peers there.

Usually ads that get flagged have pretty good reason to be.

It's rare for a competitor to do it, but that happens on ebay as well.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Maybe next they'll try to make the entire Internet illegal since people can use the Internet for all sorts of illegal and unsavory purposes.

 

[her209]

It's not craigslist doing that, it's your peers there.

Usually ads that get flagged have pretty good reason to be.

It's rare for a competitor to do it, but that happens on ebay as well.

That doesn't match with the article's claim of "a symbol of a free-speech, no-limit Internet."

 

[woolfe9999]

I don't understand how selling sex, which is illegal, can possibly be covered by free speech. Why did Craigslist even have an adult services section, even if it was somehow a right?

Craigslist is just a site for people to post classified ads, and that is the problem with what the government is doing here. If people are advertising things that are illegal, the government should go after the people posting the ads (which they often do BTW with sting operations.) The trouble is telling an information conduit that they have to regulate the information flowing through it. What's next, ISP's and the phone company are told they must censor content running across their wires and servers?

- wolf

 

[alchemize]

In other news, backpage.com rejoices.

 

[ElFenix]

these are the same morons who think pedos use pedobear to identify themselves to each other.

 

[OCGuy]

So what am I supposed to do now when it is 2:00am, and I want to do a line of yeyo off of a tranny escort's chest?

 

[Linflas]

I don't understand how selling sex, which is illegal, can possibly be covered by free speech. Why did Craigslist even have an adult services section, even if it was somehow a right?

How was it any different than the ads in the classified in any big city newspaper for "massage parlors" and "escort" services?

 

[Throckmorton]

How was it any different than the ads in the classified in any big city newspaper for "massage parlors" and "escort" services?

I didn't know those ads existed. I don't read physical newspapers.

 

[OCGuy]

I didn't know those ads existed. I don't read physical newspapers.

Because they aren't selling sex. They are escorts, which is legal.

If they break the law and have sex with customers, then police need to arrest them. We don't have a pre-crime division

 

[Corn]

So what am I supposed to do now when it is 2:00am, and I want to do a line of yeyo off of a tranny escort's chest?

Just PM Moonie!

 

[alkemyst]

Because they aren't selling sex. They are escorts, which is legal.

If they break the law and have sex with customers, then police need to arrest them. We don't have a pre-crime division

escorts can have sex with customers. It just can't be that's what you are paying for.

 

[zephyrprime]

Let's all start up a web site in bermuda and call it "AdultsList.com"

 

[DesiPower]

sad day in the history of internet...

 

[alkemyst]

Let's all start up a web site in bermuda and call it "AdultsList.com"

It wouldn't work...law enforcement is now trolling CL and that's how most of this was put to rest.

I am sure part of this was CL not wanting a class action suit against them by these people saying they thought it was LEGAL because CL was allowing it.

It started really inconspicuous and much of it was higher end ass (the smarter chicks)...they used the whole rose thing and the like but then the trailer trash came in and pretty much posted up porn and left nothing to the imagination.

I don't have a problem with prostitution. I have never needed to resort to it. However, I am sure if I had millions of dollars I'd partake of a some high-end women during dry spells or just cravings I wasn't getting met.