YNOT – In a move that surprises few but disappoints many, the community-moderated classified advertising and forum network Craigslist has removed adult services from all of its 700 websites worldwide.
Under pressure by several state attorneys for what they claimed was enabling prostitution, Craigslist first tried to use voluntary, member-policing measures to placate critics. Then the network instituted charges for adult-services ads. Most classifieds on Craigslist sites remained free of charge. When both steps failed to stem the tide of criticism, in September Craigslist shuttered access to its problematic sections in the U.S. and Canada, finally shuttering adult services in all locations last week.
Many have criticized the shutdown, and not just because of free-speech issues. Craigslist attorney Elizabeth McDougal pointed out that closure of the network’s adult-services sections has had no noticeable effect on the tangential crimes Craigslist was accused of abetting.
“Migration of the relatively small percentage of total U.S. adult-services advertising that had been posted on Craigslist to less socially responsible venues uninterested in best practices is an unfortunate step backward in the fight against trafficking and exploitation,” McDougal stated in written testimony presented to a subcommittee of the U.S. Congress.
McDougal continued, pointing out that law enforcement has lost an important partner at the cost of hysteria about potential sex crimes.
“In Craigslist, law enforcement and [non-governmental organizations like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children] advocates had a highly responsive partner that listened to and was willing to meet with all concerned parties, and worked collaboratively to develop and implement best practices for minimizing such harms in the context of adult-services advertising,” McDougal wrote. “As a legal counselor with a strong personal interest in combating human trafficking and child exploitation, it has been my sincere privilege to assist this exceptionally conscientious company, and it is sadly dismaying to see Craigslist’s good deeds in this regard be unduly punished.”
Civil libertarians have chirped in about Craigslist caving to pressure, as well.
“The notion that Craigslist and [its] officers should be held responsible for third-party content on their site because they didn’t do enough to satisfy the individual whims of respective state attorneys general is wholly inconsistent with the law,” Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Matt Zimmerman told PCWorld.com. “By flexing their muscles against an entity such as Craigslist, state leaders are paving the way for a vastly regulated Internet that could be void of many of its current freedoms.”
