Techdirt. Stories filed under "prostitution"

Oh Look: Police Can Use Backpage.com To Track Down, Arrest & Convict Pimps & Prostitutes

Mike Masnick — Tue, 2 Oct 2012 20:08:21 PDT

A few years ago, there was a ton of political grandstanding against Craigslist, because there was some prostitution on the site. As we noted at the time, it was pretty misguided. Craigslist cooperated with law enforcement and many law enforcement officials realized that Craigslist was an excellent tool to help them find and arrest law breakers. We pointed out that going after Craigslist instead of the actual law breakers would mean that the activity would just move somewhere else. Indeed, Craigslist finally caved to tons of public pressure and blocked any ad that might be related to prostitution... and it did nothing to stop prostitution or human trafficking. It just moved elsewhere. The same crowd that wrongfully targeted Craigslist then shifted all of their attention to Backpage.com. Even though the law has made it clear that Backpage, as a third party service provider is not liable, the grandstanding continues against Backpage. The whole thing has gotten to be so much, that Backpage's owners, Village Voice Media, have sold off the newspapers to separate them out from the site, and to avoid having the two properties connected.

The crusading against Backpage.com has become increasingly intense and increasingly misguided lately. We get press releases all the time, full of emotional, but legally false, language, all attacking Backpage.com. No one seems to even want to recognize that attacking Backpage instead of those actually responsible only makes it that much more difficult to track down the real criminals. Some law enforcement officials are not quite as misguided. As with Craigslist, we're seeing cases where Backpage.com is instrumental in putting together the case -- in this case, against someone who had set up a brothel.

And yet, the attacks on Backpage.com continue. The whole thing is stunning to me. Here's a tool that is a goldmine for the police to collect evidence against those actually responsible for prostitution and human trafficking... and the response is to try to shut it down and drive those efforts further underground, rather than actually going after and arresting those responsible. It's shocking.

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NYTimes Columnist Stirs Up A Controversy That Will Only Drive Human Trafficking Further Underground

Mike Masnick — Thu, 5 Apr 2012 10:04:00 PDT

You may recall a couple years ago that a bunch of politicians, led by state Attorneys General, went on a huge grandstanding campaign against Craigslist, because some people were using Craigslist for prostitution -- including some human trafficking. As we noted at the time (repeatedly), Craigslist was incredibly cooperative with law enforcement, and smart law enforcement officials actually used Craigslist as a tool to help discover, track down and arrest those who were breaking the law. But, rather than recognize that Craigslist was a useful tool, a huge media campaign was set off, leading Craigslist to shut down its "adult services" section, despite plenty of legal uses.

Of course, exactly as we predicted, the people who were previously using Craigslist for illegal reasons didn't magically disappear. They just shifted to other sites. One popular one was Backpage, owned by Village Voice Media, publishers of the famed alternative newspaper The Village Voice. Unlike Craigslist, Backpage told the grandstanders that it wouldn't back down. It noted that it cooperates with law enforcement, and that it understands the law and why it's not liable for the actions of its users. A lawsuit filed against the company resulted in Backpage being declared legal.

You would think, maybe, that the media and the granstanders would get the message. But, no, they just keep at it. Nicholas Kristoff at the NY Times recently posted a ridiculously silly column, which first "outs" Goldman Sachs as a minority investor in Village Voice Media (leading GS to sell all its shares before the article went to press, despite it having nothing to do with how the company operates), and then goes on to insist that the owners of the site must be "held accountable."

This is, to put it plainly, stupid. Kristof even acknowledges that the real way to stop human trafficking and underage prostitution is to have "prosecutors... focus more on pimps and johns." You know how they can do that? By using sites like Backpage to collect evidence and to find out who's actually responsible. But, immediately after that, Kristof insists that:

Closing down the leading Web site used by traffickers would complicate their lives, and after so many years of girls being trafficked on this site, it’s time to hold owners accountable.

That's ridiculous. Two years ago, we were told that the "leading website used by traffickers" was Craigslist. And the same sort of idiotically short-sighted campaign closed down that part of the service, and it did nothing to complicate the traffickers lives, because they quickly moved on to a variety of other platforms, including some that don't cooperate nearly as closely with law enforcement as Craigslist did (and Backpage does today). If Backpage is pressured into stopping adult ads, then the traffickers will move on to other sites within hours -- and many will be less willing to cooperate. Blaming the service provider isn't just stupid and pointless, it's counterproductive. It's helping the very people that the grandstanders claim to be targeting.

It's really quite sickening. The best way to stop these awful acts is to go after those responsible. Adding some ridiculous (and probably unconstitutional) secondary liability to third parties doesn't help. It makes the problem worse. Kristof and others may have good intentions, but their simple (and confounding) inability to think more than a single step ahead is really disappointing. In an effort to do good, they're causing a tremendous amount of harm. Not only that, but they're advocating to set an awful precedent when it comes to secondary liability, taking away the basic principle that you don't blame the tool, you blame the person who actually is breaking the law. Kristof is an award-winning journalist, and clearly a very smart person. That he'd be so short-sighted on something like this -- and stoop to the level of trying to drag other companies through the mud -- is immensely disappointing.

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As Expected, Backpage Is Not Liable For Prostitution Ads

Mike Masnick — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:48:00 PDT

Last year, we wrote about a former child prostitute who sued Village Voice Media for its Backpage classified ads offerings, since this was a tool previously used to sell her. Now there has been a lot of controversy in the last couple of years (mainly from grandstanding politicians) about prostitution ads on Craigslist and Backpage. However, as has been pointed out over and over and over again, the liability belongs on the person actually committing the crime, not the service provider. And, in fact, the law, via Section 230 of the CDA gives service providers immunity.

Still, we were a little worried that since this case was highly emotionally charged, and involved a child prostitute, that the court might make a bad ruling. Instead, it appears that court has made a really strong and useful ruling explaining repeatedly why Backpage is not liable. The girl's lawyers basically tried every trick in the book to get around Section 230 immunity, but the court debunked each and every one. Many of the claims she made are the types of claims we see in the comments from people who don't understand safe harbors (like saying that you lose safe harbors if you make money). Eric Goldman, at the link above, walks one by one through each of the lawyer's attempts to get around Section 230, and explains why the judge rejected it. It's worth reading the whole thing, but here's a snippet:

Backpage allows keyword searches. Citing several cases, including Jurin and Rosetta Stone, the court says this is irrelevant.
Backpage created an adult category. The court cites Dart v. Craigslist in concluding this is irrelevant.
Backpage takes steps to increase its revenues. Backpage allegedly "tout[ed] its website as a 'highly tuned marketing site' and instruct[ed] posters of ads on how to best increase the impact of those ads." The court responds: "to find Backpage to be not immune from suit based on M.A.'s allegations about how it structured its website in order to increase its profits would be to create a for-profit exception to � 230's broad grant of immunity. This the Court may not do."
Backpage allegedly knew prostitution was advertised on the site. The court cites several cases for the proposition that knowledge is irrelevant to 230's immunity.

It's nice to see, yet again, a court recognize that liability should be properly applied, and we shouldn't blame 3rd party service providers for the actions of their users.

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Prostitutes Have Just Moved From Craigslist To Facebook

Mike Masnick — Wed, 9 Feb 2011 10:02:07 PST

When Craigslist -- under a peer pressure campaign from grandstanding state attorneys general and some misguided activists groups -- shut down its adult services section, it wasn't difficult to predict that this would do little to nothing to actually slow down or prevent prostitution. Instead, it would just drive those activities to other sites, and those sites might not work quite as closely with law enforcement as Craigslist did. In fact, we noted that Craigslist was a very useful tool for law enforcement to actually track down and crack prostitution rings.

Anyway, as expected, it appears that the activity hasn't gone away, it's just moved elsewhere. News.com highlights how it appears that Facebook has become the site of choice for prostitutes, picking up on a small bit of some new research on prostitution by Sudhir Venkatesh. The report suggested that Facebook had already been growing as a tool for prostitutes, but the exodus from Craigslist may have just sped that whole process up a bit.

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Richard Blumenthal, Lead Threatener Of Craigslist, Doesn't Even Have Jurisdiction Over Prostitution

Mike Masnick — Thu, 9 Sep 2010 09:05:32 PDT

We've discussed in the past how Connecticut Attorney General (and Senate candidate) Richard Blumenthal is one of the most ridiculous grandstanders out there -- especially with his bogus threats against tech companies, often with absolutely no legal basis. However, it turns out that it goes beyond just the fact that Blumenthal regularly ignores the actual laws involved (such as Section 230 safe harbors). Blumenthal, of course, has been leading the terribly misguided attack on Craigslist for having some prostitutes use the service. Once again, the law is pretty clear that Craigslist is protected by Section 230, and if Blumenthal really was concerned about prostitution, we've wondered why he doesn't go after the actual people involved for breaking the law -- as actual law enforcement officials in Connecticut have done.

Well, according to Jacob Sollum, over at Reason, perhaps the reason is that prostitution cases aren't even within Blumenthal's mandate and jurisdiction:

As Connecticut's Division of Criminal Justice explains on its website, the state's attorney general "has no jurisdiction whatsoever over criminal matters and no authority to prosecute criminal violations of the law."

So, here we have an attorney general, who you would think knows both the law and his own jurisdiction, going to the press and grandstanding, rather than filing an actual lawsuit because (a) he can't actually file the lawsuit and (b) even if he could, he'd lose.

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Political Campaign Against Craigslist Ratchets Up

Mike Masnick — Fri, 6 Aug 2010 13:57:44 PDT

The ongoing, misguided and dangerously self-defeating grandstanding political campaign against Craigslist apparently ratcheted up a bit today. Paul Alan Levy points out that in the print edition of today's Washington Post, there's a giant "advertisement" that is an "open letter to Craig Newmark" from two former child prostitutes who were offered up via Craigslist. It is depressing and heartbreaking to hear their story: However, placing the blame on Craigslist is entirely misguided. Yes, it was the tool that was used, but the anger should be directed at those who turned them into prostitutes, and at law enforcement for not using these publicly available tools to do their job. Some law enforcement agencies have learned that Craigslist is a great tool for finding and catching those responsible. If these sorts of ads get forced off Craigslist, it won't stop the prostitution. It'll just go further underground and make it that much more difficult for law enforcement to do anything. As it stands now, Craigslist works closely with law enforcement to catch those actually responsible. Blaming the company (or Craig himself) is misguided and likely to do more harm than good.

It makes for good political grandstanding -- which is why it's been put in the Washington Post on a giant ad on page 3. Politicians will see it, and you can bet someone will start grandstanding about this shortly... but it will be counterproductive. The real question should be why law enforcement isn't using Craigslist more to find and stop the folks actually responsible for these sorts of horrible atrocities.

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Connecticut Police Use Craigslist To Fight Prostitution; As Their Attorney General Grandstands To Take Away That Tool

Mike Masnick — Tue, 4 May 2010 09:12:39 PDT

We've been covering Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's totally misguided crusade against Craigslist on the topic of prostitution. For years, he's complained and threatened Craigslist because prostitutes use the service. Of course, he's never taken legal action because he must realize that there is no legal action he can take. The law is pretty clear: the liability is on the users of the service, not the makers of the service. Even so, Craigslist has repeatedly changed the way its service works to appease Blumenthal, and while he initially seems happy with those changes, months later, he's always back to complaining (just in time for elections too...).

Of course, the point we've made all along in response to Blumenthal is that for smart law enforcement officials, Craigslist is an excellent tool for monitoring and cracking down on prostitution. In fact, it appears that some police in Connecticut are doing exactly that. Eric sends in the story of police in Naugatuck, Connecticut using Craigslist to crack down on prostitution in their city.

The police responded to a few ads that they believe were from prostitutes seeking money for sex, and arrested two women. Separately -- and a bit more questionably -- the police also put up an ad themselves, waiting for men to reply, and eventually arrested eighteen men who replied (including a city official). It's difficult to see how that latter part of the sting isn't entrapment, but they insist it's not. Either way, it does seem like a bit of a contradiction when the state's Attorney General is seeking to block Craigslist from dealing in such ads entirely while police in the state are using it as a tool against prostitution at the same time. Maybe they should talk to each other. But, of course, when Blumenthal's real purpose is not about stopping prostitution, but instead making sure he's re-elected, suddenly the seemingly contradictory actions make a lot more sense. Oh, and if Blumenthal is really looking to grandstand about Craigslist, why not complain about the fact that the guy who bought the Nissan Pathfinder used in the failed Times Square car bomb attack this weekend supposedly bought it via Craigslist. Surely, if Craigslist can be blamed for prostitution, now it can also be blamed for terrorism...

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Sheriff Uses Craigslist To Arrest Prostitutes... Blames Craigslist

Mike Masnick — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:32:00 PDT

Reader cKarlGo points us to a story in Florida of local police arresting 28 women and six men on prostitution-related charges, after finding them all on Craigslist. They then used phone and email to negotiate with the women in order to confirm that they were selling sexual acts. Afterwards, they made the arrests. But here's the kicker: the sheriff is still blaming Craigslist:

"How can Craigslist allow this kind of content on their (Web) site and then state "We're not involved in any kind of criminal conduct,""

Well, it's actually quite simple. I would imagine that, right now, somewhere in Sheriff Grady Judd's jurisdiction, there are other prostitutes walking the streets. By Judd's own logic, I should be asking why Polk County is involved in criminal conduct. After all, it's happening in his jurisdiction. It's just that it's happening on the street. Or it might be on Craigslist. But it's neither the fault of the street nor Craigslist -- which is nothing more than a virtual street.

But, more to the point, why isn't Sheriff Judd also blaming the telephone company and his internet provider? After all, Judd used three tools to find and communicate with these prostitutes: Craigslist, email and the telephone. The phone company allowed the prostitutes to make phone calls. Internet providers allowed the prostitutes to email. By Judd's logic they're "involved in criminal activity."

In the meantime, what kind of thought process does it take to use a tool to help you crack down on prostitution, and then blame it for the prostitution? How hard is it for Sheriff Judd to recognize that Craigslist is an incredibly useful tool for his staff to find and arrest prostitutes. You would think that having just used the tool for that very purpose he might realize that it's a great tool for catching prostitutes. So why is he blaming it?

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Alternative Weekly Papers See Spike In Adult Ads Following Craigslist Decision

Mike Masnick — Wed, 3 Jun 2009 04:45:14 PDT

Back in November, when Craigslist first caved in to misguided complaints from various state AGs, we pointed out that this wouldn't do anything to stop prostitution -- it would just make it go elsewhere. And, indeed, that's exactly what happened. But, of course, that wasn't enough for the AGs who started grandstanding again a couple months ago, leading Craigslist to cave in again. So... what do you think is happening? Well, reader mikez points to a report noting a sudden and unexpected spike in adult classified ads in alternative weekly papers who had seen their business hit hard as such ads transferred to Craigslist. And, of course, as Craigslist had already pointed out, many of the ads showing up in those alt papers were already much more explicit than anything on Craigslist. In the meantime... with all these regular newspapers looking for additional business models, maybe they should start accepting those types of ads...

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Cuomo Uses Craigslist To Bust Prostitution Ring... Still Blaming Craigslist

Mike Masnick — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:30:00 PDT

Following Craigslist's big announcement last week on the changes to how it handles "adult" ads, Andrew Cuomo angrily denounced the changes, claiming that several weeks before, "we informed Craigslist of an impending criminal case that implicated its website." It seems the details of that case have now become clear, as a prostitution ring that solely worked via Craigslist was busted by Cuomo. Yet, rather than recognize that the information on Craigslist allowed them to track down and arrest this crew, Cuomo is still lashing out at the site:

"Unless craigslist gets serious about putting real protections in place, it will continued to be an environment where criminal operations thrive with impunity,"

Does Andrew Cuomo even realize what he's saying? He's saying that they'll operate with impunity right after he showed that's not true by arresting them. Given the fact that Craigslist cooperates with the police (and one assumes it did in this case as well, given that Cuomo approached them about it "weeks ago"), then Craigslist actually helped the police catch these criminals. Does Cuomo blame AT&T after AT&T helps him get a wireptap in a criminal investigation? After all, AT&T provided the phone system, which allowed the criminal operations to thrive with impunity.

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Andrew Cuomo Angry That Craigslist Stole His Photo Op

Mike Masnick — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:52:44 PDT

This morning we posted the news about Craigslist giving in to angry Attorneys General who were misguided in their anger. In it, we discussed how this was a larger version of NY AG Andrew Cuomo's tactics to force internet companies to censor, despite no legal basis. However, it looks like Andrew Cuomo is pissed that others have taken his tactics and didn't give him a chance to be involved. Thomas O'Toole alerts us to this stunning statement from Cuomo who appears to be quite angry that this decision was made without him present:

"Several weeks ago, we informed Craigslist of an impending criminal case that implicated its website. Rather than work with this office to prevent further abuses, in the middle of the night, Craigslist took unilateral action which we suspect will prove to be half-baked."

O'Toole's summary is dead on: "Curses, you stole my photo op!" So when we wrote the original post wondering how soon it would be before AGs were upset with the new plan, we knew something like this would happen eventually. We just didn't think it would be a matter of hours.

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South Carolina Wants To Put Craigslist Management In Jail?

Mike Masnick — Wed, 6 May 2009 10:47:51 PDT

In the latest in an increasingly long line of misplaced attacks on Craigslist, South Carolina's Attorney General Henry McMaster is now threatening the company's principals with criminal charges because of how some folks have used the site. Someone should send McMaster a copy of section 230 of the CDA. You would think that a state Attorney General might... you know... know the law, before threatening to put people in jail. McMaster, of course, is running for governor of the state, so he likely sees this as a grandstanding opportunity -- just like he recently massively overhyped the risks of online predators. Someone else submitted the fact that McMaster also was so upset that a study that he (and most other state AGs) requested on the risks of online predators showed that the risks were greatly overstated that, rather than admit he was wrong, he withdrew from the workgroup studying the issue. This does not appear to be a fact-based individual. When presented with evidence, he simply says it can't be true.

In this case, he's accusing Craigslist of being involved with prostitution, even though plenty of other (smarter) law enforcement officials have recognized that Craigslist is actually a useful tool in fighting prostitution, rather than a problem. He also claims that Craigslist management may be criminally liable due to "sexually explicit" photos hosted on the site. Except... as the link above points out, as long as the content isn't "obscene" (and McMaster presents no evidence that it is), then it's perfectly legal, and protected by the First Amendment. The whole thing stinks of a politician grandstanding by displaying his own ignorance of both technology and the law... all while running for governor.

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Law Enforcement In Iowa Recognizes Craigslist Is A Tool, Not A Problem

Mike Masnick — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:34:00 PDT

While officials in neighboring Illinois are suing Craigslist for prostitution, it appears that law enforcement officials in Iowa know better. Brent writes in to note that police in Iowa have been using Craigslist as a tool to help crack down on prostitution. Of course, that doesn't make for headlines nearly as big as just blaming Craigslist...

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Illinois Sheriff Sues Craigslist For Prostitution; Apparently Unaware Of The Law

Mike Masnick — Thu, 5 Mar 2009 12:03:00 PST

If you're the sheriff, aren't you supposed to understand at least the basics of the law? Apparently not in Cook County, Illinois. Sheriff Thomas Dart is now suing Craigslist because it's "the single largest source of prostitution in the nation." Of course, we've been through some of this before. Atlanta's mayor mistakenly blamed Craigslist for prostitution a while back, but didn't do anything about it. Some Attorneys General were threatening to do stuff, so Craigslist finally changed its policies last year. Of course, as expected, all that did was make prostitutes disperse to other sites. In other words: same amount of prostitution, just a lot more difficult to catch.

There have been some officials who recognize this. Some police officers have realized that Craigslist certainly isn't to blame, and is, in fact, a great tool for tracking and catching prostitutes. Hell, even Dart's own staff has regularly used Craigslist as a tool to crack down on prostitution. His own office says it's used Craigslist to bust at least 75 prostitutes in the last 18 months. Rather than suing Craigslist, he should be thanking Craigslist for making it so easy to catch these prostitutes. It seems unlikely that this lawsuit will go very far. Craigslist is almost certainly protected by Section 230 safe harbors as the service provider. You would think that a sheriff that used the tool successfully for so long could recognize this... but apparently Dart would rather it be more difficult to find and arrest prostitutes.

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Iranian Matchmaking Site Shut Down For Promoting Prostitution

Mike Masnick — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:15:36 PST

Apparently an Iranian matchmaking site, that pretty clearly seemed set up for the purpose of linking up potential husbands and wives, rather than traditional "dating," has been banned in the country for promoting prostitution. The details aren't clear, but it certainly sounds like they viewed any kind of internet matchmaking, even for the purposes of marriage, as somehow "promoting prostitution."

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As Expected, Prostitutes Move Elsewhere After Craigslist Change

Mike Masnick — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:48:00 PST

We pointed out how little sense it made for various state attorneys general to force Craigslist to charge for the "erotic services" group. It would appear that at least 40 states' attorneys general are not chess players, because they only were thinking one move out. That is, they thought: "Well, there's prostitution happening via Craigslist. Let's stop Craigslist from allowing that." But, of course, they didn't bother to think of what would happen next: which is that the prostitutes would scatter to numerous other sites, meaning that the amount of prostitution would continue pretty much unabated, but it would be more scattered and much more difficult for police to track down and stop. You would think that the folks in charge of such things would recognize that the way you stop crime is by going after the actual criminals, rather than the tools they use.

So, what happened after Craigslist implemented the change? Exactly what you'd expect. Ed Kohler checked it out and noticed (as you'd expect) that the number of ads on Craigslist's erotic services dropped significantly, but the number of ads elsewhere jumped up somewhat (including some on Craigslist's "Therapeutic Services" -- suggesting that some are trying to skirt the new charging system). Kohler only looked at one other site, so it may look like the increase in ads isn't that big -- but if you add up a variety of similar sites, you can bet that it's quite likely that in total it added up to quite a lot. It's just that, now, it's a lot more work for police to actually monitor.

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Not Your Every Day Tech Exec Scandal

Mike Masnick — Thu, 5 Jun 2008 20:30:33 PDT

While the good folks over at Valleywag might have you believe otherwise, most tech execs lead rather boring lives. There aren't that many "scandals" that happen around these parts -- and the ones that do happen, tend to be rather mundane. Some stock option backdating and maybe a bit of lying on the old resume, seem to be about as scandalous as it normally gets. But Henry Nicholas of Broadcom apparently decided to go with the more made-for-Hollywood sort of scandal. There is the option backdating issue here, but that's nothing compared to the fact that he's now been indicted for also keeping a warehouse full of drugs which he used for things like putting ecstasy in other tech execs' and customers' drinks, as well as supplying speed, cocaine and pot to tech execs. And then there were the prostitutes. Oh yeah, and the sex lair that leaked to the press last year. There's definitely a movie coming out of all of this one day. In the meantime, though, I think I prefer the Silicon Valley with more mundane executive scandals.

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Craigslist Blamed Yet Again For Something It Didn't Do

Mike Masnick — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:58:00 PDT

Weren't we just pointing out that everyone seems to want to blame Craigslist for things that it has no responsibility for? The latest is Connecticut's Attorney General, who has attacked Craigslist for allowing ads for prostitution. This is hardly a new charge. Last summer, the mayor of Atlanta lobbed similar charges at Craigslist. But, of course, just like that time, the blame is misplaced. Craigslist is the tool provider, not the content provider. To blame Craigslist isn't just wrong, when it comes to illegal acts like prostitution, it's downright backwards. Why? Because as some police have realized, Craigslist is actually a really useful tool for police to track down and arrest people breaking the law.

So not only is it placing the blame on the wrong party, it's doing so in a way that would only drive the prostitution further underground, making it harder for the police (and the Attorney General's office) to do their job. How smart is that? But it sure does generate headlines... The Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, had this to say in a letter to Craigslist:

"I am astonished and appalled by Craigslist's refusal to recognize the reality of prostitution on its Web site -- despite advertisements containing graphic photographs and hourly rates, and widespread public reports of prostitutes using the site."

To which I can only reply: I am astonished and appalled by Richard Blumenthal's refusal to recognize the reality of liability and section 230 safe harbors -- despite it being the law of the land and widely known and discussed in legal circles.

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