Criticism Welcome, Defamation Not So Much
The Connecticut Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, recently denounced craigslist to members of the media, for what he alleged were shortcomings in the “erotic services” section of craigslist for areas of Connecticut.
We were disappointed that he chose to ignore our recent progress in dramatically improving compliance with our terms of use, shocked at the bizarre assertion that we are “stonewalling”, and frankly stunned to hear craigslist recklessly slandered as “profiting from prostitution“.
We welcome feedback from any and all interested parties as to how we can improve, but craigslist will not be used as a punching bag for false and defamatory statements.
Unlike the telephone yellow pages, many newspapers, and countless websites, which for many years have profited from “erotic service” ads, craigslist derives no revenue (let alone profit) from “erotic services”, and in fact we incur significant costs in enforcing our terms of use regarding these ads.
Connecticut craigslist users are no doubt curious as to why their AG is spending time attacking freedom of speech and law-abiding companies that provide much-needed free services to the people of Connecticut, when there is so much actual crime left unaddressed. We don’t have the answer, but would be interested to know what it is.
April 15th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
[…] has a nice story today, covering our answer to the Connecticut Attorney General’s recent defamatory remarks regarding craigslist, here is an […]
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Not only do may users flag illegal ads such as prostitution, but Police organizations from across America also monitor Craigslist for illegal activity, and with Subpoenas can require Craigslist to provide information about posters of illegal ads. I Police are invited to post contact information online on Craigslist where citizens may contact the Police regarding ads suspected of exploitation of minors (see for example http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cgi-bin/personals.cgi?category=rnr.
http://www.craigslist.org/about/help/exploitation_of_minors and may find national and international websites related to missing and exploited Children and also the National Human Trafficking Resource Center.
Interestingly, The State of Connecticut and the communities therein, have not taken advantage of Craigslist’s open request to list local and state police and related agencies to help protect their State’s children.
July 10th, 2008 at 5:23 am
I’m not seeing any “dramatic improvement in compliance with our terms of use” when it comes to Red Sox tickets; the site is all but unusable because its having been overwhelmed with ads from commercial resellers. I’ve just flagged 22 ads posted in ONE day, most of which had one of only two different texts in the ad body (and I stopped only because I gave up). Why won’t Craigslist do anything about this. You’re obviously capable of it, because you’ve blocked MY reposts.