craigslist blog

From Internet News, “Who’s Really Winning the Search Race“:

Yet, as it turns out, the big players aren’t the ones seeing the most growth in search. Instead, it’s Craigslist that leads in percent growth according to comScore. The online classifieds site posting a 12 percent jump in queries from 583 million to 651 million from April to May.

Here’s the data, with search queries denominated in millions:

Noteable as this news cycle winds down ( “Craigslist Pwns McMaster,” “Pandering Has Its Price,” “Craigslist 1, McMaster 0,” “McMaster’s Final Humiliation” ) has been the absolute disinterest shown by politicians and journalists in hardcore sex-for-money ads featured in journalistic media, no matter how numerous or graphic they may be.

Here are a few out of tens of thousands of “escort ads” featured on backpage.com adult classifieds owned by Village Voice Media, publisher of a chain of weekly newspapers. (WARNING - EXPLICIT SEXUAL CONTENT):

• I am a nasty freaky girl who loves sucking cock (Chicago)
• An Irish blowjob and a cum showering rainbow (New York)
• Cum lay your hotdog on my bun for memorial day (Dallas)
• Doing men 18 to 65 with trucker parking (Toledo)
• Three holes anything goes $90 - GREEK included (New Jersey)
• Can u fuck my tight pussy hard ask for alexis - age 18 (Atlanta)
• Thick meaty transexual treat (Philadelphia)
• I luv 2 suk n fuk - age 18 (Phoenix)
• Deep throating full service freak (Orlando)
• I gotta big a$$ fat pu$$y big boobs need I say more (St Louis)
• Enjoy multiple orgasms with “Flavor” (Myrtle Beach, SC)
• Let me put you to bed backdoor available $80 (Columbia, SC)
• Ebony slut will blow u away wet n ready 4 u gfe (Greenville, SC)

UPDATE - Now deleted ads included photos of sex acts, and price quotes for: “GFE, BBBJ, CIM, greek, swallow, DATY, 69, facials, golden showers, anal”

UPDATE - Screenshot of ad cited above (CAUTION, EXPLICIT SEXUALITY)

These examples were “featured” ads for which Village Voice charged extra, such that this content presumably fell well within their guidelines.

It’s worth noting that these ads’ TITLES ALONE contain more explicit content than you will find in all craigslist adult service ads combined.

Could the blessing of politicos on voluminous pornographic sex-for-money ads in journalistic media have anything to do with the need for positive coverage and campaign endorsements from said media?

As for journalists, is it possible that criticizing craigslist is more career-friendly than taking their own employers (or publishing peers) to task?

AP reporter Meg Kinnard has revealed that Defendant McMaster has not prosecuted so much as a single prostitution case in his 7 years as SC Attorney General, and has not objected to local newspapers running adult service ads, choosing instead to attack SF-based craigslist:

Ann Bartow, a professor of Internet law at the University of South Carolina School of Law, said McMaster’s decision to take on Craigslist and not local newspapers that advertise escort services suggests political motivations.

“Why Craigslist? Newspapers run the same ads, but they have people locally who would stand up for them, and he didn’t want to alienate the newspapers that would be reporting on his campaign,” Bartow said.

South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster today announced that our recent improvements, which go far beyond measures he himself personally endorsed with his own signature six months ago, not only aren’t good enough, but actually require a criminal investigation:

“As of 5:00 p.m. this afternoon, the craigslist South Carolina site continues to display advertisements for prostitution and graphic pornographic material. This content was not removed as we requested. We have no alternative but to move forward with criminal investigation and potential prosecution.”

He evidently feels justified in singling out craigslist for investigation, and publicly condemning me personally as being worthy of criminal prosecution.

Seriously? The craigslist adult services section for Greenville, SC has a total of 1 ad for the last 3 days, featuring a photograph of a fully clothed person. The “erotic services” section for Greenville, which we recently closed, has 8 ads total which will expire in two days, and even for these ads the images and text are quite tame.

Meanwhile, the “adult entertainment” section of greenville.backpage.com (careful with link, NSFW), owned by Village Voice Media, has over 60 ads for the last 3 days, and about 250 in total. In sharp contrast with craigslist, many of these ads are quite explicit, quoting prices for specific sex acts, featuring close-ups of bare genitalia, etc.

Of course, no one in mainstream legal circles thinks either company should be subject to civil suit, let alone a criminal investigation. But if for whatever reason you were so motivated, would you target a venue with 9 PG-13 rated ads, or one with 250 XXX rated ones?

And FWIW, telephone yellow pages and other local print media have both companies beat hands down as adult service ad venues for South Carolina.

Any interest in targeting them for criminal prosecution? Didn’t think so.

Update - 1st comment on this entry lists 19 adult ads for 1 day from the Charleston Post and Courier.

Update 2 - 5 pages of escort listings on live.com (owned and operated by Microsoft), click on the “images” tab at the top of the listing page if you want to see photographs (careful NSFW), and note the sponsored “hotel” ads being sold against these listings

Update 3 - 26 escort ads for Myrtle Beach on yellowpages.com (owned and operated by AT&T). Anyone care to count the escort ads in the print yellow pages for major cities in South Carolina?

This just in from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF):

Attorney General Henry McMaster has no case. Neither do AGs Lynch or Blumenthal. And neither does Sheriff Dart, as craigslist explained Monday in their motion to dismiss his March lawsuit. While the AGs may wish it was not so, federal law protects craigslist and no amount of posturing will change that fact.

And that’s a good thing. The existence of sites that rely on third party content depends on strong uniform legal protections against liability based on material posted by users. If site operators were forced to screen all third party contributions under risk of civil or criminal penalty, the Internet would lose many of the vibrant services that have made it so dynamic.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/05/ags-v-craigslist-put

Excerpted from craigslist’s memo in support of motion for judgement on the pleadings, filed monday:

Even assuming that all of the facts alleged in the Complaint are true, it is clear as a matter of law that judgment must be entered in favor of craigslist.  First, while Plaintiff may use his Department to pursue those who exchange sex for money in Cook County, his claims (assuming for this motion that he can assert them in this manner) against craigslist are barred by a federal statute, 47 U.S.C. § 230 (“Section 230”).  Courts across the country, including the Court of Appeals for this Circuit in a case against craigslist, uniformly have held that Section 230 broadly protects online service providers from suits seeking to impose liability on them for harmful and/or unlawful communications that originate from the users of the services.  That is precisely what Plaintiff’s suit seeks to do, and it therefore must be dismissed.

Second, dismissal is also required for the independent reason that the relief sought by the Complaint is barred as a matter of law.  The Complaint’s claim for monetary relief is facially invalid because Illinois law precludes a governmental party, such as a Sheriff, from suing in tort to recover the costs of providing police and law enforcement services.  Likewise, the injunctive relief sought by the Complaint ― namely an order that craigslist “close” a portion of its website ― violates the First Amendment’s strong presumption against prior restraints on future speech.

craigslist had a cordial and productive meeting with Attorneys General Blumenthal, Koster, and Madigan this morning in New York.

We provided the AG’s with evidence of the huge strides that have been made since craigslist and 43 Attorneys General signed a voluntary “Joint Statement” last November.  Although the progress has been dramatic, craigslist has continued to develop further improvements, some of which have been introduced in the last two weeks.

We share the AG’s interest in minimizing misuse of craigslist. We’re optimistic this goal can be reached while preserving all beneficial aspects of a site relied upon by tens of millions of Americans, and without compromising the quintessentially American values of free speech embodied in our Constitution.

Interesting Boston Herald Article:

The anti-Craigslist tirade isn’t so much about protecting women as it is about protecting mainstream media. According to some experts, Craigslist has contributed to the demise of newspapers across the country because its free services led to a precipitous drop in classified ad dollars.

Using Craigslist as a whipping boy is a nice distraction, but shutting it down will do nothing to stop prostitution. And while it feels good to have someone else to blame for Brisman’s murder, if we really care about women’s lives, we should be focusing on the social conditions that cause women to choose a virtual form of sex slavery as a career.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view.bg?articleid=1169833