US AG's attacking Craigslist

[newedge2001]

This is a combo rant and asking people to take action, saying that these Attorney Generals need to back off. (Mods, please move, if needed).

Highlights:

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said in a May blog posting that the company's ads were no worse than those published by the alternative newspaper chain Village Voice Media. He cited one explicit ad which included the phrase: "anything goes $90."

U.S. courts have repeatedly ruled that online service providers such as Craigslist aren't liable for postings made by their users...

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, one of the 17 attorneys general who pressed for the change...

If Craigslist has left the adult services business for good, it won't likely diminish the online market for sex acts, said Steve Jones, a professor of communication at the University of Illinois in Chicago who has studied Internet culture.

Comments:

First: "If Craigslist has left the adult services business for good, it won't likely diminish the online market for sex acts, said Steve Jones, a professor of communication at the University of Illinois in Chicago who has studied Internet culture." To blame Craigslist is like blaming AOL chat rooms of the 90s, or Myspace (or others). It shows that someone's trying to make a name for their self, at the expense of an otherwise legit site.

Notice how in the article, there is no reference to this, or other cases, where Craigslist works WITH law enforcement, to CAPTURE the criminals. Clearly, only one side of the story is being shown!

What goes on, between two consulting adults, is no one else's business! It doesn't matter if it is two straight people, or two gay, as long as what they're doing isn't being harmful to others in the community. This is just another group of prejudices being allowed to run wild, because no one is calling them out, and telling the other side.

According to a worker's blog (came up when was trying to find more information on this): "Sites like this (Craigslist) allows the worker to find clients safely, without the abuse of pimps, and many other dangers that exist on the street...now, they will have to go back into those dangers...Craigslist provided a safe buffer.

What really sickens me is that I've seen petitions on sites like Change.org, talking about how Craigs, and a similar site, Backpage.com, play a huge role in various levels of human trafficking. Those cases are few and far between. I have talked with a lot of people, across the US, and around the world, who have used Craigslist and similar sites. As I said, I don't judge, and what goes between two consulting adults is up to them. I'm not saying these things do not exist, but again, it's wrong and irresponsible to place these sites as the sole, or a major source, of these crimes. There are a lot of places far worse to hit, than these sites. It just so happens that since the actual crime rings are a lot harder to nail, and so in order to show the public that they are doing something, web sites that have very little to do with these crimes become scape goats.

I think that people need to contact both their state and federal Congressmen, and demand the resignation or termination of these "attorney generals." Instead of going after the real criminals, they are attacking easy targets that have very little to do with the crimes in question. Moreso, by attacking such sites, they are violating these individuals First Amendment Rights. There are already some cases where public libraries are denying the promotion of the gay community. Now, legit businesses are being denied opportunities. If no one else wants to take up the issue for the other side, I guess I'll start!

Tech world: (Though one has to wonder, if Markoff had found identical ads in a newspaper would anyone have thought to call him, say, the "Boston Globe Killer"?) Henry McMaster.

With all the talk about the killer, here's something that you didn't hear about:
Craigslist helps North Carolina police arrest second suspect in rape (search it):

Police say they have arrested the man who allegedly raped a woman in North Carolina in response to a posting on craigslist created by her own husband.

And craigslist helped them find him.

Here's the AGs:

Richard Blumenthal
Attorney General of Connecticut

Dustin McDaniel
Attorney General of Arkansas

Lawrence G. Wasden
Attorney General of Idaho

Lisa Madigan
Attorney General of Illinois

Tom Miller
Attorney General of Iowa

Steve Six
Attorney General of Kansas

Douglas F. Gansler
Attorney General of Maryland

Mike Cox
Attorney General of Michigan

Jim Hood
Attorney General of Mississippi

Chris Koster
Attorney General of Missouri

Michael A. Delaney
Attorney General of New Hampshire

Richard Cordray
Attorney General of Ohio

Patrick C. Lynch
Attorney General of Rhode Island

Henry McMaster
Attorney General of South Carolina

Robert E. Cooper, Jr.
Attorney General of Tennessee

Greg Abbott
Attorney General of Texas

Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, II
Attorney General of Virginia

------------------------

Go to Senate.gov website, for finding your Senators:

Just pick the state you're from, and you will receive their Senate Address, phone number, and contact form. I also suggest, once you have their names, to search their names on the web, to go to their OFFICIAL website, and contact them there, but if nothing else, at least on the above link.

Go to House.gov site for list of House members:

If you don't know who your Rep is, enter your zip in the upper left "find your Rep" box. As above, I highly suggest you also find their OFFICIAL website, and contact them there, but if nothing else, at least on the above link.

I also suggest writing to your STATE senators and Congressmen. Do a search for "list of (your) state senators," and "list of (your) state representatives."

Here's the Federal Attorney General:
justice.gov

Here's the listing of all state attorney generals:
www . naag . org/ current - attorneys - general . php

-------------------------------

Jim Buckmaster, CEO
Craig Newmark, Founder
craigslist, Inc.
1381 9th Ave
San Francisco, CA 94122

Edward Wes, Esq.
Perkins Coie
101 Jefferson Dr
Menlo Park, CA 94025-1114

[RawAlex]

There are a few things at play here:

The old "section 230" protections for service providers has been interpreted way too widely and used to cover all sorts of things that should not be covered. A site like CL should have less protections than an ISP, example, because CL is an active publisher of the material, and can control what appears on it's webpages. An ISP is only providing service (similar to a phone company) and cannot control the topics of discussion.

CL isn't a blind service provider and should not get the same protections as an ISP.

CL has knowingly been a pimp for years, permitting very graphic ads that make it very clear what is for sale. They have profited from them (charging for the ads and keeping the money, even though it was suppose to go to charity), and continued to allow this to continue.

While you may or may not agree with the law in the US that makes prostitution illegal in most places (I don't agree, but it is besides the point), it is every citizens and every company's obligation to avoid being part of a criminal enterprise. The folks at CL not only did not do this, but instead profited grandly from it.

Here is to hoping that on a federal level, that restrictions are placed on the "section 230" safe harbor protections for service providers to limit it to "blind providers" only. File hosts that profit from aggregating files onto searchable websites, sell access to files, or otherwise profit directly from the flow of illegal material (piracy) should not have protections. Companies like CL which republish ads for people should be held to the same standards as any printed paper would: if they know it is illegal, they shouldn't run it.

As for the "good" that CL has done in the past, it is pretty rare. With tens of millions of explicit hookers ads per day, and with plenty of underage girls being marketed (just look for ads with terms like "fresh newcomer" or "fresh face", coded terms for underage), the harm done by CL greatly outweighs any incidental benefit that might of come by stopping a murderer (who might not have murdered without CL existing... but that is another story).

Sorry, but CL needs to take responsibility for what they publish and who they deal with. They can do it, but they might actually have to work to get it done instead of just letting the virtual money roll in.