Craigslist Pressured Into Policing Ads For Prostitution
from the misplaced-blame dept
We've talked plenty about how New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been using legal threats to get companies to change business practices, even if those practices aren't illegal. But, he's not the only Attorney General who tries to make headlines with bogus legal threats. Neighboring Connecticut has Richard Blumenthal, who has similarly blamed companies for the actions of their users. First, it was Facebook for having sexual predators on the site, and then it was Craigslist for for having prostitution ads. You'll notice in all of these cases, the threats involve actions that are generally considered less than socially acceptable. This way, even though the companies being blamed are not liable and clearly protected by section 230 of the CDA (you would think, as AGs, Cuomo and Blumenthal would, I dunno, know the law...), the threat of bad publicity gets companies to cave.And, in fact, it appears that Craigslist has, indeed, been pressured into agreeing to monitor postings on its websites to try to prevent prostitution ads. 39 other Attorneys General joined in with Blumenthal, so it's of little surprise that Craigslist agreed to do this, even though it seems pretty clear that the law was on its side. As a service provider, it is in no way responsible or liable for the content placed on its site. The law and various court rulings are pretty clear on that, but when you have 40 Attorneys General gunning for you, painting you as a proponent of prostitution, sometimes it makes sense to cave.
The most ridiculous thing, of course, is that this will do little to nothing to actually deal with the root issue. Prostitution will continue -- and it will continue online. Those who used Craigslist before will simply move on to other sites. In fact, those sites will be much trickier to find and track down, meaning that it now becomes much more difficult for authorities to crack down on the actual law breakers. In fact, we've noted that police say that Craigslist is a very useful tool in monitoring and cracking down on prostitution. And, now, to get some headlines about how these AGs were "tough" on prostitution, they've just taken that tool away from police, while opening the door to forcing Craigslist to have to monitor posts on its site -- something the law says the company need not do.
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Filed Under: andrew cuomo, liability, richard blumenthal, service providers
Companies: craigslist
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Oh, but you've forgotten the best part...
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Craigslist sure caved...
Get your facts straight, CL is/was required to do NOTHING, they volenteered to do it. They are now going to CHARGE money for ads in the Erotic Services category, and simply keep records of those posting ads.
It will still take a subpena to get the records, and CL will do nothing more that cooperate at the same levels as they always have.
Since charging for using areas of CL is nothing new. They began charging businesses to post ads in the jobs section a few months ago. It would seem that all they are doing is expanding that profit center, and using the lawsuit as an excuse.
PLEASE before you cry poor poor craigslist, get your facts straight.
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YES!!
The south is not the only people who's insanely conservative! See? The crazy's are everywhere!!! Stop it before its too late!!!
***NOTE: I am from the south and I hate the conservativeness of the south.****
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Re: YES!!
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Because this country is run by puritans. There are more laws against sex than there are against killing someone.
Killings typically fall into four categories; Accidental killing that could have been prevented, accidental killing that couldn't have been prevented, intentional killing for a selfish reason (greed, jealousy, etc), intentional killing to save a life. The first & third are crimes, the second and fourth aren't.
When it comes to sex, you have to consider the absolute ages of the people involved, the relative ages if either one is under a certain age, the location they're doing it in, whether either one is charging for it, exactly what acts they're engaging in (depending on the area they're in), whether anyone else can see them doing it, if consent was properly given by both people, the type and amount of toys they might be using (some areas), how many people are involved, whether they're filming the act (depending on their ages it might be legal for them to have sex, but illegal to film it), the married status of the people involved (some areas), etc.
The USA has a very large stick up its collective ass when it comes to sex.
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Re:
Which is quite amusing given the fact that it's almost certainly the largest porn producing country on the planet.
Not to mention the fact that hot, scantily clad women are used to advertise everything from clothes to toothpaste.
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pointless
Users do a good job of keeping escort ads off the site already.
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Craigs List
http://www.happyendingsdoc.com
http://happyendingsdoc.wordpress.com
http://www.youtube.com/ happyendingsdoc
http://www.myspace.com/happyendingsdoc
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Rest assured that that fact is a constant thorn in the side of every conservative group. They'd like nothing better than to get porn banned completely.
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