What Happens If A Social-Networking Exec Becomes Attorney General?

from the does-not-compute dept

Lots of state attorneys general around the country have been taking shots at sites like Craigslist, MySpace and Facebook. They're generally pretty misguided, and seem to really have more to do with politcal opportunism than anything else. Many of these diatribes are based on a pretty fundamental misunderstanding of the internet and social-networking sites, so maybe we should welcome the news that a senior Facebook exec is thinking about running for AG in California. There's a lot more than internet issues to the AG's job, but hopefully if the exec, Chris Kelly, got elected, he could inject some intelligence into the other state AGs' moral panics over online activity -- though given the way they react to disagreement, that's probably just wishful thinking.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: attorney general, california, chris kelly
Companies: facebook


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Apr 2009 @ 1:41am

    What Happens If A Social-Networking Exec Becomes Attorney General?

    NOT A GOD DAMNED THING!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Apr 2009 @ 4:30am

    haha yeah he'll just shut up and follow

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Matt, 30 Apr 2009 @ 5:53am

    it'd be nice but

    on the flip side what if the exec thinks RIAA is great and/or DMCA is perfect as is?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    FlexSF, 5 May 2009 @ 10:09am

    Craigslist and erotic services.

    More moral religious zealotry being imposed down our throats. Is anybody disgusted with the fascist bigots?

    Prostitution is the exchange of money for sex. Everybody knows that the act of prostitution is illegal, but the act of advertising erotic services is not prostitution. This is nothing more than angry religious leaders, using the federal government, to impose their pathetic beliefs onto us.

    Rise up against religious nazis! Keep erotic services on Craigslist.org!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    JP, 6 May 2009 @ 12:59am

    So it's all due to "moral religious zealotry?" And these "zealots" are also "fascist bigots" and "nazis" with "pathetic beliefs"?

    Who's the bigoted zealot again, chief?

    As for the issue at hand, I think the blog author makes a great point here in the post he linked to above at "misguided," namely this post: http://techdirt.com/articles/20090428/0234214676.shtml

    It's unreasonable to claim that Craigslist isn't facilitating prostitution, but shutting down "erotic" sections of Craigslist will merely cause criminals to advertise through other means.

    I'd think the best solution would be for law enforcement officials to seek cooperation from Craigslist in perhaps revising user registration and data collection procedures.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.