Why Are AGs Targeting Craigslist Rather Than Newspapers Or Other Websites?

from the makes-no-sense... dept

With Craigslist caving on how it manages its "adult" ads, we've noted that some politicians are still angry, despite having been a part of the group that bought into the agreement Craigslist made with them six months ago. However, since this really has everything to do with two AGs who are running for governor of their states, rather than any real attempt to stop any illegal activity, they have to keep grandstanding. Henry McMaster, AG of South Carolina (and candidate for governor) has been among the worst, threatening to file criminal charges against Craigslist management to put them in jail. Of course, even the most basic legal analysis shows that McMaster has absolutely no case -- and, in fact, the "deadline" that McMaster put in place last Friday came and went without McMaster actually doing anything.

However, he's still talking a big game -- and it looks like Craigslist has had enough of letting him get away with blaming them for everything. The company's CEO, Jim Buckmaster, has taken to the Craigslist blog to ask why they're being targeted when various newspapers in South Carolina have many more such "questionable" ads that are often a lot more explicit and graphic than those on Craigslist. The post lists out a variety of South Carolina newspapers and how many adult ads they have, noting that McMaster doesn't seem to be going after any of them and threatening to throw their execs in jail. Following that, he put up a separate post asking for a retraction and an apology from McMaster for his misguided accusations.

Meanwhile, the folks over at Digg are making a really good point. If grandstanding politicians are going to blame Craigslist for those murders in Boston where the killer used Craigslist to find victims, how come now one is yelling "blame AOL!" after a woman was killed by a guy she met via AOL instant messenger. In this day and age, it's quite depressing that people in positions of authority still seem to think the tool is to blame, rather than the individuals who use them.

Filed Under: adult services, attorneys general, erotice services, henry mcmaster, section 230
Companies: craigslist

Craigslist Gives In To Misplaced AG Anger... Again

from the what-are-you-going-to-do... dept

Back in November, a bunch of Attorneys General forced Craiglsist to change how it managed its "erotic services" category. The whole campaign by these AGs to blame Craigslist for the fact that prostitutes used the service was aimed at the wrong target -- smart law enforcement officials recognized that they could use Craigslist as a tool to fight prostitution. And, of course, the original changes to Craigslist did little if anything to stop prostitution. Instead, they just made that prostitution move elsewhere, making it more difficult for law enforcement to track it down and deal with it. It's difficult to see how that's smart policy.

Yet, even with the changes -- which required those posting to the erotic services category to use a credit card (and pay $5) to prove their identity -- some prostitution ads were getting through. Once again, though, this should have been seen as great news for law enforcement. That's because now it was even easier to track down those involved in prostitution. So what happened? You guessed it. The AGs continued to freak out and insist that Craigslist was somehow to blame, even threatening to put Craigslist execs into jail. Yes, seriously.

Given all of this, it's disappointing, though hardly surprising, that Craigslist has caved in and agreed that it will now have people on staff preview every ad in the erotic services category to make sure it's "okay." Also, according to at least one report, the new "adult services" (rather than "erotic services") group will cost advertisers $10 instead of $5 -- and unlike the in original agreement, this time the money apparently may not go to charity. There really is absolutely no legal basis for this move. The AGs would have had no case (hello Section 230!), but given the public pressure from the AGs and the fact that Craigslist probably was getting sick of answering this question, it gave in.

Of course, it's difficult to see how this ends well. Prostitution will continue. It will just move to other websites, where it will be that much more difficult for law enforcement to track it and respond to it. This move will also -- unfortunately -- empower AGs to once again abuse their public platform to pressure companies into doing things with absolutely no legal basis whatsoever. We saw it last year with Andrew Cuomo forcing ISPs to drop Usenet, and now that more AGs are learning how this process works, expect to see more de facto gov't censorship, as various AGs use the press and bogus threats to pressure websites into shutting down or changing sites.

And, of course, given that it only took six months for the AGs to demand even more from Craigslist, how much do people want to bet that it won't be all that long until those same AGs start complaining about Craigslist yet again? Especially now that Craigslist has agreed to have employees review every ad in that section, they'll probably start blaming Craigslist if any questionable ads get through. Even though Section 230 (again) has said that moderating content doesn't increase liability, since those AGs have been ignoring Section 230 all along anyway, you can bet they'll ignore it again, and suggest Craigslist is even more liable, even though they were the ones who forced Craigslist to make this change in the first place.

Filed Under: adult services, attorneys general, erotice services, section 230
Companies: craigslist