State AGs Against Craigslist Adult Advertisements

Kansas and Missouri AGs are in the thick of it, of course.
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17 AGs: Craigslist Should Drop Adult Services

Attorney Generals: Website Can't Adequately Block Illegal Ads

Alexandra Sifferlin, ThreeSixty Journalism Writer
POSTED: 2:39 pm CDT August 24, 2010
UPDATED: 6:54 pm CDT August 24, 2010



HARTFORD, Conn. -- Craigslist should remove its adult services section because the website cannot adequately block potentially illegal ads promoting prostitution and child trafficking, attorneys general in 17 states demanded Tuesday in a joint letter. "Only Craigslist has the power to stop these ads before they are even published," said Kansas attorney general Steve Six in a statement Tuesday. "Sadly, they are completely unwilling to do so." The joint letter acknowledged Craigslist faces the prospect of losing revenue if it were to remove the adult services section. "No amount of money, however, can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution and the suffering of the women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by Craigslist," the letter said. Craigslist supports states' efforts to stop illegal exploitation, spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best said in a statement that did not indicate whether the website plans to get rid of its adult services section. "We hope to work closely with them, as we are with experts at nonprofits and in law enforcement, to prevent misuse of our site in facilitation of trafficking," she said. Some encounters set up through Craigslist have ended in violence and even death, authorities have said. Last week, authorities said a former medical student accused of killing a masseuse he met through Craigslist committed suicide in the Boston jail where he was awaiting trial. Philip Markoff, 24, was found unresponsive in his cell Aug. 15. A former Boston University student, Markoff had pleaded not guilty in the fatal shooting of Julissa Brisman of New York City and in the armed robbery of a Las Vegas woman. Both crimes happened at Boston hotels within four days in April 2009. Rhode Island prosecutors also accused him of attacking a stripper that week. Markoff had met the women through advertisements for erotic services posted on Craigslist. The website has put safeguards in place as it has evolved over the years. In November 2008, after pressure from 40 state attorneys general, Craigslist required posters to provide a working phone number and pay a fee for placing an ad in the erotic services section. In May 2009, the website renamed erotic services to adult services and said it would adopt a manual screening process, where postings would be reviewed before publishing. But state officials believe Craigslist is still not doing enough to stop illegal ads from appearing. Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal subpoenaed Craigslist in May, asking the website to provide proof it was holding up its promise to help stop ads for prostitution. Craigslist should provide its evidence in a few weeks, said a spokeswoman for the Connecticut attorney general's office. Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley released a separate letter Tuesday that was sent to Craigslist officials and also called for the removal of adult services. "You should continue to build on your success in connecting users to each other and providing a forum for the exchange of legal goods and services," she said Tuesday. The 17 states whose attorneys general signed the letter are: Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

First CL then probably on to BP. Before you know it, all the sites will be banned from advertising any adult services.

free sites that don't pay taxes always get the stiff ones

Even if they remove the section there is always someone who will post an ad in a different section.. Thats why they made the adult one so that there were not ads in the sporting section and or other ones....

Always blows my mind (Prostitution and Child Trafficing) They always seem to lump these two together and yet I have never seen the second one on CL or BP. They should legalize the first one, and go back to Inquisition style torture for the second!!

Typical politician BS. Of course, they always link prostitution with child trafficking even though they are nowhere near the same thing. It creates an uproar with the public in thinking that we need the politicians to protect children.

This is really a 3-headed monster. 1st, the politicians start the ball rolling. Then the feminazis jump in with their absurd contentions that prostitution demeans and objectifies women. (Any of you ladies here feel demeaned and objectified?) Lastly, the bible thumpers chime in with fire and brimstone for all who partake in this evil practice.

Ironically, how many of these big shots are actually dallying with the working girls behind the scenes? Remember how Spitzer in New York made his claim to fame by busting call girl rings and was elected governor? Then this bastard gets caught redhanded himself buying their favors. Shitheads should all be voted out of office.

Typical politician BS. Of course, they always link prostitution with child trafficking even though they are nowhere near the same thing. It creates an uproar with the public in thinking that we need the politicians to protect children. Originally Posted by janwalshs

I just recently learned about this type of rhetoric in one of my college courses. I agree with you 100% on this and it is also why they like to link drugs and other crimes to prostitution as well. They know that the average person doesn't really care about prostitution but as soon as they create a link between that and another crime then the politicians have hit the jackpot. They use the other crime to be able to spend tens of thousands of dollars of the tax payers money to "clean up the streets". To concentrate so hard on prostitution is ridiculous when there are so many other crimes out there causing a lot more harm. Just my 2 cents.

Always blows my mind (Prostitution and Child Trafficing) They always seem to lump these two together and yet I have never seen the second one on CL or BP. They should legalize the first one, and go back to Inquisition style torture for the second!! Originally Posted by RRPat

Agreed

So if this happens and they move onto BP what is LE going to use easily to set up people when they want to run a sting? It seems that the states would loose money if this happened because they would loose the main source of there operations.