http://www.backpage.com/classifieds/Media
Press Release: Backpage.com Removes Adult Content Due to Unconstitutional Government Censorship....Vows to Fight First Amendment Battles
January 9, 2017
Washington, D.C. - As the direct result of unconstitutional government censorship, Backpage.com has removed its Adult content section from the highly popular classified website, effective immediately. For years, the legal system protecting freedom of speech prevailed, but new government tactics, including pressuring credit card companies to cease doing business ...... Read More with Backpage, have left the company with no other choice but to remove the content in the United States.
As federal appeals court Judge Richard Posner has described, the goal is either to “suffocate” Backpage out of existence or use the awesome powers of the government to force Backpage to follow in the footsteps of Craigslist and abandon its Adult advertising section. Judge Posner described such tactics as “a formula for permitting unauthorized, unregulated, foolproof, lawless government coercion.”
“It's a sad day for America's children victimized by prostitution,” said Dr. Lois Lee, Founder and President, Children of the Night, a leading national hotline and shelter program for victims of sex trafficking based in Los Angeles. “Backpage.com was a critical investigative tool depended on by America's vice detectives and agents in the field to locate and recover missing children and to arrest and successfully prosecute the pimps who prostitute children.” She added, “The ability to search for and track potentially exploited children on a website and have the website bend over backwards to help and cooperate with police the way Backpage did was totally unique. It not only made law enforcement's job easier, it made them much more effective at rescuing kids and convicting pimps.”
Backpage.com was created thirteen years ago by Jim Larkin and Michael Lacey, through their newspaper company, New Times Media, to compete with Craigslist, the nation’s largest online classified ad platform. Larkin and Lacey were pioneers in independent journalism, establishing Village Voice Media in 1970 to provide alternative news coverage of the Vietnam war and later served as editor and publisher of twenty weekly newspapers.
As The Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have observed, the Senate subcommittee has engaged in an “invasive, burdensome inquiry into Backpage.com’s editorial practices [that] creates an intense chilling effect, not only for Backpage but for any website operator seeking to define their own editorial viewpoint and moderation procedures for the third-party content they host.”
This will not end the fight for online freedom of speech. Backpage.com will continue to pursue its efforts in court to vindicate its First Amendment rights and those of other online platforms for third party expression.
Backpage statement regarding the U.S. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations’ Censorship of Adult Classified Advertisements.
Statement from James Larkin and Michael Lacey regarding Government Violations of the U.S. First Amendment Right to Free Speech statement....... Bio.
Statement from Dr. Lois Lee, Founder and President of Children of the Night, on Negative Impacts of Closure of Backpage.com’s Adult Category on Anti-Sex Trafficking Efforts.
Statement by the DKT Liberty Project about the Backpage.com Senate proceedings.
Letter to Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations from Backpage.com Counsel.
Background on the First Amendment and the U.S. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations’ Subpoenas regarding Backpage.com’s Editorial Process.
Statement from Center for Democracy and Technology.
Support from the Law Enforcement Community.
For additional context of Backpage and the First Amendment, please read:
Noah Feldman, Professor of Constitutional and International Law at Harvard University
Mike Masnick, Founder and CEO of Floor64 and Editor of the Techdirt blog
Eric Goldman, Technology and Marketing Blog
Hilary Hanson, Huffington Post
Kimberly Mehlman Orozco, Criminologist and Human Trafficking Expert Witness. Also here and here.
Mark Joseph Stern, Slate
Nick Sibilla, Institute for Justice
