News & Blogs Craigslist removes "Personals" section, amid fears of Sex Trafficking...

Coywolf

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Wonderful......NOW how I am ever going to get laid....

Meanwhile....Tinder is throwing a massive party somewhere....

Anyone else notice the sponsored advertising....?

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo...tion-after-congress-passes-bill-on-traffickin

Craigslist Shuts Down Personals Section After Congress Passes Bill On Trafficking
March 23, 20183:52 PM ET
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MERRIT KENNEDY


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Craigslist said Friday that it is taking the site's personals section offline.

AP
You can still find furniture or a roommate on Craigslist. But ads seeking romance or sexual connections are no longer going to be available, after Craigslist took down the "personals" section Friday for its U.S. site.

The company says it made the change because Congress has passed the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, meant to crack down on sex trafficking of children. It was approved by a landslide in the Senate earlier this week, as NPR's Alina Selyukh has reported, but has been met with criticism by free speech advocates and sex workers.

As Craigslist wrote, the law seeks "to subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully."

"Any tool or service can be misused," Craigslist said. "We can't take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, so we are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline. Hopefully we can bring them back some day."

The site added: "To the millions of spouses, partners and couples who met through craigslist, we wish you every happiness!"

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ALL TECH CONSIDERED
Section 230: A Key Legal Shield For Facebook, Google Is About To Change

But as Alina reported, tech companies see this as "the first major cutback to the protections that these companies have had under the law." And sex workers have argued that this will make people who work in the industry less safe, pushing them onto the street or deeper into the dark Web.

Trump has not yet signed the bill, which is known as FOSTA. It passed in the House by 388-25 and in the Senate by 97-2.

Until 2009, Craigslist had a section of the website called "erotic services," where people openly advertised sex. That year it changed the name to "adult services" and promised stricter screening, after a medical student in Boston was accused of killing a woman he met through the site, NPR's Tovia Smith noted. Craigslist eventually stopped listing ads for "adult services" in 2010, as NPR reported, though its personals section has continued until now.

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DIGITAL LIFE
Beyond Craigslist, Many Markets For Sex Traffickers

The site's popular "missed connections" section remains in place in the U.S. The personals section is still accessible outside the U.S. — users must confirm that they are 18 and understand they may see adult content.

Reddit has also announced policy changes this week. It said that users could not use the site to "solicit or facilitate any transaction or gift involving certain goods and services," which include:

  • "Firearms, ammunition or explosives;
  • "Drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, or any controlled substances (except advertisements placed in accordance with our advertising policy);
  • "Paid services involving physical sexual contact;
  • "Stolen goods;
  • "Personal information;
  • "Falsified official documents or currency"
The Reddit statement adds: "Reddit is not intended to be used as a marketplace and takes no responsibility for any transactions individual users might decide to undertake in spite of this." As the site wrote, "Always remember: you are dealing with strangers on the internet."

Alina has dug into the legal history of how much responsibility Internet companies have for content published on their sites. Read it here.
 
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Jerrell

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Yeah, I saw that. Apparently Craigslist looks too much like BackPage whereas Tinder is actually used by those people that voted.
 
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Matt Derrick

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honestly after the failure of congress to uphold net neutrality laws and this new law passing, the internet is going to cease to be what we've all come to know it as, at least in the united states. eventually censorship is going to grow under the guise of 'protecting people' and at some point it's going to even effect the StP website. this is another reason i am making plans to move out of the usa permanently.
 
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Coywolf

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I have been saying the same thing about the assault weapons ban.
 
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Hobo Mud

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I guess I have to go back to the one handed method again. Thanks Congress!!!!!!!
 
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Jerrell

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There's always those truck stop paper ads still, right? What, you don't like giving conjugal visits to lonely prison women?
 
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