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Craigslist Blocks Access to ‘Adult Services’ Pages
Craigslist Blocks Access to ‘Adult Services’ Pages
Craigslist, the popular Web site for classified ads, has blocked access to its “adult services” section and replaced the link with a black label with the word “censored.”
The action on Saturday follows a wave of criticism by law-enforcement officials and groups that oppose human trafficking, who have said that the adult section of Craigslist was a hub for prostitution and the selling of women against their will.
Last month the attorneys general from 17 states sent a letter to Craigslist’s chief executive, Jim Buckmaster, and its founder, Craig Newmark, asking the company to immediately remove the adult services section.
Media representatives and executives at Craigslist, which is based in San Francisco, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
One of the state attorneys general who has led the effort to get Craigslist to stop posting adult ads, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, said in a phone interview Saturday that he hoped the action would set a model for other sites. “These prostitution ads did not promote a victimless crime,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “There is human trafficking in children, assaults on women.”
He said he was pleased that Craigslist was doing the right thing voluntarily, but added “we will continue to monitor and evaluate the site.”
Mr. Blumenthal said his office was trying to determine whether Craigslist had shut down the service “permanently and completely.”
The ads, which cost $10 to post and $5 to repost, are a big revenue source for Craigslist, analysts say. Adult ads were expected to bring Craigslist $36 million in revenue this year, according to the Advanced Interactive Media Group, an organization that analyzes Craigslist, which is a private company and does not report financial figures.
The controversy over the adult services ads is part of an intense debate that has arisen in the Internet age: just how much responsibility does a Web site have for what is posted by its users. In the past, Craigslist has argued that the Communications Decency Act protects it from liability.
But law enforcement officials have argued that sites need to take more responsibility for ads or content that can facilitate criminal activity. In 2008 attorneys general from 40 states began pressuring Craigslist to do a better job of screening adult ads.
Since May 2009, Craigslist has said, all adult services ads have been manually screened by a lawyer before being posted to the site.
In an e-mail to The New York Times in April, Mr. Buckmaster said, “Misuse of Craigslist for criminal purposes is utterly unacceptable, and Craigslist will continue to work with its partners in law enforcement and at nongovernmental organizations until it is eliminated.”
The personal ads section of the site is still accessible.
