On August 24th, Attorney Generals from 17 States in calling on craigslist to immediately remove the Adult Services portion of the site due to continued rampant prostitution advertisements and mounting public outrage. The multi-state letter, to craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark, contends that craigslist cannot — or will not — adequately screen these ads, so it should stop accepting them altogether and shut down the Adult Services section.

It appears Craiglist is complying with the request with little fanfare or announcement. Users from across the country have been reporting the removal of the section in multiple cities including those in the San Francisco Bay Area even though California was not one of the States who signed the letter. It’s unclear why the site decided to mark the section as censored rather than removing it altogether. Perhaps it is a way for them to make a statement. It is not just censored for non logged in users. Users with accounts will see the same black ‘censored’ label over the previous Adult Services listing.

“Craigslist clearly lacks the wherewithal — or will — to fight flagrant prostitution ads that persist on its site,” Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said. “Prostitution is a booming business on craigslist, perhaps more than ever before.

“We understand that prostitution is profitable — but its human toll is intolerable, and craigslist should cease being an enabler,” Blumenthal said. “Despite its much-touted ‘manual review’ of Adult Services, craigslist has failed to block blatant prostitution ads.”

“The increasingly sharp public criticism of craigslist’s Adult Services section reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution — including ads trafficking children — are rampant on it,” Blumenthal said in the letter. “In our view, the company should take immediate action to end the misery for the women and children who may be exploited and victimized by these ads.

“We recognize that craigslist may lose the considerable revenue generated by the Adult Services ads. No amount of money can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution, and the suffering of women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by craigslist.”

Read more: http://blog.patyuen.com/2010/09/03/craigslist-removes-adult-services-section-at-the-urging-of-attorney-generals-from-17-states/#ixzz0yXCuyrAp

close your eyes and pretend I'm a girl.

If they weren't such total hypocrites, they should shut down the Pentagon next...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100903/us_yblog_upshot/pentagon-declined-to-investigate-hundreds-of-purchases-of-child-pornography

Pentagon declined to investigate hundreds of purchases of child pornography

A 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation into the purchase of child pornography online turned up more than 250 civilian and military employees of the Defense Department -- including some with the highest available security clearance -- who used credit cards or PayPal to purchase images of children in sexual situations. But the Pentagon investigated only a handful of the cases, Defense Department records show.
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Artistic pro photos? PM me 4 details!

close your eyes and pretend I'm a girl.

zoe zane

As I mentioned on an earlier thread on the topic, our move to begin reviewing ad content was the first step out onto a slippery slope that has now taken us to this unfortunate bottom. Erotic/Adult services and gigs won't be returning at any point in the foreseeable future, which is not to say that some alternate form or forms of those sections won't self-replicate and (somehow) come to occupy some off-shore computers well beyond the reach of any State Attorney General.

Craig could have chosen to take those measures at any point in the past and also chosen at that same time to begin profiting from what would have been an extremely lucrative spin-off company. He didn't decide not to; he never considered doing so in the first place.

"Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said. 'We recognize that craigslist may lose the considerable revenue generated by the Adult Services ads. No amount of money can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution, and the suffering of women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by craigslist.'”

The only thing that CL will lose is the opportunity to become embroiled in a lengthy and costly legal battle that would have to be fought on many fronts simultaneously. CL never profited from the fees charged for Adult Service ads; any monies beyond our staffing and associated infra-structure costs were donated to a variety of non-profit organizations.

The issue of human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of minors is a very serious one that deserves the full attention and careful study of everyone who shares this view. We've repeatedly asked for the documentary evidence supporting specific claims of human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of minors that were alleged to have been facilitated through the misuse of our site. As of this writing, none has been received.

"I aim to tweeze"

a separate site with off shore servers is a great idea

but in the meantime someone might want to watch these copycats pretending to be CL
Sure to be many more springing up...sigh

good luck

CL was never in it for or against sex workers. They wanted an adult services section so the sex workers wouldn't Spam inappropriate forums, kind of like Red does from time to time with RB posters who get their own forums to limit their disruption in other forums.

Sex workers and adult ads were never part of their mission. The whole thing was a pain in their ass from day one, but it came with the territory. Just because they did not share YOUR vision, it does NOT follow that they had nefarious designs.

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

From what I have heard, providers are already defying these twisted attorney generals by placing their ads in either the Personals section or the Casual Encounters section.

Sounds like a great way to protest the attorney generals by messing up their intention.

Well the only way to get that 'evidence' is to engage in the court battle and then your attorneys would have to pull teeth to get that information as in having special hearings and threats to hold the 'prosecutors in pretend contempt of court' and then you'd only been given some of the information because that is standard prosecution tatics. Just look at what the DA of San Francisco has done. And they're going to elect her to a higher office!

Given this has been a well orchestrated campaign all along, its just some of us saw it coming because some of us have been to this movie before. It repeats in different locations, the names change, but its all the same outcome. There's not really too much to do when they've decided they want your head on a stick. Many of us go to jail even when there is manufactured evidence gross and mis-handling of evidence in court preceding both at the superior and appellate level. Innocent people are killed on by the state on death row imagine what they do to the rest of us. The only thing that can really be done is make them show their ass in producing the 'evidence'.

I for one would have loved to sit in that court to hear how FBI agents are exposing themselves to little girls, then arresting them, putting them in jail, where they are further assaulted through the criminal injustice system... yeah a court case would have opened up a whole can of worms the faux human rights people didn't want to get into, that's why the wrote the letters. If they'd had anything, they would have level charges and not sent a letter.
And now that that section is gone, I think some folks will be asking more of the hard questions, but most of us already knew the answers.
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>"I aim to tweeze"

close your eyes and pretend I'm a girl.

close your eyes and pretend I'm a girl.

close your eyes and pretend I'm a girl.

CL literally has a gun to their head after these faux human rights groups violated the terms of use on their site by posting fake ads and then told the prospective clients that the person they'd be having sex with was young and the client still agreed to show up...such is kinds of evidence they were facing in not one state but multiple states.
Having to defend yourself in on state on criminal charges is horrific enough but multiple states was really unfathomable. And they were risking loosing the whole site because shutting down that whole site is really what the capitalist who are backing the state attorney generals wanted. The media capitalist are still angry about loosing so much classified revenue to CL, a non profit, the faux human rights groups was only used as the means...
My guess is that the cronnie capitalist won't be satisfied and certainly the faux human rights groups are empowered in fact,
'Getting such ads removed from other sites is the next goal', said Malika Saada Said.
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20100905/0d747993-5f9b-42fe-8ba3-2ef65d94a876 close your eyes and pretend I'm a girl.