Craigslist to remove ‘erotic’ ads

[Peikko 1,575]

Craigslist bowed to pressure from US law enforcement agencies on Wednesday and announced that it would remove the “erotic services” section from its massive classifieds advertisement website. In its place will be a new section entitled “adult services”, where each ad will cost $10, and be vetted before it is posted.

“What we’re doing here is trying to strike the best balance that we can based upon the feedback we’ve been getting over the past few weeks from a variety of parties,” said chief executive Jim Buckmaster in an interview.

The company has come under increased fire in recent months, as lawmakers accused it of turning a blind eye to the prostitution being facilitated in the erotic services section.

The issue was brought to national attention last month after Philip Markoff, a 22-year-old medical student from Boston, was accused of murdering a woman he met through an advertisement for massage services on Craigslist. Mr Markoff has pleaded not guilty.

Yet for all the pressure on the site, Craigslist is under no legal obligation to make these accommodations. Craigslist, like all websites, is protected by the Communications Decency Act. The US federal law, passed in 1996, makes clear that websites, internet service providers and domain name registrars are not liable for content posted by their users.

Mr Buckmaster acknowledged his company was protected by the CDA, but said it wanted to work with law enforcement agencies and prevent Craigslist from being used for illegal purposes.

On Tuesday night, Craigslist disabled the function for new posts to be entered in the erotic services section. In one week, the section will be removed.

“This is all about breaking public pressure on Craigslist”, said Matt Zimmerman, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group based in San Francisco. “It’s in any website’s best interest to have a good public image, and they want to seem responsive to the public’s concern.”

Craigslist has made efforts in the past year to clean up the erotic services section of its site. It introduced a requirement for a phone number and credit card in order to post an ad, and charged $5 per post. These steps resulted in 90 per cent fewer postings in the section over the past year.

The site has a good record of co-operation with law enforcement agencies. In November, the company signed a joint statement with the attorneys-general from 43 US states that detailed measures it would take to curb illegal activity on the site.

But some internet analysts worry that bending to the will of law enforcement could send the wrong message. “There is a real risk that this action will reach too broadly and chill both lawful and unlawful conduct,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an advocacy group.

OOps, link sorry

Link

[Nagishkaw 510]

Good for them.

[Niels Bohr 72]

Dam. I was talking to that hot azian chick! They shut it off! *Wife's grab knife* I gota go.

[reeses16 8]

I guess its a good first step. How about banning them completely? I mean I'm sure the prostitutes that are making money could spare $10 to post an add. And how is craig's list going to vett these ads? Call the phone number on the post, ask a question, get an appropriate-I know what you want to hear-answer, then check a box saying that the add was vetted?

[DeadPoolX 9]

So much for Craigslist posting anything interesting...

[scandal 951]

So much for Craigslist posting anything interesting...

Well the personal classifieds, W4M, W4W, etc etc can still be pretty entertaining. Lots of wacked out ####### there too

[Chica Yeyé 41]

So much for Craigslist posting anything interesting...

Well the personal classifieds, W4M, W4W, etc etc can still be pretty entertaining. Lots of wacked out ####### there too

Details, plz. Inquiring minds need to know how you know so much about this #######

[Peikko 1,575]

Have you never read them? I did so as part of my 'Americanization' program. Fascinating, in a 'train wreck' kind of way

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Have you never read them? I did so as part of my 'Americanization' program. Fascinating, in a 'train wreck' kind of way

I.am.a.craigslist.NOOB

[scandal 951]

So much for Craigslist posting anything interesting...

Well the personal classifieds, W4M, W4W, etc etc can still be pretty entertaining. Lots of wacked out ####### there too

Details, plz. Inquiring minds need to know how you know so much about this #######

Sister Len I could tell u details but then I'd have to kill u.

Once upon a time in my misbegotten youth I used to troll around in 'Casual Acquaintances' and 'Missed Connections' looking for 'zee-accteeon'. Now I'm an old fuddy-duddy and firmly committed to my one and only true love, so of course I have no business hanging there. I just poke in there for entertainment value (lol) when VJ gets droll and tiresome.

The m4w section is composed almost entirely of married guys looking for something on the side. Most of the w4m posts apparently require disclaimers from the women posting them to tell the guys who respond not to send pix of their willies.

I once tried an experiment. This was about 5 years ago. I worded two ads of the same length, almost identical content word for word. Something like "I'm blah blah blah, looking for blah blah blah, like to do blah blah blah ...". The only differences were one was guy 35, 5'11' looking for girl 25-35. The other was girl 28 5'3" looking for guy 28-35. I didn't attach pics to either ad, or describe either "poster" beyond basic age/height.

I then posted both ads in the SF Bay area CL in the respective m4w and w4m sections to see what would happen.

The "guy" ad got zero responses over 2 days. Zero. Not one.

The "girl" ad got about 150 responses in 2 days, most in the first hour. Probably 60-70% of those responses were come-ons for sex. Many had pics of the responder's ####### hanging in the wind.

So that gives you a sense of what the CL classified section is all about.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

[panamania79 2]

Dam. I was talking to that hot azian chick! They shut it off! *Wife's grab knife* I gota go.

Watch out,she'll" tat" your" coi "!

[Ken y Leidys 20]

I just checked, and the ads are still on-line.

Here's a posting from yesterday: