A letter from several attorneys general – including Idaho – has led to Craigslist shutting down its website’s adult services section Saturday and replacing it with a black bar that simply says “censored.”
The move comes just more than a week after a group of state attorneys general said there weren’t enough protections against blocking potentially illegal ads promoting prostitution. It’s not clear if the closure is permanent, and it appears to only affect ads in the United States.
Craigslist’s adult services section carried ads for everything from personal massages to a night’s companionship, which critics say veered into prostitution.
Like many other online forums, Craigslist typically does not review ads before they are posted by users. But in 2008, under pressure from 40 state attorneys general, Craigslist began requiring posters to provide a working phone number and pay a fee for placing an ad in what is now the adult services section.
Several months later, Craigslist adopted a manual screening process in which postings are reviewed before publishing.
U.S. courts have repeatedly ruled that online service providers such as Craigslist aren’t liable for postings made by their users, but because Craigslist now reviews those ads ahead of time, an argument could be made that the site is playing a more active role in the postings.
State officials believe Craigslist is still not doing enough to stop illegal ads from appearing. In an Aug. 24 letter, the 17 state attorneys general said Craigslist should remove the section because it couldn’t adequately block potentially illegal ads promoting prostitution and child trafficking. (AP)
