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Article

2 Jul 2017

Author:
Annie Kelly, Guardian (UK)

Small ads sex trafficking: the battle against Backpage

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...In 2010, [the mother of a 13-year old daughter]…sued Backpage [America’s largest classifieds website], arguing that the site was facilitating child sex trafficking…

[However,] [j]udge after judge accepted that Backpage was not accountable under US law for the child trafficking occurring on its website. Backpage was, according to the courts, no different from any other web publisher provided immunity for content posted by third parties...

[N]ot-for-profit special interest groups funded by companies including Google have supported Backpage’s legal battles and provided expert briefs in support of the site…

[The day of a senate's subcommittee hearing in 2016] Backpage…finally closed its adult services listings. “Today, the censors prevailed,” wrote [the founders] in a statement. “The shutdown of Backpage’s adult classified advertising is an assault on the First Amendment. We maintain hope for a more robust and unbowed internet in the future.”…

[The senate subcommittee’s investigation] report said that instead of working to prevent child exploitation, Backpage was focused on getting as many ads posted as possible. It instructed moderators to edit ads and strip out the code words used by pimps to indicate that the person in the ad was a child…In one…email believed to be from Backpage management, moderators were instructed: “If in doubt about underage: the process for now should be to accept the ad…”

Backpage executives are now facing fresh criminal charges…The first civil case...was also allowed to go to trial…