Backpage.com force to remove Adult Ads from website (Full Version)

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DocStrange -> Backpage.com force to remove Adult Ads from website (1/16/2017 9:55:46 AM)

Backpage.com has been forced to remove it's adult classified ads from the popular website.

quote:

"January 9, 2017

Washington, D.C. - As the direct result of unconstitutional government censorship, Backpage.com has removed its Adult content section from the highly popular classified website, effective immediately. For years, the legal system protecting freedom of speech prevailed, but new government tactics, including pressuring credit card companies to cease doing business with Backpage, have left the company with no other choice but to remove the content in the United States.

As federal appeals court Judge Richard Posner has described, the goal is either to “suffocate” Backpage out of existence or use the awesome powers of the government to force Backpage to follow in the footsteps of Craigslist and abandon its Adult advertising section. Judge Posner described such tactics as “a formula for permitting unauthorized, unregulated, foolproof, lawless government coercion.”

“It's a sad day for America's children victimized by prostitution,” said Dr. Lois Lee, Founder and President, Children of the Night, a leading national hotline and shelter program for victims of sex trafficking based in Los Angeles. “Backpage.com was a critical investigative tool depended on by America's vice detectives and agents in the field to locate and recover missing children and to arrest and successfully prosecute the pimps who prostitute children.” She added, “The ability to search for and track potentially exploited children on a website and have the website bend over backwards to help and cooperate with police the way Backpage did was totally unique. It not only made law enforcement's job easier, it made them much more effective at rescuing kids and convicting pimps.”

Backpage.com was created thirteen years ago by Jim Larkin and Michael Lacey, through their newspaper company, New Times Media, to compete with Craigslist, the nation’s largest online classified ad platform. Larkin and Lacey were pioneers in independent journalism, establishing Village Voice Media in 1970 to provide alternative news coverage of the Vietnam war and later served as editor and publisher of twenty weekly newspapers.

As The Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have observed, the Senate subcommittee has engaged in an “invasive, burdensome inquiry into Backpage.com’s editorial practices [that] creates an intense chilling effect, not only for Backpage but for any website operator seeking to define their own editorial viewpoint and moderation procedures for the third-party content they host.”

This will not end the fight for online freedom of speech. Backpage.com will continue to pursue its efforts in court to vindicate its First Amendment rights and those of other online platforms for third party expression."


More info at:
http://www.backpage.com/classifieds/Media


Sadly, this will hamper law enforcement efforts to crack down on human trafficking and pimps abusing people. Backpage was very active with law enforcement to crackdown on those things. Backpage worked with the FBI as well as local police. Many child molesters, pimps and human traffickers were caught due to Backpage's willing and active cooperation with law enforcement.




DocStrange -> RE: Backpage.com force to remove Adult Ads from website (1/28/2017 12:33:12 PM)

Backpage owners original indictment was thrown out:
quote:

The U.S. Supreme Court this month left in place a different lower-court ruling that said Backpage's ads are protected by federal law because the site is publishing advertisements created by clients.


But the state is trying again to bust the owners again:
[quoteThe California attorney general's office charged Backpage executives Carl Ferrer, Michael Lacey and James Larkin last month with conspiracy to commit pimping and 26 counts of money laundering. Ferrer also is charged with 12 counts of pimping, seven involving children.]

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/34336549/lawyers-for-site-called-online-brothel-want-charges-tossed

Interestingly Backpage.com actively had worked with law enforcement in the past to bust many child pornography rings. Tracking was easy due to the credit cards used to post the ads and Backpage worked with law enforement giving them the cc data.

Sadly this action by the State of California and some US law makers also effects BDSM and Fetish ads as well as their ads are being grouped with the escort ads and being defined as pimping and sex trafficking.

If the State wins this case it will open of the door to allow law enforcement to shut down many other events. This ruling could be carried further to shut down public and private dungeons, Pro Dommes and many other things.






ThatDizzyChick -> RE: Backpage.com force to remove Adult Ads from website (1/28/2017 5:28:55 PM)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE




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