This just came across the news; posting for the sake of us having a place to hash out how to respond, what comes next, and field the inevitable questions from the press.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal will be holding a press conference at 11am Eastern today. We’ll post more news as it develops.
Ill. AG: Craigslist dropping ‘erotic services’ adsCHICAGO (AP) — Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan says that Craigslist is getting rid of its “erotic services” ads and will create a new adult category that Web site employees will review.
Madigan’s office said Wednesday that such existing ads on Craigslist will expire in seven days.
Madigan and the attorneys general for Connecticut and Missouri met with Craigslist officials last week seeking an end to ads they contend are advertisements for illegal sexual activities.
An e-mail sent to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster was not immediately returned Wednesday morning.
Craigslist came under renewed pressure to remove the ads after a medical student in Boston was charged with the April killing of a masseuse he met on the site.
More in the Hartford Courant, Chicago local news.
Filed under: Craigslist |
Bound, Not Gagged 
So some wacko responds to an ad, kills somebody, and the answer is: ban the ads?
What a weird response!
What is the difference between an erotic services ads section and a new adult category? I wonder if it will have an entirely different URL. I mean, what’s the point?
Sex Panic 2.0 strikes again.
Just another in a series of examples how adult- and sexually-oriented businesses and media are treated as mere tools for the authorities to slander and exploit for personal profit and gain.
And so much for the supposed “mainstreaming” of sexual media, too.
Anyone here want to bet that the Craiglist killers end up either going free or punished with the eventual slap of the hand??
Because who cares about sex workers being abused and murdered…it’s all about censoring “illegal activities” and keeping conservative (and liberal) prudes happy and content, while punishing the sexually “deviant” who dare to even exist in this world of conformity.
It is still an act of political resistance to be a sex worker…or simply to like sex. Perhaps we should start treating sexual expression as such an act of resistance, and not take for granted that the same people who for years denied sex workers fundamental rights and humanity would all of a sudden allow some form of “rights”. What the Establishment giveth, it can take away….and the only safe spaces we will have will be the ones we MAKE FOR OURSELVES and defend to the death.
The War on Sex continues unabated. It’s high time we realized it, and acted accordingly.
Anthony
[…] Local Sex Worker/Performer, The War on Sex/Sluts/Gays/Whatever May 13th, 2009 Bound, Not Gagged broke the story this morning that Craigslist.com has basically caved in to pressures from various state Attorneys […]
I just don’t understand this on so many levels. Why Craigslist? What about all the other countless sites that host so-called “advertisements for illegal sexual activities”? Why are they so concerned about criminalizing sex workers who choose to do sex work? Why are they so not concerned about the thousands of women forced into sexual slavery? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think they are the majority of ad runners on CL. But wait, weren’t they originally pist because child prostitution was being run through CL? And they rescued how many child prostitutes since they changed their ad section to pay-based?
And now this because the man who found his victims on Craigslist and brutally murdered them? Let’s throw out the whore with her bath–let’s just get rid of women altogether, little trouble makers they are!
Ironic how ending the erotic service section on CL barely effects them and what these attorneys want, to end prostitution, yet for sex workers this is a major blow.
I wonder if this affects the international editions of CL or just the US edition — like the whole credit card thing.
Now where are the cops going to go for easy busts? Come on, I’d love to hear what vice departments have to say on it.
XX
Waist of money why don’t they ban Cigarettes and Fast food why they are at it.
check out what it says today on the site.
https://post.craigslist.org/sfo/B
adult services (10.00 per post) coming soon – approved ads will be eligible for reposting at $5
Told you so. Thanks for cyber ghettoizing us Craig!
Checked out the Erotic Services on an international city and it’s old CL as usual. As I guess it would be.
Maxine,
This is more than cyber-ghettoing — I can see the very real argument about free speech infringement here. I hope CL stands up for itself and it’s entire community. State AGs can’t possbily be allowed to get away with something that affects a national website. Though I guess they already have.
Ms. Justine,
Exactly.
XX
What I got from this article: a man murdered a woman who posted on Craigslist Erotic Services and therefore, Craigslist will now be charging sex work providers to post in Erotic Services? ?????
Do they really think this murder would not have happened if he found her ad in a newspaper?
I’ll be curious to see how this affects the industry – people always adapt. I wonder if Backpage traffic will increase?
This is an outrage. An Insult. And should not be tolerated.
It is cyber ghettoizing, completely half-assed, and impotent.
if you MUST Charge, charge the CUSTOMERS not the professionals! make it hard, and de-incentivize the access to the class of people that were the victim.
How is it fair to subject people to your scrutiny? Doesn’t this make you a pimp? Does this make you a financial beneficiary of illegal sexual services? Are you at risk? Or do you simply censor out the very things that kept your CL community so active and colorful, not to mention liberated and FREE?
[…] CRAIGSLIST TO END EROTIC SERVICES […]
[…] Breaking: Craigslist to end Erotic Services […]
[…] Breaking: Craigslist to end Erotic Services << Bound Not Gagged […]
I would like to know where is the documentation for this quote?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/13/national/a075419D57.DTL&hw=craigslist&sn=001&sc=1000
Craiglist CEO Buckmaster said…”The record is clear that use of Craigslist classifieds is associated with far lower rates of violent crime than print classifieds, let alone rates of violent crime pertaining to American society as a whole,”
Really, wow has he done an actual study? Has he himself ever advertised in print and online so he can make a first had comparison? You know, It sounds to me like he’s trying to make his case but to who? the american public? I got asked this question by a reporter a few weeks ago, no let me correct that. I was told by a reporter that this was so and don’t I agree so he could quote me and I said no I don’t agree, where is the documentation for that statement? I wasn’t quoted.
Craig Newmark is charging money to post, and says that it’s going to charity. I think it’s about time to find out where that money is really going, right?
So where’s the money going?????
[…] By now you might have heard that Craigslist is ending its erotic services section. […]
[…] activists are not too pleased with that decision; a repository of reaction can be found over at Bound, Not Gagged and Waking […]
[…] Breaking: Craigslist to end Erotic Services " Bound, Not Gagged […]
[…] Breaking: Craigslist to end Erotic Services « Bound, Not Gagged (tags: craigslist adult sexwork classifieds internet pinkghetto) […]
I think this CS Lewis quote is appropriate here:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” [added emphasis]
klawdyarothschild said: “if you MUST Charge, charge the CUSTOMERS not the professionals! make it hard, and de-incentivize the access to the class of people that were the victim.”
YES! I was thinking that the other day. How would charging the professionals deter violent criminals? They’re not leaving any evidence behind, so it’s great for them. A monthly access fee, perhaps? But these reactionary decisions are never about going after the violent criminal.