Illinois attorney general demands shutdown of Craigslist's erotic services section

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan sent a letter to Craigslist today regarding what she called "the rampant prostitution and exploitation of women" on the site's erotic services section. Madigan became the latest state law enforcement chief to request that the section be taken down after the killing of a woman who had posted a massage advertisement there two weeks ago. Craigslist founder Craig Newmark has defended that area of the site.

Madigan alleges that Craigslist has not fully met the terms of a November 2008 agreement it signed with the attorneys general of 43 states [PDF here], in which the classifieds website agreed, among other things, to the development of what the letter calls "an electronic screening system to prevent posting of certain advertisements," language and images that violate Craigslist's terms of use.

The system, Madigan's letter says, has not been effective.

"While there has been an approximately 40% decrease in daily postings, more than 400 ads are posted daily in Chicago alone," the letter stated, "and the vast majority of ads blatantly violate even the most basic terms of use."

Craigslist did not immediately return a request for comment.

In January, the letter says, Madigan's office coordinated an effort in which Chicago advocates and law enforcement personnel used the flagging mechanism that Craigslist offers to complain about "hundreds of ads" in the erotic services section of the local version of the website. "In response to the flags, no ad was removed or subject to 'speedy removal' as represented by craigslist," the letter says.

Madigan demanded that the erotic services section be removed from the site immediately, and requested a variety of information about the functionality of Craigslist's flagging system, and the degree to which it has been used to enforce the site's terms of service.

Finally, Madigan asks for an affidavit from Craigslist's public accounting firm of the fees raised from erotic services postings. The November agreement stipulated that 100% of those fees would be donated to charity.

Asked for an example of an ad that it believed violated the terms of service, Madigan's office sent the text of a current posting in which a woman offers "Discreet outcalls to your private residence," before specifying an hourly rate. The title and text of the advertisement contain explicit sexual language, and it's accompanied by a graphic image of a woman in a sexual position. 

 

-- David Sarno

Comments

[Brian Goodwin aka Brian Longcor]

Thank you LA Times for covering this story.

How will this issue play out in the future?

In 2006, in Berkeley, CA, I met with Tim Barnett, author of New Zealand's law decriminalising prostitution, along with Robyn Few, of the Sex Workers Outreach Project, to discuss the issues related to prostitution within the "massage" industry. This case is obviously one of those issues.

In 1987 the Oregon Attorney General's Fraud Division ordered the Yellow Pages to list only state Licensed Massage Therapists under the "Massage" heading. According to the Oregon Attorney General's office to publish unlicensed massage ads "will be viewed by this office as publishing with knowledge of the false, misleading or deceptive character of the advertisement and a willful violation of the Unlawful Trade Practices Act."

When will California's politicians start to pay careful attention to the full ramifications of this prostitution, "massage", and how these practices are regulated (or not).

[davidwr]

Why not go after those placing the ads? If an ad looks like it's illegal, subpeona the records from Craigslist, then arrest the person making the ad.

Do this a few dozen times in a short period of time and it will send a message.

As for legal ads that Ms. Madigan just doesn't like, I'm sorry but if Craigslist won't host them someone else will. If you want to shut those down, change the law and, if necessary, repeal the 1st amendment.

[Gavin Stone]

I don’t understand how craigslist let things get this far. It is a shame that they just do not seem to care! I don’t want to use them anymore until they take responsibility for their site and it’s contents. My brother suggested I use addanything.com . They are a lot more responsible for their content. Anyone else have any suggestions for new craigslists?

[Anonymous]

What people have to realize is, the sex trade is not going away. What Craigslist DID for us is catch this predator. Craigslist provides us all an electronic record of the various individuals participating. It is a tool in the fight against crime. It's naive to think that the world's oldest profession will be impacted by shutting down the internet. That's just ignorant.

[Aaron Kinney]

This is nothing more than posturing by the Illinois AG. This killer would have figured a way to victimize someone with or without the existence of Craigslist's erotic services section. Why doesn't the AG go after real criminals, and not some classified website? Oh I know why! It's because politicians only care about the appearance, and not the substance of, their actions.

It is akin to prosecuting Ford Motor Company because some evil nutjob used a Ford car to run over innocent people.

[Cluestore]

Um, Mr. Kinney? The last time I checked, selling cars was not illegal. Pimping and prostitution are.

After reading all "about > jim buckmaster" (http://www.craigslist.org/about/jim_buckmaster) I am none too surprised that Craigslist does not take ethical issues presented to them seriously. They, and their supporters (which includes a community of perverts), are led by an "anarchist" who has decided their mere wants supersede common ethics and laws.

I find Mr. Buckmaster's preserving of "all of the functionality and positive attributes that are currently enjoyed by the overwhelmingly law-abiding craigslist community of users" shtick increasingly tiresome and disturbing.