“Adult Services” Section Of Craigslist Shut Down After Legal Warnings

by Frances Martel | 1:19 pm, September 4th, 2010

» 9 comments

After popular used furniture/writing gig/pseudo-prostitution trading site Craigslist received an open letter from 17 attorneys general requesting that their “Adult Services” section (that’s where the pseudo-prostitution happens) be shut down, the site has heeded the warnings and the section is now “censored.” Fear not, though– “Missed Connections” is still alive and kicking.

Craigslist had already renamed “Erotic Services” to “Adult Services” in response to the criticism that they were facilitating prostitution, but today they ruined many a user’s Labor Day weekends and took the whole page down. According to Wired, “Craigslist did not announce the move and its blog was not updated as of Saturday morning. Craigslist did not immediately respond to email and voice mail messages seeking comment.”

The “censored” bar seems to indicate that the section is not gone forever, but it does point to a possible significant change within the site, which police have often used for prostitution raids and similar activity. For example, in the letter sent out by the US Attorneys General, they cite several instances of human trafficking caught on the site. They also argue that while they acknowledge it will lead to Craiglist losing income, “no amount of money…can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution, and the suffering of the women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by Craigslist.”

[h/t Gawker]

adult services, Craigslist, prostitution

lonestar77

I guess Clinton will have more time to hit the campaign trail.
Constantly

lonestar77 said:
I guess Clinton will have more time to hit the campaign trail.

al gore also had to stay away from it while they were looking for that craigslist killer, they are gonna be hurting
fallenchicken

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
jk76

great, now where can i get my hookers that i can snuff out
miaqwmiaqu1

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greg454

How come Craiglist is persecuted while http://www.backpage.com/ doesn’t? Backpage.com is very similar to craiglist, and yes, they have an adult services section. This vendetta against craiglist is ridiculous, if you want escort ads you’re gonna find them in the yellow pages and newspapers, will they be the next targets by these 17 sharks? I doubti t.
HappyBEB

The ONLY thing accomplished with Craigs List eliminating the Adult Service category on their site is the fact that people no longer have to pay or have an account in order to list adult services as NOW THEY will all just go back to using the FREE Casual Encounters and Misc. Romance and M4M, etc categories to do the same thing for FREE. Doesn’t make any sense to me as with the paid category of adult services at least they were susceptible to someone being able to trace who they are so now they will be doing the same thing and will be completely anonomous. YOU didn’t accomplish anything so don’t go taking the credit for something NOT HELPFUL.
http://bit.ly/bKGa13 dandmb50

@dandmb50
I never read it before, but now with all the controversy I went there today and had a look, because the erotic listing are only closed to those connecting from the USA. No question in my mind they are selling sex, but then don’t newspapers and other websites?
When CNN did the interview with Craig, they said it was not an ambush interview, but then why did the interview they did not have the CNN logo on the microphone? It’s clear to me, they didn’t want them to know they were from CNN.,
I don’t think it’s about the selling of sex, it’s that Craigs list said they were not doing it, which is not true and it will still go on as Happy suggests.
The ones I looked at today are very bold, giving their direct phone numbers, pictures and stats but I was just looking to see what it was all about, just research.

Daniel .. Toronto, CANADA
http://bit.ly/9z6bRu