Craigslist Censors Adult Services Section in U.S.
Practitioners and patrons of the world's oldest profession will no longer be able to conduct business on Craigslist, as the classifieds site has now censored all of the pages under its famed 'Adult Services' section in the U.S. On Friday, pages offering or seeking adult services were suddenly replaced by a giant 'CENSORED' bar. The site still has yet to comment on the decision.A group of 17 state attorneys have also been conducting a major investigation into the site's efforts to control illegal activity, and recently sent a letter to Craigslist, demanding that the company remove its lurid -- and lucrative -- section. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who spearheaded the investigation, told Reuters that Craigslist could be making $36.3 million or more per year from prostitution or human trafficking-related transactions.
At this point, it's still unclear whether or not the self-imposed censorship is permanent, although Peter M. Zollman, founding principal of the Advanced Interactive Media Group says that it likely is. "I'm very convinced that this is permanent, even if it was not their intention to make it permanent," Zollman told the New York Times. "I think it will be difficult, if not impossible, for them to go back and reopen that section without really running into a buzz saw of negative publicity and reaction."
The New York Times reports that many, though, are wondering whether the move is simply a ploy to attract more attention to Craigslist's cause. After all, as a website, Craigslist is protected under the Communications Decency Act, which protects Web hosts against persecution for what users post on their platforms. By choosing to censor the section instead of removing it, some speculate, the site may be subtly trying to draw public attention to their apparently robust legal case. If Craigslist is indeed playing PR poker, though, the gamble could come back to haunt it, ironically enough, by making the controversy substantially more visible. As Blumenthal told the New York Times, "If this announcement is a stunt or a ploy, it will only redouble our determination to pursue this issue with Craigslist, because they would be in a sense be thumbing their nose at the public interest."
