Craigslist coerced into eliminating "Erotic Services" section

[gls]

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc...,4508365.story

Craigslist will eliminate its "erotic services" section and individually check every posting in a new "adult" section to eliminate ads for prostitution and pornography, according to Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

Blumenthal, who led negotiations with the company, will announce the agreement, reached late Tuesday night, at a press conference in Hartford at 11 a.m. today.

"These measures are a solid next step, not a complete solution," Blumenthal, head of a multi-state task force of attorneys general addressing the issue, said this morning.

Craigslist executives, who Blumenthal and other attorneys general met with last week in New York City, said the changes will be made within seven days.

"We will be monitoring closely to make sure this measure is more than just a name change from erotic to adult," Blumenthal said.

The move comes in the wake of the case of Philip Markoff, the medical student charged in Boston with murder and robbery after allegedly meeting two women through the Internet site.

Authorities have said robbery was probably the initial motive when Markoff, 23, allegedly killed a masseuse and bound and robbed a prostitute in upscale Boston hotels in April.

Blumenthal, who last year led 43 state attorneys general in reaching an agreement on restricting "erotic services" ads with craigslist, said at the time that further measures are required "to stop the pimping and prostituting in plain sight."

Craigslist's CEO, Jim Buckmaster, has said criminals who use the site are virtually guaranteed to get caught because they leave electronic trails that are easily traced. Buckmaster said there have been billions of interactions on craigslist and "compared to human society as a whole the risks of craigslist are low, but they're not zero."

Markoff is being held without bail, charged with the killing of Julissa Brisman, a masseuse from New York City, and kidnapping and armed robbery of a prostitute.

Of course The Hartford Courant's sister paper The Hartford Advocate can still run those type of ads in the back pages of its paper. For some reason no mention of that in the above story.

[MRoCkEd]

I saw Blumenthal on the news this morning. I was pissed off. It's none of his business whether people want to exchange money for sex.

[Andrew-Austin]

Let's see if something pops up to replace it.

[Reason]

[muh_roads]

So how would this prevent "kidnapping, armed robbery", murder etc when two unknown parties meet to exchange regular goods for cash or barter?

Putting an end to prostitution services isn't going to stop anything.

[dannno]

Craigslist's CEO, Jim Buckmaster, has said criminals who use the site are virtually guaranteed to get caught because they leave electronic trails that are easily traced. Buckmaster said there have been billions of interactions on craigslist and "compared to human society as a whole the risks of craigslist are low, but they're not zero."

Seems like something like Craigslist could be beneficial to law enforcement for when these meetings go awry.. which is of course very rare, but the CEO hit it on the head. As long as there is an electronic trail, why on earth would somebody hurt somebody or do something stupid?

This is a great example of why legalized prostitution would be so beneficial.

[Reason]

As long as there is an electronic trail, why on earth would somebody hurt somebody or do something stupid?

Stupid people do stupid things.

And because of this I agree, having it be legal would allow for greater protection from harm

[tangent4ronpaul]

Let's see if something pops up to replace it.

Took me a couple of minutes to find this:

http://www.openadultdirectory.com/escorts/

it took that long because the first couple I found charged to get phone numbers and stuff.

-t

[james1906]

Let's see if something pops up to replace it.

Just like when the record companies thought shutting down Napster would end file sharing.

[Andrew-Austin]

Just like when the record companies thought shutting down Napster would end file sharing.

lol, they got a swift kick in the ass.

Took me a couple of minutes to find this:

http://www.openadultdirectory.com/escorts/

it took that long because the first couple I found charged to get phone numbers and stuff.

-t

I found a forum ran by and catered to "hobbyists", with both ads from service providers and reviews of said escorts for no charge.