back to article Flyover states up attacks on Craigslist

Attorneys-general from 17 US states have signed an open letter to Craigslist calling for the immediate closure of its adult services section. The free ads site introduced manual screening of adverts by qualified attorneys in May but the lawyers insist this is not enough. Activists began the new round of attacks with half-page …

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  1. Semaj

    a

    I don't know why craigslist doesn't just shut down their sections for those states and replace them with a succinct notice explaining why with contact details for those who wish to complain and links to local news papers classified sections as an alternative.

  2. AndyS

    Seems like a simple choice

    Either make prostitution illegal, or cope with it. I've never quite understood this half-way house of demonising it, and deliberately equating it with illegal actions, while it in fact remains fully legal.

    1. CheesyTheClown
      Alert

      Think it's the teen prostitution they're complaining about

      As far as I can tell, they're more upset that there are underaged girls selling themselves on craiglist. Otherwise, it's because women are pissed off that their husbands have someplace to find .... well you get my point.

    2. Pablo
      Stop

      It IS illegal

      In case you missed it, this happened the US where prostitution is only legal in one state (and only in license brothels). Of course that just means the adverts have to be disguised as something else. Escort services and massage parlors seem to be the most popular covers.

    3. Tom 13

      Read that list of states again AndyS

      Nevada isn't on the list, which means prostitution IS illegal in all of them and the Attorneys General are alleging craigslist facilitates engaging in illegal activity. Which is again, illegal. Maybe you can argue the case we'd be better off following Nevada's model, but the AGs are not being inconsistent.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Where is New York's Andrew Cuomo voice?

    Where is New York's Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in all of this??

    He's running for Governor and he can't weigh in on this along with the other 17 states AGs and condemn Craigslist and demand they close their adult services section? Pathetic!

    I guess he supports prostitution and the sale of sex here in New York.

    He's not fit to run for Governor of New York State.

    1. Wallyb132
      Troll

      @AC RE:Where is New York's Andrew Cuomo voice?

      @AC:

      "He's running for Governor and he can't weigh in on this along with the other 17 states AGs and condemn Craigslist and demand they close their adult services section? Pathetic!

      I guess he supports prostitution and the sale of sex here in New York.

      He's not fit to run for Governor of New York State."

      You sir are an idiot.

      First off, I'd like to point out that that there are 50, yes count them 50 states in the US, out of those 50 states 1 of them legally allows prostitution, that leave 49 states that would possibly sign that letter, out of those 49 states, only 17 signed the letter, which means 32 states didnt sign the letter, that would be the vast majority of states. these states that didnt sign the letter didnt do so because they support prostitution or child trafficking or anything else. They didnt sign the letter because they along with everyone else know that this year is an election year and that this letter is bullshit and nothing more than a soapbox grandstanding attempt to drum up votes for re-election.

      You'll notice that the only people found complaining about this are people who are running for a political office, you'll also notice that when asked for any kind of evidence, police reports, anything at all, they fail to produce them, craistlist isnt dodging the issue or covering it up, they just simply asked for the facts behind the claims, and state if produced they will act on them immediately, in the mean time this is just bullshit fear mongering by supposedly honest people who are attempting to gain or retain positions of power over the people.

      You sir are just the sheep their aiming this kind of bullshit at, if this was a serious issue the letter would have been signed by the 17 state AG's and sent to the FBI not to the media.

      Its political grandstanding at its worst... Another thing to take notice of is that all the states who signed the letter are all eastern mid west and southern states, all the western, southwest and other states see this for what it is, bullshit.

      I will say, your post was a nice troll though,

      Have a nice day...

  4. DrXym

    Erk

    If idiots are using craigslist to advertise illegal services, how is this a bad thing? Law enforcement officers can simply scoop them up by the armful. State attorneys should be thanking Craiglist for providing such rich pickings rather than driving the criminals underground.

  5. Winkypop Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    Sex eh?

    How unnatural !!

  6. Christoph
    Alert

    Shock horror

    it cites a CNN "investigation" which placed "a fictional prostitution advertisement on the Adult Services section, and received 15 telephone calls soliciting sex in just a three hour period".

    What? You mean they've found that advertising works, and that people respond to adverts for things they want? That Craigslist actually does the things that people pay Craigslist to do? Oh the horror!

  7. CheesyTheClown
    Happy

    WOW!!!

    It's impressive, I clicked through to Tampa Bay Florida and clicked on adult services. It's truly something amazing. I had no idea that there was actually a hooker board on craiglist. I mean, craiglist is the ugliest looking website I've ever seen, but from what I hear, people use it. And yet, there are tons of women selling themselves on there... and they barely bother with being discreet.

    Then just for entertainment, I clicked through to Salt Lake City Utah, and geez, it's just as bad there. I would have figured a place which has practically made drinking illegal would have tracked down everyone on that list.

  8. CheesyTheClown
    Happy

    What's the down side though

    I checked out some lists and frankly, I think this should be a mandatory service. I'm frigging sick of nasty looking hookers all over the down town areas of many cities. They're pushy as hell too. I think I'm going to walk around one night with advertisements I'll print and hand them out to all the hookers on the streets downtown and see if I can get them to advertise there and stop making my town look like crap.

    What I hate more is when the cops are two blocks away and they're not doing a damn thing about it. Craiglist would be a great solution to this!

    1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      donuts

      If we can ban Donut shops too then we'd get the cops back on the beat!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    But, of course, selling guns is great!

    Killing people, bad. Shagging, much worse!

  10. CD001

    Is it me...

    Is it me or are most of the States that are filing legal complaints in the deep South - the kind of places, so rumour has it, where sex with your sister/daughter/pet is "normal" ... apparently so long as they don't advertise these "services" to others via Craglist.

    Dread to think what a Craglist for Norfolk (UK) would look like *shudders*

    OK - anyone else I can insult while I'm at it ... :D

    1. Quxy
      Boffin

      It's just you...

      Less than half of the states listed are in the South. Only three of them (Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina) might be considered "deep South".

      (Nor can more than half of them be considered "flyover states". This story probably has more to do with Election-season "tough on crime" self-promotion than with regional cultural attitudes.)

  11. Crazy Operations Guy
    WTF?

    A simple, profitable solution:

    1) Officer scans Craigslist for underage prostitution ads

    2) Set up time / place to meet with scumbag

    3) Wait at time / place with a couple other officers

    4) cuff scumbag when they are talking business

    5) PROFIT

    Seriously, something like this only helps the government. The first step should only take a few minutes, and you can set up a dozen in an hour, especially if you have it set up to take place at the same location, you can take down dozens of scumbags in an afternoon. And with the Child prostitution cases, you can get the scumbags to reveal their other clients, potentially netting a lot more perverts from a single day's work. And for a lot cheaper as you only a half dozen officers, at the most, some basic sound recording kit and building for all of this to go down at.

  12. Graham Bartlett

    Me not understand

    Some people sell pirated stuff on eBay. The US Gov doesn't demand that eBay shut down. Instead, they bust the people selling pirated stuff. How is this different?

    I'm with Crazy Ops Guy. You want to post ads on there, expect the occasional "sting" operation to check you're legit. I don't much like the idea of selling sex, but if the people involved are doing it from choice (even if that choice is driven by the fact they're smack addicts and want money to feed their addiction), that's up to them.

  13. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    FAIL

    'kin idiots

    Three questions.

    1:

    How far back through history has prostitution been recorded?

    2:

    How long has the U.S.A. existed as an entity.

    3:

    How long do snowballs last in hell?

  14. mark l 2 Silver badge

    close craigslist adult service and someone else will take the place

    Even if Craigslist adult services section were closed tomorrow people would just start to migrate to other sites perhaps even ones based outside the US such as Adultwork.com where no amount of letters from Attorneys generals will make a difference

    It always makes me laugh that the country with the biggest porn industry in the world is so strict on prostitution

  15. klossner

    Flyover?

    That word doesn't mean what you think it means. Six of those seventeen states are on the east coast.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hey we're in a depression

    Hey we are in a depression, so what is the bureaucrats solution?

    "let's kill off the barter system too so folks can suffer more. "

  17. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    And this year's 'No Shit, Sherlock!' award goes to...

    <body/>

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Puritans

    A significant portion of the US is still highly puritanical, and still wants to do the impossible, eliminate the world's oldest profession. Craigslist might bow to the inevitable, but they also continue to maintain that their flagging system can deal with the spam drowning their other categories. So I don't take their protestations seriously. Craig Numark could be fabulously wealthy if he sold out, but instead he continues to give us this service predominately free. Almost anything they could do to deal with the illegality or the spam would cost (except lowering the flagging thresholds), so it will remain compromised.

  19. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    Hypocritical

    The thing that is hypocritical is when this story was "first" broken -- someone looked at the newspaper that broke the story and in the very same issue complaining about these ads on craigslist, their classified ads section had more "sensual massages", "escorts", etc. than Craigslist did for that area!

    I have no reason to think this has changed -- these state bureaucrats are hassling Craigslist, while ignoring all the other media that has the same ads in them.

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