So much has been written about this already that, unless your head's been in the sand for the last week, you probably don't need another 101 rundown, so here's a compendium of the smart stuff. Hopefully this can make a small contribution towards countering the myriad misconceptions now running rampant.
TechCrunch Broke The Story and then Wired chimed in. Soon after, the Washington Post was onto it. Then the New York Times' Craigslist shutdown story and now ubiquitously, Craigslist's Adult Services section has officially and undisputably closed down this section of their website throughout the United States .
Shut down pressure from State Attorney Generals has been highly publicized -- as have Craigslist's efforts to work with authorities and to manually screen ads that are blatantly suggestive of under-aged prostitution and human trafficking. Want more info on Craigslists' efforts? Wall Street Journal blogger, Geoffrey A. Fowler's, Sept 4th post on the topic helps elucidate Craigslists' manual screening system.
Craigslist is also the only classifieds site that actively assist police in their efforts to arrest human traffickers and it's not just them making that claim. Click here is you wanna read the New York Times acknowledge Craigslist's role in The Gambino Crime Family human trafficking arrest last April. Cragislist is also credited for a recent Connecticut prostitution arrest. I can only assume that neither the Village Voice nor their city weekly equivalents are making the effort Craigslist has.
So how come Cragislist takes all the flack? Jeff Jarvis' new post pretty much nails it.
A couple weeks earlier, Tech Dirt's Mike Masnick wrote another brilliant post on the topic. In it, Masnick berated the Attorney Generals for going after Craiglist rather than going after the "criminals who use Craigslist -- as some smart law enforcement officials do."
In doing so, Masnick pointed out, the AGs "are actively pushing this activity further underground where it will be harder for them to stop it."
If you don't have time to read anything else, please read fellow Huffpo blogger, Dannah Boyd's analysis of how"Censored"impacts crime.
If you don't have the patience for any more reading and wanna get more of the CT A.G.'s take, stream the PBS discussion. And check the New York Times for the most current.
Hope I am completely misguided in my assumption that the newly censored Adult Services section of Craigslist will now push sex slave industries' operatives into new, decentralized, shadier and even more clandestine platforms -- thereby, making them next to impossible for the police to track. Hopefully, these assumptions are wrong. I really hope...
Craigslist Censored Compendium Politiku
Roommate. Futon. Gigs.
Therapeutic Shiatsu.
"Service" migration.
Disclosure:Craigslist Founder, Craig Newmark enthusiastically endorsed my 4th of July Politiku about Vets with PTSD. It should go without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that Craig has not contributed to the content or agenda of this post.