XPost: alt.politics.election, us.politics.elections, alt.politic   
   .socialism.democratic   
   XPost: alt.philosophy.law   
   From: aclu.whores@splc.org   
      
   Backpage.com, one of the world’s largest classified ad websites   
   and a frequent target in the political battle against sex   
   trafficking, closed its adult ads section Monday in the United   
   States, citing years of pressure by government officials.   
      
   The extraordinary move came shortly after the release of a U.S.   
   Senate report that accused Backpage of hiding criminal activity   
   by deleting terms from ads that indicated sex trafficking or   
   prostitution.   
      
   Backpage’s founders, Michael Lacey and James Larkin, and the   
   site’s CEO, Carl Ferrer, were expected to testify Tuesday before   
   the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which   
   issued the critical report.   
      
   The Senate committee’s inquiry found evidence that Backpage   
   knowingly facilitated prostitution and child sex trafficking,   
   and that despite public claims to the contrary, the website   
   remains owned by Larkin and Lacey through a network of shell   
   companies.   
      
   Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who led   
   the bipartisan Senate investigation into the website, said   
   Backpage’s move to shutter its adult ads attested to the damning   
   evidence uncovered by their inquiry.   
      
   “We reported the evidence that Backpage has been far more   
   complicit in online sex trafficking than anyone previously   
   knew,” they said in a statement.   
      
   “Backpage’s response wasn’t to deny what we said. It was to shut   
   down their site. That’s not 'censorship' — it’s validation of   
   our findings.”   
      
   By late Monday, visitors to Backpage saw “censored” tags in a   
   red font under the adult section’s menu of escorts, body rubs   
   and strippers. The site featured full statements from the   
   company as well as supporters who view government efforts to   
   shutter Backpage as unlawful attempts to stifle free speech.   
      
   “Like the decision by Craigslist to remove its adult category in   
   2010, this announcement is the culmination of years of effort by   
   government at various levels to exert pressure on Backpage.com   
   and to make it too costly to continue,” Backpage said.   
      
   The site has long positioned itself as a champion of online   
   speech freedoms and has relied on the Communications Decency Act   
   of 1996, a federal statute that immunizes website operators from   
   the content of users’ ads.   
      
   A Sacramento County judge cited the law in December when he   
   tossed out pimping charges filed against Lacey, Larkin and   
   Ferrer by former state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris.   
      
   In a separate statement, Lacey and Larkin congratulated their   
   efforts to augment law that protects online speech and privacy   
   rights, and recounted their years of legal battles, including   
   the recent prosecution attempt by Harris.   
      
   The men said they intend to sue Harris, who has since been   
   elected to the Senate, for bringing the case despite knowing it   
   “had no basis in law.”   
      
   Lacey and Larkin — the former owners of Phoenix New Times and   
   the Village Voice — also said they sold their ownership interest   
   in Backpage two years ago, contradicting the Senate report.   
      
   “Today, the censors have prevailed. We get it,” the men said in   
   their statement.   
      
   “But the shutdown of Backpage’s adult classified advertising is   
   an assault on the 1st Amendment. We maintain hope for a more   
   robust and unbowed Internet in the future.”   
      
   http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-backpage-shutdown-   
   20170109-story.html   
          
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)