Craigslist Founder Donates $1 Million to Fight 'Fake News'
http://www.breitbart.com/california/2016/12/13/fake-news-craig-newmark-poynter/
"AK said she knew of more than 20 girls who were trafficked on the site"
One of the women, who identified herself as MC, said she was forced into prostitution at the age of 11 by a man who trafficked "many girls my age".
"All day, me and other girls sat with our laptops, pasting pictures and answering ads on Craigslist, he made $1,500 a night selling my body, dragging me to Los Angeles, Houston, Little Rock – and on one trip to Las Vegas in the trunk of a car," the ad said. "Craig we write this letter so you will know from our personal experiences how Craigslist makes horrific acts like this so easy to carry out … and the men who arrange them very rich."
The second woman, identified as AK, said that last year she met a man twice her age who pretended to be her boyfriend. "He put my picture on Craigslist, and I was sold for sex by the hour at truck stops and cheap motels, 10 hours with 10 different men every night. This became my life," the ad said. "Men answered the Craigslist advertisements and paid to rape me. The $30,000 he pocketed each month was facilitated by Craigslist 300 times."
AK said she knew of more than 20 girls who were trafficked on the site: "Like me, they were taken from city to city, each time sold on a different Craigslist site."
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/aug/08/craigslist-underage-prostitution-allegations
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Infopractical ago
I would like to lend another perspective to this discussion. I'm one of the pizzagate researchers like most everyone else here, but I believe that prostitution should be legal, or at the very least be decriminalized. And I believe that the push to have craigslist shut down that aspect of its site hurt sex workers and trafficked victims. For this reason, I would like to be careful in formulating a view of Craig Newmark and his motivations. I honestly don't know enough to venture a reasonable guess about them.
But my view on the economic of consensual sex between adults is well summed up by George Carlin: "Selling is legal. Fucking is legal. Why isn't selling fucking legal?"
To me, this is much like the War on Drugs, which has allowed our CIA to run profitable drug operations and has driven shame and drug abuse underground to the point that it has destroyed people.
The more open and legal prostitution is, the easier it is for clients to find legal (adult) sex workers (making child sex workers less marketable!) and the easier it is to rescue trafficked children. Personally, I've always worried that the end of the craigslist sex market just drove the trade further underground making it harder to distinguish between consenting sex workers and sex slaves (where "slave" is the operate word).
Maybe Newmark's intentions are good, and maybe they aren't. I don't feel like I'm being presented with information that informs me in those regards.
sore_ass_losers ago
The Adult Services section is long gone, but the CL Therapeutic Massage section is the premiere way for Asian Massage Parlors to advertise. It's said AMPs are a front for prostitution and basically involve sex trafficking, since the women are often controlled and coerced.
FR33D0M ago
Infopractical, you are totally right in your assessment. When prostitution is legal and regulated, sex workers have more control over the services they provide and are safer as a result.
For instance, when prostitution is illegal, sex workers typically have brokers (pimps / madams /brothels) between them and their customer. This can create a coercive relationship if the sex worker doesn't want to perform an act, but the broker wants him/her to do it so they get their money. And there's no union to protect them.
Prostitution can be dangerous. Sex workers who are physically harmed, robbed, or forced into sex acts they do not wish to do cannot turn to law enforcement for help. The perpetrator ends up back on the street where they may hurt other sex workers and others.
Consenting adults should be allowed to do whatever what they wish so long as it doesn't cause harm to others. Government should not be regulating consensual sex acts. And we already know that prohibition does not work. Our police have much, much more important crimes to deal with.
Boud8814 ago
Enabling prostitution is very immoral and the ones hurt the most are the women who are told they will make big bucks and end up stuck and in the sewer. No, for the girls being a prostitute is a total dead end and a disgusting life. I don't see why enabling it would be good for society. That being said, it is much easier to sell and traffic children, which is what we are talking about here, online and esp on sites that allow it to pass IN THE NAME OF LIBERTY. See they use liberty to promote degenerate behavior that helps to hide these crimes of underage trafficking.
FritzTheKat ago
I'm with you..it's a whole lot cheaper to buy the milk than to buy the cow..
srayzie ago
Craigslist makes it easier to pimp out the girls or women who are stuck too. Many are afraid to leave and get killed. It makes the pimps job much easier. I totally disagree
Fatsack ago
It's not willing consenting prostitution when they're underage. Underage girls CANNOT CONSENT.
Infopractical ago
I emphatically agree that the underage girls cannot consent!
My point in raising this issue was to try to untangle the moral distinctions between the sex trade and sex slavery, the latter of which is undeniably dehumanizing.
WITLESS ago
Groups like.p.i.e would want to disagree and this is the trap of the socialist appeal. Once these groups like the fabian society get an inch they want a mile. The order is stabilized by the pillars of the society.That is why the "doctrine of total criminalisation"encourages ALL to act in a criminal way thereby being aligned with the industrial,religious and political big wigs. Once the sex industry becomes legal then the debate turns to age.
Stukov ago
You just mean underage right, it doesn't matter what sex?
Infopractical ago
I'm personally not concerned with issues of sexuality in the sense of straight vs. gay. Personally, I'm primarily concerned with consent: voluntary vs. involuntary. Voluntary adult sex is not a scandal, whereas adults have sex with children is (outside of simple border cases of teenage couple) criminal for good reason.
The reason I raise the point is in order to encourage people think about what systems of governance work best in helping people remain safe.