Here's another article with more on the child sex connections to this move:
'The shut-down occurred the same day the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a joint staff report that accused the company of knowingly sanitizing online ads by deleting “code words” such as “innocent”, “cheerleader”, and “amber alert” to conceal child sex trafficking.'
'Backpage.com CEO Carl Ferrer, COO Andrew Padilla, general counsel Elizabeth McDougall, and co-founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin all pleaded the Fifth Amendment when [Senators] Portman and McCaskill tried to question them about the use of the filter to edit “code words” for underage minors out of the ads they published.
“If an underage girl is being sold for sex on Backpage and her pimp puts the word ‘Lolita’ in the advertisement, stripping that term out of the ad doesn’t magically change the girl’s age, does it?” Portman asked Ferrer.
“After consultation with counsel, I decline to answer your question based on the rights provided by the First and Fifth Amendments,” Ferrer responded, refusing to answer any more questions from Portman or McCaskill. '
...
'In his opening statement, Portman noted that “the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported an 846% increase in reports of suspected child sex trafficking from 2010 to 2015 – a spike the organization found to be ‘directly correlated to the increased use of the Internet to sell children for sex’.”
“NMEC tells us that Backpage is linked to nearly three quarters (73%) of all suspected child sex trafficking reports that it receives from the general public through its ‘CyberTipline’,” Portman added.
“And according to a leading anti-trafficking organization called Shared Hope International, ‘[s]ervice providers working with child sex trafficking victims have reported that between 80% and 100% of their clients have been bought and sold on Backpage.com.”
McCaskill, who noted that that the report was a bipartisan effort that “is not a common thing these days in the U.S. Senate,” said in her opening remarks that “Backpage is a $600 million company built on selling sex, including sex with children. And the company knows it.
“They did not turn away ads selling children,” she pointed out. “They just tried to make it less obvious and, worse, coached traffickers and pimps on how to clean up their ads” to avoid law enforcement.'
...
'The subcommittee hearing also featured emotional testimony from several parents of trafficked teenagers, including one tearful mother whose 15-year-old daughter was “repeatedly raped, beaten, threatened and treated as a sex object every day” while being advertised on Backpage as a “weekend special”.
She told subcommittee members that “we finally got Natalie [not her real name] back… but our Natalie was gone. Our new American Dream is to live in an America that doesn’t stand aside when little girls are sold online as commodities.”
Another mother testified that Backpage refused to remove nude and sexually explicit photos of her then-underaged daughter despite her “numerous” pleas to do so.
“We are still in the process of healing eight years later,” she told the subcommittee. “My daughter struggles with it even now on a daily basis.”'
Backpage.com shuts down adult services ads after relentless pressure from authorities - The Washington Post
'We get it,” Larkin and Lacey said in a statement. “But the shut-down of Backpage’s adult classified advertising is an assault on the First Amendment. '
'Backpage said in a statement that scrutiny of the site by government officials has made it too costly to keep operating the adult section. '
'Its report alleged that Backpage knowingly hid child sex trafficking and prostitution by deleting incriminating terms from its ads before publication. '
'Backpage’s founders and executives will appear in the hearing but do not plan to testify, according to their attorneys. '
'Advocates say such advertisements have improved safety for sex workers by allowing them to negotiate services online rather than in the streets. '
sore_ass_losers ago
Link to another BP post: https://voat.co/v/pizzagate/1573738
CosmicChrist ago
Government has to take down their competition.
sore_ass_losers ago
Here's another article with more on the child sex connections to this move:
'The shut-down occurred the same day the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a joint staff report that accused the company of knowingly sanitizing online ads by deleting “code words” such as “innocent”, “cheerleader”, and “amber alert” to conceal child sex trafficking.'
'Backpage.com CEO Carl Ferrer, COO Andrew Padilla, general counsel Elizabeth McDougall, and co-founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin all pleaded the Fifth Amendment when [Senators] Portman and McCaskill tried to question them about the use of the filter to edit “code words” for underage minors out of the ads they published.
“If an underage girl is being sold for sex on Backpage and her pimp puts the word ‘Lolita’ in the advertisement, stripping that term out of the ad doesn’t magically change the girl’s age, does it?” Portman asked Ferrer.
“After consultation with counsel, I decline to answer your question based on the rights provided by the First and Fifth Amendments,” Ferrer responded, refusing to answer any more questions from Portman or McCaskill. '
...
'In his opening statement, Portman noted that “the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported an 846% increase in reports of suspected child sex trafficking from 2010 to 2015 – a spike the organization found to be ‘directly correlated to the increased use of the Internet to sell children for sex’.”
“NMEC tells us that Backpage is linked to nearly three quarters (73%) of all suspected child sex trafficking reports that it receives from the general public through its ‘CyberTipline’,” Portman added.
“And according to a leading anti-trafficking organization called Shared Hope International, ‘[s]ervice providers working with child sex trafficking victims have reported that between 80% and 100% of their clients have been bought and sold on Backpage.com.”
McCaskill, who noted that that the report was a bipartisan effort that “is not a common thing these days in the U.S. Senate,” said in her opening remarks that “Backpage is a $600 million company built on selling sex, including sex with children. And the company knows it.
“They did not turn away ads selling children,” she pointed out. “They just tried to make it less obvious and, worse, coached traffickers and pimps on how to clean up their ads” to avoid law enforcement.'
...
'The subcommittee hearing also featured emotional testimony from several parents of trafficked teenagers, including one tearful mother whose 15-year-old daughter was “repeatedly raped, beaten, threatened and treated as a sex object every day” while being advertised on Backpage as a “weekend special”.
She told subcommittee members that “we finally got Natalie [not her real name] back… but our Natalie was gone. Our new American Dream is to live in an America that doesn’t stand aside when little girls are sold online as commodities.”
Another mother testified that Backpage refused to remove nude and sexually explicit photos of her then-underaged daughter despite her “numerous” pleas to do so.
“We are still in the process of healing eight years later,” she told the subcommittee. “My daughter struggles with it even now on a daily basis.”'
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-hollingsworth/backpage-shuts-down-adult-ad-section-execs-take-5th-after-senate
derram ago
https://archive.is/IBXfR :
'We get it,” Larkin and Lacey said in a statement. “But the shut-down of Backpage’s adult classified advertising is an assault on the First Amendment. '
'Backpage said in a statement that scrutiny of the site by government officials has made it too costly to keep operating the adult section. '
'Its report alleged that Backpage knowingly hid child sex trafficking and prostitution by deleting incriminating terms from its ads before publication. '
'Backpage’s founders and executives will appear in the hearing but do not plan to testify, according to their attorneys. '
'Advocates say such advertisements have improved safety for sex workers by allowing them to negotiate services online rather than in the streets. '
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