At the end week, we wrote about how the misguided, politics-driven media campaign against Craigslist was ramping up again with a <a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100806/11433810530.shtml”>half-sheet ad</a> in The Washington Advertise, obviously targeted at DC politicians. Paul Levy, who had sent over a scan of the ad immediately <a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20100806/11433810530#c272″>alerts us</a> that the very following day, the Washington Advertise <a href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/06/AR2010080606376.html?hpid%3Dmoreheadlines&sub=AR” target=”_blank”>had a one-sided anti-Craigslist article</a>, where it cites the ad. As Levy questions, has the Washington Advertise immediately stooped so low that buying a half-sheet ad gets you a one-sided tale? Very disappointing go by the Washington Advertise.
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The tale, of direction, is the same one that a bunch of politicians have been grandstanding over. There is prostitution on Craigslist. No doubt about it. Craigslist has locate up a hardly any different systems over the past couple of years to try to stop it, however of direction, human beings always figure outside ways to get encircling such blocks. The difficulty, immediately, is that all these politicians and media types seem to desire to <i>blame Craigslist</i>, rather than <i>blame the human beings really involved in the prostitution rings</i>. As we’ve noted age and age again, code enforcement agencies that <i>employment with</i> Craigslist have found that it’s a <a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100503/1100119284.shtml”>fantastic tool</a> for fighting illegal prostitution and breaking up prostitution rings. Craigslist really has locate up a special interface for code enforcement to employ for this purpose.
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The Washington Advertise notes exactly none of this. Instead, it questions why Craig Newmark hasn’t responded to the “open letter” from a girl who was sold as an underage prostitute via the site a hardly any years back (well before Craigslist locate up these fresh restrictions). Separately, CNN ran a alike <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/2010/BELIEF/08/02/saar.craigslist.minor.trafficking/index.html” target=”_blank”>anti-Craigslist belief piece</a> written by the same collection who bought the newspaper ads. At least CNN allowed Craigslist’s <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/2010/BELIEF/08/04/buckmaster.craigslist.rebuttal/” target=”_blank”>Jim Buckmaster an opening to answer</a>.
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Obviously, this is a topic that makes an emotional response in many — <i>as it should</i>. Underage girls forced into prostitution is a horrifying difficulty, and I’m all for doing anything imaginable to bring those really responsible to justice. The difficulty is that putting the blame on Craigslist doesn’t do <i>anything</i> to aid solve the difficulty. If anything, it will constitute it much worse. It certainly won’t stop those involved in forcing girls into prostitution rings. It certainly won’t stop those rings from operating. It certainly won’t stop the ability of individuals to find these rings via the internet. The <b>only</b> body it will do is push that data further underground, to platforms and services that aren’t willing to employment with code enforcement and don’t really aid efforts to stop such things. Blaming Craigslist is exactly the incorrect approach and makes the difficulty worse. I glance at the open letter to Craig, and for very excellent reasons, it breaks your heart to hear about the horrible things that happened to these girls. However, in reading it, I can’t aid however wonder why their rage and questions are directed at Craig, rather than <i>those who sold them as prostitutes</i>.<br /><br /><a href=”http://techdirt.com/articles/20100809/00092510542.shtml”>Permalink</a> | <a href=”http://techdirt.com/articles/20100809/00092510542.shtml#comments”>Comments</a> | <a href=”http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20100809/00092510542&op=sharethis”>Email This Tale</a><br />
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