Feds Seize Backpage.com

[DanRydell 799]

47 minutes ago, BurntEyes said:

Yeah, because after silk road shut down the war on drugs was finally won.

Prostitution is never going away.

Want to protect women, legalize prostitution and provide safe locations and testing for women to earn a trade.

[DanRydell 799]

42 minutes ago, Viper said:

True, and with it gone, the work has become more dangerous

 

Yup. It's an extremely bad deal for independent sex workers. it both makes it harder to get clients and makes it harder to verify whether its safe to see clients. I know a couple of girls who pretty much 100% relied on eccie to get clients and to vet guys with other girls. 

[MissingInAction 25,204]

So where do I go to pay for a pegging now?

[Paco 1,934]

PM sent

[elfenix 34,338]

On 4/7/2018 at 1:38 PM, Smax said:

 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/emilysmith/sex-workers-sesta-censorship-free-speech?bftwnews&utm_term=.pkgzzKKg4j#.pv7XX55RLW

 

 

goddamn puritans

[Gil Bang 26,048]

 

[chainsaw 9,878]

I feel safer already

[DDD Dad 14,352]

On 4/6/2018 at 5:17 PM, Zepol87 said:

My buddy just got out of prison after 6 years a few week ago. Dropped him off at some a hotel off loop 12 to bang a hooker he found on backpage last week. Hits close to home

How can Vic have been posting all this time if he was in prison for the last 6 years?

[DDD Dad 14,352]

On 4/6/2018 at 5:17 PM, Zepol87 said:

 

Edited April 9, 2018 by DDD Dad
duplicate

[DDD Dad 14,352]

On 4/6/2018 at 5:17 PM, Zepol87 said:

 

 

Edited April 9, 2018 by DDD Dad
duplicate

[Viper 12,112]

2 hours ago, DDD Dad said:

How can Vic have been posting all this time if he was in prison for the last 6 years?

Obviously he meant TOR

[Viper 12,112]

What a horrible decision this was

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/10/sex-workers-fear-violence-as-us-cracks-down-on-online-ads-girls-will-die

 

Quote

Sex workers fear violence as US cracks down on online ads: 'Girls will die'

New legislation and the shutdown of personal ads on Craigslist and Backpage.com drive workers on to the streets

Phoenix Calida’s friends are preparing for death. Some are sending photos of tattoos to make it easier to identify their bodies. Others are giving instructions for eulogies.

Calida, 35, is a Chicago-based sex worker who has depended on websites that host classified ads, such as Craigslist and Backpage.com, to meet and screen clients. But the US government’s recent crackdown on those platforms has abruptly eliminated many workers’ primary source of income, forcing some to turn to the streets or to rely on abusive pimps, greatly increasing the risk of violence.

“Girls are going back to the streets and they are going to die in the streets, and nobody cares,” said Calida, a mother of two, who said she used to do street work and fears she will have to start again to make ends meet. “Everybody is terrified.”

Congress recently passed legislation with bipartisan support that purports to combat online sex trafficking by making websites criminally liable for users’ content. But some say the Online Sex Trafficking Act (Fosta) and Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act (Sesta) will have the opposite effect. Critics argue that the legislation broadly censors online speech, takes income away from people who engage in consensual sex work, and helps traffickers get away with crimes by pushing the industry underground.

Emily Benavides, a spokeswoman for Senator Rob Portman, Sesta’s sponsor, defended the bill in an email, saying it was “narrowly crafted” and “gives state law enforcement the tools they need to go after criminals who traffic women and children online”, adding: “This bill was widely supported on a bipartisan basis, and we’re proud that it will become the law of the land.”

Donald Trump is expected to sign the law this week, but sex workers across the country told the Guardian they were already suffering consequences. Craigslist shut down its personals section, and federal authorities seized Backpage.com, releasing an indictment this week accusing its founders of money laundering and “facilitating prostitution”. The list of charges did not include trafficking.

“It’s devastating,” said a sex worker who goes by the name Jala Dixon. “They just took everything from me.”

Dixon, who is based in Georgia, said she chose to do sex work to help save money for school and that she was now considering turning to the streets. “This is really not doing anything but making us unsafe and putting us at risk.”

Sex worker rights groups have long argued that initiatives targeting child trafficking end up hurting the most marginalized workers by broadly criminalizing the industry. That includes queer and transgender people, the homeless and others who have been excluded from traditional employment. Defenders of Backpage and Craigslist say those sites gave workers control over their jobs and allowed people to detect and report traffickers.

When Calida worked on the streets in her 20s, she said, she would face abuse from clients and police. Some men would demand sex without condoms, cross her boundaries, refuse to pay, or physically hurt her, said Calida, who asked to be quoted under the name she uses for online writing and activism. She said passersby had thrown garbage at her.

“I really, really, really don’t want to have to do this,” she said, explaining that on sites like Craigslist and Backpage workers could negotiate terms in advance, request that clients provide references, run cross-checks on clients’ email addresses, and communicate with other sex workers about dangerous or violent people to avoid.

Kristen DiAngelo, executive director of the Sex Workers Outreach Project of Sacramento, said her phone had been ringing off the hook since the seizure of Backpage: “The fear is astronomical.”

One woman told her she was forced to return to an abusive client due to the lost income, she said. Others have resorted to taking on “managers” who have leverage over the women and their income and could exploit them, she added. “Very easily, you can lose control of your own life.”

“This bill is creating an actual market for pimps,” Calida said, adding: “People don’t know if they are going to be able to pay rent … how they are going to afford food.”

DiAngelo said she also feared the crackdowns could extend to organizations like hers that focus on harm reduction initiatives, such as handing out condoms. Could prosecutors accuse her of facilitating prostitution?

“They’ve just unemployed massive amounts of marginalized people,” she added, “They’re taking away life-saving resources.”

Kit, who is in her late 20s and works as an escort, said that she chooses to do sex work because it has provided sustainable income. Under the law, however, she could be treated as a trafficking victim, even though she said she was not being coerced: “Sex work is the thing that gives me an ability to make a living wage and kind of do OK for myself … It’s what works for me.”

Jackie Monroe, a 25-year-old California woman, said she was previously a victim of trafficking and was forced to do sex work. But Monroe, who asked to use her nickname to protect the privacy of her children, said she didn’t believe shutting down the websites and arresting people for prostitution would help victims like her.

“It hurts my heart,” she said, thinking of women she knows who will now work on the street. She noted that law enforcement never helped her when she was a victim, instead charging her with prostitution and loitering offenses. “How is this protecting us? How is this saving us?”

 

[TornACL 7,724]

A big problem I see with the current state of our government is that Republicans and Democrats are now BOTH over-legislating.

[Huckleberry 33,114]

If the goal is reducing sex trafficking and prostitution, reducing supply and demand by shutting down craigslist, backpage, and eccie will be far more impactful than arresting individual johns and hookers.

I think your entire analysis is discredited by this initial sentence. The part where you claim that shutting down sites will reduce not just supply but also demand betrays both a misunderstanding of economics as well as an obvious preexisting bias.

[DanRydell 799]

I think your entire analysis is discredited by this initial sentence. The part where you claim that shutting down sites will reduce not just supply but also demand betrays both a misunderstanding of economics as well as an obvious preexisting bias.

Making it more difficult for Johns to find workers, see pictures, read reviews, vet workers to ensure they aren’t cops, etc., will reduce demand. Making it more difficult for workers to advertise and vet Johns to ensure they aren’t cops or violent or anything will reduce supply. It will not eliminate supply or demand but it will reduce sex trafficking and prostitution more than using those websites to bust Johns or workers will, which was all I said.

I know a number of sex workers. My bias is that they be able to do their job as safely and successfully as practicable. Websites shutting down due to SESTA/FOSTA and the backpage seizure make their jobs more dangerous and less profitable. Im not in favor of these laws or actions.

[Ldogg53 514]

26 minutes ago, DanRydell said:

 

Making it more difficult for Johns to find workers, see pictures, read reviews, vet workers to ensure they aren’t cops, etc., will reduce demand.

I don't think you understand the concept of demand.   Demand does not go down and will never go down.  The demand comes from human nature.  The supply may reduce, but in reality all they're doing is reducing ease of access to the supply whereby making the whole venture more dangerous for all involved.

But glad to see that you're against the law because your tone sure didn't indicate that in your many posts.

[DanRydell 799]

11 minutes ago, Ldogg53 said:

I don't think you understand the concept of demand.   Demand does not go down and will never go down.  The demand comes from human nature.  The supply may reduce, but in reality all they're doing is reducing ease of access to the supply whereby making the whole venture more dangerous for all involved.

But glad to see that you're against the law because your tone sure didn't indicate that in your many posts.

Demand is not the general demand for buying sex regardless of particulars. Demand is dictated by the particular market circumstances.

[Jkwellborn 6,748]

I know a number of sex workers. My bias is that they be able to do their job as safely and successfully as practicable. Websites shutting down due to SESTA/FOSTA and the backpage seizure make their jobs more dangerous and less profitable. Im not in favor of these laws or actions.

How do you prefer to pimp your hoes? Can we negotiate ahead of time?

[TwiceHorn 31,554]

Yeah, places like backpage would seem to be more in the category of transaction costs/information rather than supply or demand.

 

I, for one, am tired of analyzing human behavior and law enforcement strategies in economic terms.  It hasn't gotten us anywhere good.

[MaybeACoordinator 8,349]

On 4/9/2018 at 6:54 PM, Viper said:

Obviously he meant TOR

"Dance little girls, dance!" -- that was TOR's last post on Shaggy. I am taking it out of context but he vanished forever after typing that. 

[F250 28,826]

14 hours ago, Jkwellborn said:

 

How do you prefer to pimp your hoes? Can we negotiate ahead of time?

This reminds me of the time I had lunch with a former coworker that who was RIF'd during the dot com bust. I asked him how his job hunting was going. He said not so well because there were just too many unemployed web developers on the market.

He then said he found a job outside of the tech industry. He was a manager for an escort service. He apparently was having a lot of success setting up multiple websites and advertising via online message boards. He was pretty proud of his accomplishments.

After hearing how he was explaining how he was revolutionizing the business, I asked him "So is pimping a temporary thing or this a permanent career change?" He was a bit offended and explained it wasn't pimping but more of a talent agent thing. LOL

 

[Viper 12,112]

well it's a law now. America is being cut off from internet sites outside the country.

Quote

The day the internet died? On Wednesday, President Trump signed "FOSTA" into law, making it a federal crime for websites or apps to host any content that "promotes" or "facilitates" prostitution. The mainstream media has roundly heralded the signing as a great step in the fight against sex trafficking, even as those involved in the sex trade have been sharing increasingly dire stories of how the new legislation is impacting their lives.

Twitter is currently filled with stories from sex workers whose livelihoods—and very lives—are being threatened by the shutdown of Backpage.com and other escort-advertising platforms in the U.S.

Just heard my first report of a missing worker. She went outside to work after backpage went down and hasn't checked in. It's been over 24 hours.

— Fancy Baby aka Professor Stripsalot (@profstripsalot) April 12, 2018

That's what's so insidious about the new FOSTA legislation: Even if it gets struck down in court as unconstitutional, the damage will already have been done. Websites are shutting down, blocking access from U.S. servers, and blocking content remotely related to sex. Sex workers are being forced to find new and less-safe avenues for meeting clients and making ends meet. The internet and the sex trade will be remade for the worse by the time any court could rule against the new rules.

As Engadget notes, the fallout from FOSTA has already "been dramatic," including "the closure of sex-work directories like CityVibe and NightShift as well as the personals sections of websites like Craigslist. FetLife's kink-friendly social network is currently consulting with its users to determine its future plans." And "it's not just the realm of adults-only websites and platforms that are now having to crack down on discussions of sex," Engadget points out:

Microsoft and Google have moved to alter their terms of service to prohibit offensive or inappropriate content and language. Not even private discussions are safe, with Microsoft reportedly claiming the right to examine your content to investigate complaints. More troubling is the fact that according to Motherboard, Google is purging adult content from private Drive accounts. Performers who sell clips of explicit material to users have lost videos and received complaints from customers. Even videos with relatively anodyne names have been wiped or left in place but made unable to play, a troubling infringement of personal rights.

 

But it's a good day if you've got a grudge against any particular digital platform (and don't have a lot of scruples). Start spamming Snapchat with posts about how great prostitution is or use Facebook messenger to make plans for a paid sexual tryst and you, too, could cash in on the civil lawsuit bonanza that FOSTA will unleash.

I wonder how easy it would be for this site to get in trouble with the content in the adult forum or the stripper stories thread. All it would take is two members talking about a prostitute or extras with a stripper with too much detail to where it could be seen as promoting the act and the owner could be arrested. It's probably something to consider.

[OU Sucks 8,917]

23 minutes ago, Viper said:

I wonder how easy it would be for this site to get in trouble with the content in the adult forum or the stripper stories thread. All it would take is two members talking about a prostitute or extras with a stripper with too much detail to where it could be seen as promoting the act and the owner could be arrested. It's probably something to consider.

Sounds like we can get some new blacklab testimony quotes and another radio segment.  I support this.

[3adays 454]

17 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

"Dance little girls, dance!" -- that was TOR's last post on Shaggy. I am taking it out of context but he vanished forever after typing that. 

PM Rumble for his whereabouts

[dirtonia 269]

Time to fire up surlysluts.com!

[Amobie 58]

On 4/11/2018 at 12:46 PM, DanRydell said:

I know a number of sex workers. My bias is that they be able to do their job as safely and successfully as practicable. Websites shutting down due to SESTA/FOSTA and the backpage seizure make their jobs more dangerous and less profitable. Im not in favor of these laws or actions.

 

I'm all for a woman to be able to sell her body but a lot of these sex workers are trafficked into the country and put into slavery.  

I don't think that these laws are going to do much to stop it.

[Neonmoon 38,130]

1 hour ago, dirtonia said:

Time to fire up surlysluts.com!

I thought this was surlysluts?

[Hugo Stiglitz 23,367]

 

The chief executive officer of sex-solicitation website Backpage.com pleaded guilty to money laundering and conspiracy charges in California three days after the site, which was also used by human traffickers, was permanently closed.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced that Carl Ferrer offered his guilty plea in state court in Sacramento and has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors against a pair of co-conspirators and controlling shareholders. Ferrer faces a prison sentence of up to five years.

“Human trafficking is modern-day slavery, and it is happening in our own backyard,” Becerra said in a statement Thursday. “The shutdown of Backpage.com is a tremendous victory for the survivors and their families. And the conviction of CEO Ferrer is a game-changer in combating human trafficking in California, indeed worldwide.”

[AUS-97HORN 11,824]

holy shit, he fucking caved in 3 days?   The feds must have had some heinous shit on tape or email for him to plead guilty that fast

[RayDog 682]

3 hours ago, Amobie said:

I'm all for a woman to be able to sell her body but a lot of these sex workers are trafficked into the country and put into slavery.  

I don't think that these laws are going to do much to stop it.

Where is your data to support that a lot of women are trafficked into the country? I would think it is a small percentage. 

That data should also consider whether they willingly agreed to sell sex services in exchange for transportation to a new country.

There was a case in Angeles a few months ago where some Korean bar managers where charged with trafficking for bringing in Russian girls as tourists to work in their bar. (They made the mistake of not paying of the cops) In their case a Russian whore to might make $50 a pop at home makes up to $200 off a Korean guy in Angeles, and gets a lot more customers. Is such a person really being trafficked?

 

 

[Neonmoon 38,130]

13 minutes ago, RayDog said:

Where is your data to support that a lot of women are trafficked into the country? I would think it is a small percentage. 

That data should also consider whether they willingly agreed to sell sex services in exchange for transportation to a new country.

There was a case in Angeles a few months ago where some Korean bar managers where charged with trafficking for bringing in Russian girls as tourists to work in their bar. (They made the mistake of not paying of the cops) In their case a Russian whore to might make $50 a pop at home makes up to $200 off a Korean guy in Angeles, and gets a lot more customers. Is such a person really being trafficked?

 

 

I used to play hide the wolf with a feminist. And I learned a lot. So have you considered...

there is a point of view out there that no woman actually wants to have sex in exchange for money even if they say they want to have sex for money. For instance, if the female had enough money, she wouldn’t have sex in exchange for it. Therefore every sex worker is inherently being exploited, and inherently being “trafficked”. Whether by choice or not. 

 

 

 

[MaybeACoordinator 8,349]

Do any of us like doing what we do for money? Some of us do, I'm sure, but not many. 

[NeverMarryAStripper 21,943]

11 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

I used to play hide the wolf with a feminist. And I learned a lot. So have you considered...

there is a point of view out there that no woman actually wants to have sex in exchange for money even if they say they want to have sex for money. For instance, if the female had enough money, she wouldn’t have sex in exchange for it. Therefore every sex worker is inherently being exploited, and inherently being “trafficked”. Whether by choice or not. 

 

 

 

Those are the people that believe there is no such thing as consensual sex, it’s all rape.

[Neonmoon 38,130]

47 minutes ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

Those are the people that believe there is no such thing as consensual sex, it’s all rape.

Not in my experience, but I get your point. I was just proposing the idea that maybe the girls who are turning tricks in Russia that are shipped to the US to turn tricks for more money might still constitute sex trafficking 

[Moby Ric 2,058]

So I guess Rocko has to go back to paying for street walkers in stead of ordering them off backpage.

I don't think hookers do layaway.

[Viper 12,112]

11 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

I used to play hide the wolf with a feminist. And I learned a lot. So have you considered...

there is a point of view out there that no woman actually wants to have sex in exchange for money even if they say they want to have sex for money. For instance, if the female had enough money, she wouldn’t have sex in exchange for it. Therefore every sex worker is inherently being exploited, and inherently being “trafficked”. Whether by choice or not. 

 

 

 

by this definition I am being trafficked and my kid is also being homework trafficked. 

[JOSEYWALES66 1,805]

11 hours ago, AUS-97HORN said:

holy shit, he fucking caved in 3 days?   The feds must have had some heinous shit on tape or email for him to plead guilty that fast

Did you do it?   Nope.

Did you do it?  Nope

Did you not do it?  Nope

Gotcha!

[Gil Bang 26,048]

12 hours ago, linsasa said:

Thanks for sharing, I also have something to share with you.
 

 

 

Wow. Nice bot post

 

 

[52-80 19,263]

1 hour ago, Gil Bang said:

 

Wow. Nice bot post

 

somebody call da cops

[Viper 12,112]

Pretty sure the new law means blacklab can be arrested for human trafficking if he doesn't delete that

[Murfdogg21 4,431]

On 4/12/2018 at 8:51 PM, Neonmoon said:

I used to play hide the wolf with a feminist. And I learned a lot. So have you considered...

there is a point of view out there that no woman actually wants to have sex in exchange for money even if they say they want to have sex for money. For instance, if the female had enough money, she wouldn’t have sex in exchange for it. Therefore every sex worker is inherently being exploited, and inherently being “trafficked”. Whether by choice or not. 

 

 

 

If I had enough money, I wouldn’t go to my job. Does that mean I’m being exploited?

[AUS-97HORN 11,824]

1 hour ago, Viper said:

Pretty sure the new law means blacklab can be arrested for human trafficking if he doesn't delete that

well, that would be true if Blacklab owned the site.... but he doesnt......   now if we happend to repost this to the old site.... then Kevin would be responsible......  hmmmmmmm

[Viper 12,112]

Here's a story about the FOSTA law and the distortions being told about it

https://reason.com/blog/2018/08/20/spreading-fake-news-about-fosta

Quote

"We have shut down nearly 90 percent of the online sex trafficking business and ads." So claimed Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) in a piece of House Judiciary Committee propaganda posted to YouTube last month. In the video, Wagner and other U.S. lawmakers sing their own praises over the passage of FOSTA, the law that makes "facilitating prostitution" online a federal crime. Many politicians and journalists erroneously portrayed the law as a way to punish "child sex traffickers."

In a new Washington Post Fact Checker column, Glenn Kessler tears apart Wagner's claim to have "shut down nearly 90 percent of the online sex-trafficking business." Even if the extent of "online sex trafficking" could be measured by simply counting the number of adult-oriented online advertisements, Wagner's assertion would still be what her GOP colleagues like to call fake news.

"When asked for evidence, Wagner's office sent a chart that tracked all sex-related advertising, saying that it showed weekly global ad volume dropped 87 percent from January to April," writes Kessler. The chart came from Memex, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project that tracks and archives all sorts of sex-work advertising. ("DARPA Memex has since evolved into Tellfinder, managed by Uncharted Software," notes Kessler.)

But Wagner's chart shows that "the biggest drop in ads came after the shutdown of Backpage" by the federal government in April—before FOSTA became law. And "what happened after April?" asks Kessler. Wagner's office wouldn't share any more data, so the Post turned to DARPA and Uncharted Software for answers.

"It turns out that after that initial drop, advertising for the sex trade appears to have rebounded, such as on new websites that mimic Backpage with names like 'Bedpage,'" Kessler reports. He gave Wagner's claims "Three Pinocchios" out of a possible four.

Worldwide ads had a daily average of about 105,000 when [FOSTA] passed on March 21 and had dropped 28 percent by the time Backpage was closed on April 5. It then plunged another 75 percent and reached a low of 19,456 on April 17, for a total decline of about 82 percent.

But on the day the Judiciary Committee posted the video, sex-trade ads were back at about 50 percent of the daily volume before the law had passed; as of Aug. 11, they were at almost 75 percent.

Unchartered Software's director of research engineering tells the Post that "the volume of ads dropped dramatically after the shutdown of Backpage but has been climbing since. There is now a volume approaching what we observed before."

Previous Fact Checker columns at The Washington Post have tackled other whoppers politicians tell about sex trafficking, including some false claims made by Wagner:

Wagner, for instance, had claimed that the Justice Department estimated that 300,000 girls in the United States were at risk of being sex trafficked. But it turned out it was not a Justice Department figure but a number plucked out of a stale, decades-old study that had not been peer-reviewed and was largely discredited. We were pleased when many lawmakers stopped using such phony statistics—and anti-trafficking organizations scrubbed them from their websites.

A 2016 study funded by the Justice Department concluded that the total number of juveniles in the sex trade in the United States was about 9,000 to 10,000. The study also found that only about 15 percent of the children relied on pimps and that the average age of entry into the sex trade was 15.8 years.

 

 

Here's a longer interview with the two Backpage Founders

Quote

The Senate Accused Them of Selling Kids for Sex. The FBI Raided Their Homes. Backpage.com’s Founders Speak for the First Time.

An inside look at how indie media veterans James Larkin and Michael Lacey became the targets of a federal witchhunt.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | August 21, 2018

The first time I met Backpage.com co-founder Michael Lacey it was January 2017, and he had just been grilled by a Senate subcommittee over allegations that he and his publishing partner James Larkin had, in the words of the committee report, "knowingly facilitated the criminal sex trafficking of vulnerable women and young girls." The second time, at Larkin's Arizona home in July of this year, Lacey was wearing an ankle monitor.

Both men had been fitted with the trackers three months earlier following an FBI raid on their homes, an experience Lacey likens to the "intense emotional violation" he felt having his house burglarized when he was young. The raid was the culmination of years of legal and political battles between them and both state and federal authorities, including the National Association of Attorneys General, the notorious anti-immigrant sheriff Joe Arpaio, Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, and John and Cindy McCain.

Now, Lacey and Larkin, ages 69 and 70, respectively, are confined by court order to Maricopa County and stuck wearing homing devices under their pant legs to ensure it. The monitors beep like fire alarms when the batteries get low. "It's a constant slap in the face," says Lacey. It's July, and his monitor is plugged into the wall behind Larkin's kitchen table. Larkin grew up in Phoenix, raised four children in the city, and with, Lacey, built a newspaper empire in the desert. Today, Larkin's front yard is a fortress of cactus plants and other desert greenery.

 

Their confinement will last through 2020, when their trial is scheduled. Their bank accounts have already been seized. "Everything has been brutal," says Larkin.

Both men argue that the case against them is politically motivated and that current stalling on the state's part is designed to force a plea. But "they're going to have to win this in court," says Lacey, "and we don't think they can. And our lawyers don't think they can."

Officially, Larkin, Lacey, and several of their former colleagues were accused of money laundering, conspiracy, and violating the Travel Act, which says local crimes become federal business when they cross state lines. But in the court of public opinion, you'll hear that they were complicit in facilitating underage prostitution as the founders and former owners of the now-shuttered classified ad website Backpage.

After its 2004 launch, Backpage became inextricably linked in the popular imagination with sex trafficking, thanks to a relentless campaign by well-funded activists, government lawyers, and some of the nation's most prominent politicians. Officials heralded the April 2018 FBI seizure of the website and the arrests of Lacey and Larkin as a major victory against the exploitation of women and children.

Yet even the charges both men face hint at the weakness of that story. Neither Lacey nor Larkin is accused of directly participating in any sexual exchange or of having knowledge about any particular crimes advanced through the platform. In fact, law enforcement sources have over the years consistently applauded Backpage for its help making cases against predators and locating runaway teens.

The story of their arrest, then, is better understood as one of near-religious fervor, government greed, and political retribution, in which an escalating panic over commercial sex coincided with a booming online publishing platform.

"We didn't go looking for this fight," says Lacey, whose knuckles are tattooed with the words HOLD FAST. "But we didn't back away from it either."

go to the link for the rest

[MaybeACoordinator 8,349]

Good story about the men behind Backpage, their philosophies and an update on the Feds bag o' tricks.

https://www.wired.com/story/inside-backpage-vicious-battle-feds/?fbclid=IwAR3Z9cg3CIjfa3m3KSc-HzlMYNrjCqtbEO-NPVstO8D7vh_sVeZzmwVJDSA

[TwiceHorn 31,554]

It really seems as though they have trumped up a problem that no one can prove exists to the degree that is urged in support of the draconian solution, but similarly no one can deny exists.

And the political, glory- and money-seeking nature of the whole thing, from advocacy groups, to legislation, to prosecution, just is transparent and, to me, kind of disgusting.

[Viper 12,112]

People were starting to catch on to using the Patriot Act to charge every one with terrorism, so they switched to sex trafficking and FOSTA.

[MaybeACoordinator 8,349]

The story only touches on this, but it probably should have said more -- legit hos loved Backpage because it enabled them to cut out middlemen.  I don't know why we in this country never learn that you can't just wave wands and make unsavory, but ubiquitous, eternal aspects of the human condition just go away. Pushing things like this to the margins invariably makes them worse and yet we just keep doing it over and over and over again. As an old time mayor of New Orleans once said: "You can make prostitution illegal, but you can't make it unpopular."

 

[Auto Driller 2,506]

Call me crazy, but I could see the Backpage guys winning this case.

[RPM 26,360]

Never knew they were the guys behind New Times. I love reading those alt papers like The Observer and FW Weekly. They dig into stories MSM doesn't.

[TwiceHorn 31,554]

45 minutes ago, Auto Driller said:

Call me crazy, but I could see the Backpage guys winning this case.

It seems, from Biederman's article, that there is some serious ambiguity in the evidence supporting their supposed knowledge and promotion of "human trafficking."  And yes, that makes for a pretty good case of reasonable doubt.

I might trust Biederman's reporting on this inasmuch as she is a lawyer and apparently intends to make a book of it.