Attorneys General force Craigslist to shut down the Adult Services area

[jd1138]

CL replaced the link with a blacked out "censored" message. The AG's said that if CL can't adequately ensure that people who deal in human trafficking/child prostitution aren't going to have access to CL's listing services, then CL ought to remove the section.

What a bunch of bullpucky. What's next? Is the gov't going to shutdown Google/Bing/Yahoo because they can't adequately keep nude pics of underage children from being listed in their search engines? Or heck may as well shut down the roads, so human traffickers can't drive on them. Or shut down Ford and Toyota because they can't adequately ensure that human sex traffickers won't use their vehicles to transport the victims. Of course, my logic is getting absurd, but it's not too far away from CL having to shut down the Adult Services section.

The local vice cops around here had a lot of success in busting people who were using CL to find victims and Johns. And there were legitimate people advertising in the Adult Services section -- like burlesque dancers (bachelor parties), erotic shows, etc..

[zeo]

This breaks down between the Progressive point of view and the Libertarian point of view.

Progressive point of view is that big government is the answer, that they are smarter than all the rest of us and thus need to lead us for our own good.

Libertarian point of view is the opposite that government should be limited and people should for the most part should manage themselves.

Progressives would argue that Libertarians are calling for anarchy but that's a miss characterization. Anarchist call for anarchy, Libertarians just call for limited government.

So depending on whether you are a progressive or a libertarian will determine whether you think the government stepping in is right or not.

Personally, I lean more toward the libertarian point of view and agree this is the government starting to over step its bounds. Rather they should help law enforcement deal with these violations instead.

Besides, I'd rather put these traffickers out of business permanently, all this does is force them to use some other service.

[alaskalonewolf]

It will be the end of an era, for certain.