Craigslist also hired dozens of lawyers to screen ads for compliance with the company's terms of use, which prohibit "offer or solicitation of illegal prostitution." Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster reports that "more than 700,000 ads were rejected by those attorneys in the year following implementation of manual screening" in May 2009, while Village Voice Media's Backpage.com (where the ads are far more explicit) saw a big increase in business.
No doubt many of the masseuses, companions and erotic dancers advertising on Craigslist were still selling sex, but they were a little more subtle about it, which is all that the law requires of such ads. Look up "massage," "escorts" or "entertainment, adult" in a big-city phone book, and you will see ample evidence that Blumenthal's crusade is really a matter of taste.
As an "interactive computer service," Craigslist had no obligation to screen ads -- under federal law, posters are exclusively responsible for such content. By taking precautions that were bound to be less than completely effective, the company invited further demands from bullying busybodies like Blumenthal, who deemed last week's capitulation merely a "step in the right direction."
The ads that offended Blumenthal already have begun migrating to other Craigslist sections (which are unscreened and generally free) or to less fastidious competitors. As company founder Craig Newmark remarked about a CNN ambush interview aimed at revealing him as a virtual pimp, "The point was what?"
Jacob Sullum
Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at
Reason magazine and a contributing columnist on Townhall.com.
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