Further to Chris McGreal's report about allegations suggesting that Craigslist is a hub for child prostitution comes a claim that the US-based advertising website is the victim of a media campaign.
According to a techdirt posting, the Washington Post is guilty of publishing "a one-sided anti-Craigslist article", Sex-trafficking opponents fight Craigslist's 'adult services' ads.
The techdirt author, Mike Masnick, calls it a "very disappointing move" by the paper and continues:
There is prostitution on Craigslist. No doubt about it. Craigslist has set up a few different systems over the past couple of years to try to stop it, but of course, people always figure out ways to get around such blocks.
The problem, now, is that all these politicians and media types seem to want to blame Craigslist, rather than blame the people actually involved in the prostitution rings.
As we've noted time and time again, law enforcement agencies that work with Craigslist have found that it's a great tool for fighting illegal prostitution and breaking up prostitution rings. Craigslist actually has set up a special interface for law enforcement to use for this purpose.
The Washington Post notes exactly none of this. Instead, it asks why [Craigslist founder] Craig Newmark hasn't responded to the "open letter" from a girl who was sold as an underage prostitute via the site a few years back (well before Craigslist set up these new restrictions).
Separately, CNN ran a similar anti-Craigslist opinion piece written by the same group who bought the newspaper ads
.
Masnick argues that while underage prostitution is "a horrifying problem... putting the blame on Craigslist doesn't do anything to help solve the problem. If anything, it will make it much worse."
Source: techdirt
