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So... let's walk through this... 1) Paying customer creates an ad (I haven't used Backpage, but I assume they paid to create ads). 2) Paying customer enters s

So... let's walk through this... 1) Paying customer creates an ad (I haven't used Backpage, but I assume they paid to create ads). 2) Paying customer enters some words that the Government has told Backpage not to allow. 3) Backpage's automatic web form error message says... "Hey, you've added some words the Government won't let you use... sorry... it's not us, it's Uncle Sam." 4) Customer changes words to get around filters... I assume things like "sex" turns into "s3x" -- or whatever the bare minimum number of changes were to get around the censorship. 5) Customer posts ads, skirts Government censorship; feels smug and satisfied for beating the system. 6) Government isn't happy that the intent of the filtered words wasn't enforced... expected Backpage to have more (costly) manual review of ads, instead of just exact keyword blocks on ad creation. 7) Backpage was like, "Manual review would destroy our business model..." so they fought it... 8) Government took over and shut them down. Again, I haven't read anything on this... but that's my assumption based on how the Government and tech work. Am I wrong?

ino 9y ago
It's way worse than that. Instead of just assuming, if you don't want to read it all, read just pages 2 and 3 (summary). https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Backpage%20Report%202017.01.10%20FINAL.pdf https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Backpage%20Report...
dmix 9y ago
You don't need government to know when things are wrong. This is a flawed worldview from which people criticize market-based approaches - as if there isn't already enough of an incentive to do good, without having to be forced to, or have your hand held at each step. Posting ads for escorts which clearly indicate an underage girl or similar is obviously not something you want on your site. In fact I don't see anywhere this has to be a list of keywords defined by the government at all? And as the other user pointed out, it's far worse than a simple form error.

ino 9y ago

It's way worse than that. Instead of just assuming, if you don't want to read it all, read just pages 2 and 3 (summary). https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Backpage%20Report%202017.01.10%20FINAL.pdf https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Backpage%20Report...

dmix 9y ago

You don't need government to know when things are wrong. This is a flawed worldview from which people criticize market-based approaches - as if there isn't already enough of an incentive to do good, without having to be forced to, or have your hand held at each step. Posting ads for escorts which clearly indicate an underage girl or similar is obviously not something you want on your site. In fact I don't see anywhere this has to be a list of keywords defined by the government at all? And as the other user pointed out, it's far worse than a simple form error.