3 ms·
Your comments are misleading. What you call "knowingly facilitated" is described in the report as not being zealous enough in removing anything that may or may
by Sacho 9y ago
Your comments are misleading. What you call "knowingly facilitated" is described in the report as not being zealous enough in removing anything that may or may not be child sex related.
Here is an example of the deceitful language and assertions that you are championing:
"Internal correspondence also suggests Backpage believes it is better that
child sex trafficking take place on its website than elsewhere. In 2011, in response
to a request from the Seattle Police Chief to require photo ID whenever a user
submits a photo for an ad, Padilla expressed doubt to Ferrer and Hyer that such a
system would be useful—it might create a “false sense of security.” But he went
on to add the following:
And even if an age verification was a deterrent to someone
hoping to post an ad on Backpage to traffic a minor, it doesn’t
mean they’re going to stop trying to traffic a minor. It only
means they won’t be doing it on our site, where Backpage,
NCMEC and law enforcement are in the best position to put an
actual stop to the crime."
And another:
"The record also contains substantial evidence that, as a matter of policy,
Backpage often chose to err against reporting potential child exploitation. As the
Subcommittee reported in connection with its November 2015 hearing, in June 2012
Backpage instructed its outsourced third-party moderators only to delete suspected
child-sex advertisements “IF YOU REALLY VERY SURE THE PERSON IS
UNDERAGE.” In a similar email, a Backpage supervisor instructed internal
moderation staff: “Young ads do not get deleted unless they are clearly a
child.”"
The whole report about "knowingly facilitating" sex trafficking is about them acknowledging the possibility that some people may be using the site for sex trafficking(which is just reality), and then questioning the demands of activists to ban a broad spectrum of ads because they may be related to child sex trafficking.
Backpage was, quite clearly, trying to maintain its business of prostitution ads. Trying to somehow link them to "child sex trafficking" is disingenuous.