4 ms·
The claim by the woman on Twitter is that it made it less dangerous for her. The general claim made by most people who look at this is that it makes it less dan
by darawk 9y ago
The claim by the woman on Twitter is that it made it less dangerous for her. The general claim made by most people who look at this is that it makes it less dangerous. I've not studied it personally, but I see no reason to doubt those claims.
- DanBC 9y agoIt's probably true for prostitution ads in general, but Backpage in particular did make things more dangerous. They applied filters to ads which made it harder for law enforcement to search for and find trafficed women; those filters were instant and permanent and so evidence was destroyed. Backpage themselves claimed (in many of the lawsuits brought against them) that they were unable to take any action on ads for children who were being solf for sex because of the Communications Decency Act. And people seem a bit confused by the offer: street work is obviously terribly risky. But small ad sex work is still very dangerous. The vast majority of people who sell sex do so to feed an addiction, or because they're being coercively controlled. This is not a willing exchange of a good for money.
- darawk 9y ago> The vast majority of people who sell sex do so to feed an addiction, or because they're being coercively controlled. That may be true for the vast majority of sex work in general. But I think it's pretty unlikely to be true for the vast majority of sex work advertised online, particularly in places like this. This is an empirical question, of course, but the sexworkers subreddit is some decent evidence in this camp.
- yters 9y agoWhy is prostitution something worth promoting anyways? It is harmful to the person selling themselves, and the people buying. Capitalism doesn't magically make all 'products' morally good. Nor should we allow immoral products merely because 'capitalism'.
- darawk 9y agoWho's promoting it? People should be free to choose to do what they want with their own bodies. That seems like a pretty basic moral principle. The burden of proof is on anyone looking to contravene that.
- yters 9y agoThe feds are not shutting down Backpage in order to make this lady's life more difficult. They are shutting it down for trafficking minors. The feds are under no obligation to provide a replacement.
- darawk 9y agoThat's not really a response to my comment. You said Backpage made sex work more dangerous. I, and this lady, claimed otherwise. What does Backpage being used to traffic minors have to do with that?