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Backpage.com Pleads Guilty to Human Trafficking in Texas
- noobermin 9y agoDoes anyone have any more info? Did he really believe he facilitated sex trafficking?
- wavefunction 9y agoThey stripped terms out related specifically to children from the listings and still posted them.
- noobermin 9y agoSomething like a dumb wordfilter? Or did they just ban words and traffickers posted ads that didn't include them?
- jovrtn 9y agoAccording to the Senate report on the matter[0], Backpage would systematically help posters reword illegal ads to appear less so: "Backpage has publicly touted its process for screening adult advertisements as an industry-leading effort to protect against criminal abuse, including sex trafficking. A closer review of that “moderation” process reveals, however, that Backpage has maintained a practice of altering ads before publication by deleting words, phrases, and images indicative of an illegal transaction." [0] 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...
- noobermin 9y agoScanned the executive summary. That does sound like they aren't good guys. As I posted above, putting down backpage as a whole puts a lot of sex workers at risk, but this gives me mixed feelings about backpage in general.
- jovrtn 9y agoYeah—not arguing the overall wisdom of law enforcement's approach here, but it's important to understand how much these guys were aware of the illegal activity on their platform and chose to actively facilitate it.
- sbr464 9y agoI can’t help but think that the lawyers and marketing team for Donald Trump struggle keeping up with this same task on a daily basis.
- jstarfish 9y agoIf they actively banned/prohibited ads/posters that used obviously illegal terms, I suspect they wouldn't be in the situation they're currently in. Instead, someone would post an ad for a "sexy mocha l0lita 4 you", and Backpage values profit over principles so they took it upon themselves to remove the term "l0lita" and allow such ads to be posted.
- ellius 9y agoClearly no one is reading the Senate reports or any of the other factual detail pertaining to Backpage's conduct. They were very obviously doing everything in their power to continue advertising children. They hired staff and trained them to help posters avoid trigger words, but as you said would post the ads and basically never alert law enforcement. There are some good points in here from people quoting sex workers and people who try to help sex workers (public health officials etc) who believe that having everything centralized and public was a benefit to their efforts, but anyone defending Backpage's conduct is either willfully ignorant of their behavior and just sharing their general views about prostitution or has a seriously messed up idea of right and wrong.
- tptacek 9y agoIt's worth remembering that when we talk about stripping things from ads, the ads included photographs, and the photographs were apparently not stripped from the ads.
- paxys 9y agoAnd the CEO himself pleaded guilty to money laundering. I remember people here were coming out in droves to defend the company against big bad government when the site was first seized. This line is particularly condemning: > It was involved in 73 percent of all child trafficking cases reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
- AFNobody 9y ago> And the CEO himself pleaded guilty to money laundering. I remember people here were coming out in droves to defend the company against big bad government when the site was first seized. They weren't defending Backpage, they were condemning the power grab in the form of a law that was passed (but has not yet been signed) where they let this whole situation languish to make it easier to "sell" the new powers for the Government. You are confusing the fight over FOSTA/SESTA/etc. with the fight over Backpage just like the people who pushed those laws intended you to.
- stale2002 9y agoActually, I saw lots of people defending backpage. It is some sort of new age leftist thing, where the argument is that backpage somehow made things safer for sex workers.
- williamscales 9y agoI believe there is a valid argument that giving sex workers a platform where they can advertise relatively safely improves their safety. I, for one, did not really research Backpage that much and so was unaware of the reality of the allegations against them. For myself, I chose not to weigh in on the debate, even though I have the belief I stated above, because I didn't feel I had enough background.
- andymoe 9y agoNo, this is the actual sex workers saying “places like backpage, where I can vet clients ahead of time, keeps me safer.”
- jamestimmins 9y ago"It was involved in 73 percent of all child trafficking cases reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children." If true, this is staggering.
- Johnny555 9y agoWhat I don't understand is that if all of this blatant child trafficking was going on, why the authorities weren't using the information to actually hunt down the traffickers. Driving them farther underground seems like it will make them harder to find. I doubt that losing backpage ads is going to make a big dent in the trade -- child trafficking is so abhorrent and so clearly illegal that the people involved will find other ways to connect.
- justicezyx 9y agoWhat’s the evidence of your claim?
- wavefunction 9y agoThe "73%" is of course a major part of only a "100%" of cases interdicted, which completely ignores all those child pandering/trafficking incidents that were not stopped or disrupted by law enforcement. I think we only have estimates of the scale of total criminal activity.
- Taniwha 9y agoor maybe it simply means that Backpage was the main vector that law enforcement had for finding traffickers
- jstarfish 9y ago> What I don't understand is that if all of this blatant child trafficking was going on, why the authorities weren't using the information to actually hunt down the traffickers. Driving them farther underground seems like it will make them harder to find. They were trying. Backpage has a history of being completely unhelpful in investigations (for reasons which are now quantifiable), and the amount of time it takes to conduct investigations and secure convictions far exceeds the time it takes for a pimp to ditch his burner phones and set up shop the next state over. Local PD can't chase them and the FBI doesn't have time to deal with this shit parade unless it's of sufficient scale. When there's a website that makes it as easy to buy a night with a 14-year old as it is to buy a used toaster, nuking that cesspool and making it more inconvenient for buyers and sellers alike creates chaos and denies service.
- sebleon 9y ago> It was involved in 73 percent of all child trafficking cases reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Wouldn't this make Backpage an incredible asset to law enforcement? I'm surprised they're taking it down, instead of cooperating. I can imagine the site could have facilitated countless sting operations and collected user data to identify traffickers.
- paxys 9y agoIt says right in the article that they have been cooperating. And Backpage has been under investigation since at least 2016, so law enforcement has a ton of data to work with. Who says they haven't been using it for further arrests already?
- borski 9y agoI think OP meant leaving it up and continuing to collect data / track the players.
- SubiculumCode 9y agoIts quite possible that that part of the play dried up.
- lostcolony 9y agoMore likely that the forces driving the legislation (which are very anti-sex, period), and the Congress critters willing to jump on board (who know their base), don't know and/or don't care about whether the boon it provides to law enforcement outweighs its visibility re: trafficking. A lot of morals based legislation is driven by worldview, not by data.
- SN76477 9y agoWhat I understand is shutting down BP was all about seizing the assets of the owner, and less than about what the site was doing.
- 9y ago
- philip1209 9y ago> Backpage facilitated the sex trafficking of innocent women and children [ . . . ] I'm surprised that the government is so exclusive of adult male victims. I'm uneducated on the subject, but I can imagine that there exist a non-zero number of male victims of human trafficking.
- SolaceQuantum 9y agoFrom what I understand many trafficked males are children.
- sp332 9y agoIs this different from the previous indictment? It mentioned trafficking a lot but they weren't actually charged with trafficking. http://www.businessinsider.com/backpage-executives-93-count-federal-indictment-2018-4 http://www.businessinsider.com/backpage-executives-93-count-...
- jackthetab 9y agoIt seems to be a plea deal rather than an actual indictment. Someone please feel free to show me the actual trafficking indictment; I didn't find one on a cursory look.
- sp332 9y agoIt seems odd to plead "down" to trafficking when the original charges were facilitating prostitution? Edit: It looks like TFA might be factually wrong. Here's the DoJ's version of it: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/backpage-s-co-founder-and-ceo-well-several-backpage-related-corporate-entities-enter-guilty https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/backpage-s-co-founder-and-ceo...
- openmosix 9y agoHonest question: does it mean they were really guilty of it, or simply they have been offered a better deal than going through the trial? I guess if somebody accuses me of 93 indictments, which potentially leads to a life sentence vs plead guilty and you'll only make 5 years, I'll plead guilty. I'm asking because there is an implication. If I run a website which does not facilitate human trafficking - but I can get accused and risk 25 years - I'll also plead guilty, even if my website is a fantasy football website.
- mostlyskeptical 9y agoThere's a non insignificant number of people who plead guilty to murder for that same reason (to avoid death penalty) but are later exonerated via DNA evidence.
- iamaelephant 9y agoYou can just say "significant".
- ryan-allen 9y agoYou can also not not say not insignificant.
- axaxs 9y agoOff topic here. But, I see those phrases as different, as most people probably do. I see non insignificant as...a few. If they'd said 'significant', I'd assume a high percentage.
- danso 9y agoHow many of those cases involve defendants who can afford the lawyers that Backpage.com's execs can afford?
- eof 9y agoshows an incredible faith in our justice system.
- mattsfrey 9y agoThese guys were undoubtedly sleazeballs but I find it shocking to see this sudden wave of legistlation and enforcement against prostitution and its fa cilitation regardless. Craigslist, backpages, et al have been around for decades practically and everyone knows what the deal is. I thought we'd be on the edge of legalization, not doing a 180 in 2018. EDIT: To clarify, I don't think any of this has anything to do with the declared intent, and commentary from those in a position to actually know about the issue are virtually universally against shutting down these mediums.
- warent 9y agoLegalization of exploiting women and children? I hope I'm misinterpreting what you're saying
- jschwartzi 9y agoI think they mean legalization of consenting adults selling sex to each other.
- lighthazard 9y agoLegalization of sex work where consenting adult individual(s) gets paid to do things with other consenting adult individual(s).
- azinman2 9y agoThe motivation was those held against their will, not some small percentage of victimless women with healthy psychies and great childhoods and no drug addiction who consciously chose sex work because they think it empowers them.
- hackinthebochs 9y agoHell of a false dichotomy you constructed there.
- odessacubbage 9y ago
- written 9y agoEveryone's repeating the 73% number, like it's some shocking statistic. It's meaningless number in isolation. For example if backpage.com captured 70% of the sex ads market, I'd expect it to also capture the sex ads related crime at the similar rate. If craigslist has 90% of ads for selling beanie babies, it will also have a hand in significant majority of beanie babies selling related crime. So the question should be how big backapage was when it came to sex work ads, to make sense of this number.
- yters 9y agoSo many people willing to go to bat for backpage, but why? It's supposedly a moral opposition to censorship or what not. IMHO, it's really a fear that there will be a general crackdown on sexual content online. Great in my opinion, since porn has done so much to destroy our society. The sooner we censor porn the better.
- Johnny555 9y agoOk, I'll bite -- what has porn done to destroy our society? Granted, I think our society is far from perfect, but pornography seems way down on the list. Then again, I'm out of my porn-buying days, so maybe the proliferation of free porn has more of an effect on the younger set.
- psyc 9y agoAs time goes on, I see fewer people discussing liberty, and more people discussing how to use the federal government to A/B test society for their favorite metrics.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- colorincorrect 9y agoI saw a reposted Facebook post: "I got contacted by 4-5 of my former pimps guaranteeing work safety" This is only driving sex work underground, something that sex workers have suggested would happen years ago
- lilililili 9y agoAs a buyer of commercial sex from consensual adult women, this is some background information: * Consensual sex work doesn’t mean that they’re thrilled to be doing it. Just like you can hate your job you’re consensually employed at. Most of the women I see are doing it to simply make a lot more money in a lot less time and get to see their kids more, do other things, etc. * Backpage was the bottom of the barrel in online sex work. More drug addicts (whom I consider borderline consensual to nonconsensual depending on the severity of their addiction) and pimped girls there than elsewhere, but also some less attractive or less put together consensual sex workers. * Backpage was almost entirely about prostitution, unlike Craigslist. * Post all of this, girls are harder to find for sure. The winners here are people with access to clients (pimps) as well as good escort agencies, as well as well established girls with regular clients. * Internet prostitution brought a higher socioeconomic class of prostitute and client to the marketplace, and took some girls from street sex work to much safer online sex work. * Likely long term impact is a big reduction in the overall volume of commercial sex work with the higher socioeconomic class women and men deciding it is not worth the risk. Markets will return to the street, with fewer participants, higher prices, and more danger for those who remain. * From the utilitarian point of view, whether this is an improvement or not depends on how much more harm you think a pimped girl being raped in a car is compared to a college student getting fucked in a hotel room for $300 to help her pay bills rather than working 30 hours that week in the campus bookstore.
- isaachier 9y agoTo understand the story a little more regarding Backpage and its criminal activities, I'd highly recommend watching "I am Jane Doe" on Netflix. It is a documentary exposing the child prostitution and human trafficking Backdoor facilitated.
- gremlinsinc 9y agoWow: It was involved in 73 percent of all child trafficking cases reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. ... and the CEO only gets 5 years... Pot smokers go to jail longer. He'll probably get off in 6 months, I'd imagine... if he pays the right judge enough $$. He should go to prison for life without parole.