7 ms·

Anyone who sits down and reads the Senate report (not mentioned in the article until about 75% of the way though) and is still on the side of Backpage.com is pr

Anyone who sits down and reads the Senate report (not mentioned in the article until about 75% of the way though) and is still on the side of Backpage.com is probably a monster. The report makes no allegation not directly derived from internal company policies, documents, emails, and sworn employee testimony. Backpage.com was an active participant in human trafficking.

Miner49er 7y ago
I skimmed it, and maybe I didn't see the worst stuff, but based on what I saw it doesn't seem as clear cut as you make it out to be. A lot of what they did seemed to be to help sex workers. This had the unfortunate side effect of also helping traffickers. Again, maybe I didn't see everything.
Glyptodon 7y ago
No matter how terrible Backpage is, legal chicanery isn't befitting and not what we should hope for from federal agencies.
- deogeo 7y ago
  Don't worry - I have it on good authority that it will only be used against Bad Guys.
gamblor956 7y ago
Agreed, but in the US much of our legal process protections are made in cases with the most heinous defendants because they are the ones that test the system the most.
Fins 7y ago
Oh sure, a report created to justify a massive assault on both speech and rights of (possibly unsympathetic, but still) sexworkers makes the chose scapegoat look bad. Not exactly surprising. Just as the absence of any significant numbers of,you know, actual sex traffickers being caught anywhere either before or after BP's shutdown.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
monksy 7y ago
The only thing that is supporting the human trafficking "industry" (let's face it.. it's organized and it's filling a demand in the market) is having that kind of work made illegal. It forces the demand and supply into the black market. There is and always has been a demand and (willing and consenting) supply for those services. The best you can do is to put in a framework in which they can do so legally and safely. It's not going to knock out all trafficking. But when you have a superior service that's legal, safe and reliable. You're going to lose the financial benefit of running it on the black market. (Also you'll end up having an entire framework to deal with crimes related to the work [i.e. abuse, violence related, etc])
- anbop 7y ago
  So the solution to trafficked 14 year olds is to legalize 14 year old prostitutes?
  - monksy 7y ago
    Never said that. Illegal activities would still be considered illegal, it's just the industry would be legal within a set of regulations. Take a baseline for the age of consent for the entire nation, maybe go conservative about who can work in that industry. (Say 18, or 21, etc) Other countries have legalized the work, have very stringent guidelines, and have addressed the societal issues that come about with having it.
  - skinnymuch 7y ago
    No. Is there a good reason we don’t have a well regulated set of laws and enforcement for legal sex work for people 18 (or 21) and up?
    - anbop 7y ago
      Because legalizing sex work has empirically not reduced the amount of sex trafficking / nonconsensual sex work that occurs. That’s what happened in Amsterdam and why they reduced the size of their brothel economy.
skinnymuch 7y ago
You make it sound so clear cut and yourself as such a virtuous person knowing who is a monster and who isn’t. Has human trafficking gone down since Backpage went down? Has sex work gotten better or worse for sex workers since Backpage went down? Have pimps and other assialiants and middle men of [rougher] sex work and trafficking stopped doing their work since Backpage went down? Or been caught more? If nothing actually changed, but now all we have are the morally bankrupt Backpage founders fighting against government overreach and abuse, why are people monsters for being against what the government is doing (and thus in a way, on the side of Backpage.com)?
zokula 7y ago
Stop the hyperbole. I'll be on backpages side way before I'm on some puritan's law enforcement side.
- scarface74 7y ago
  If it were just about consenting adults I would agree. While I’m the last person to preach “think about the children” in most cases, I draw the line at child sex trafficking.
JamesBarney 7y ago
The report is 53 pages, mind pointing out the damning pages?

Miner49er 7y ago

I skimmed it, and maybe I didn't see the worst stuff, but based on what I saw it doesn't seem as clear cut as you make it out to be. A lot of what they did seemed to be to help sex workers. This had the unfortunate side effect of also helping traffickers. Again, maybe I didn't see everything.

Glyptodon 7y ago

No matter how terrible Backpage is, legal chicanery isn't befitting and not what we should hope for from federal agencies.

deogeo 7y ago
Don't worry - I have it on good authority that it will only be used against Bad Guys.

gamblor956 7y ago

Agreed, but in the US much of our legal process protections are made in cases with the most heinous defendants because they are the ones that test the system the most.

Fins 7y ago

Oh sure, a report created to justify a massive assault on both speech and rights of (possibly unsympathetic, but still) sexworkers makes the chose scapegoat look bad. Not exactly surprising. Just as the absence of any significant numbers of,you know, actual sex traffickers being caught anywhere either before or after BP's shutdown.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

monksy 7y ago

The only thing that is supporting the human trafficking "industry" (let's face it.. it's organized and it's filling a demand in the market) is having that kind of work made illegal. It forces the demand and supply into the black market. There is and always has been a demand and (willing and consenting) supply for those services. The best you can do is to put in a framework in which they can do so legally and safely. It's not going to knock out all trafficking. But when you have a superior service that's legal, safe and reliable. You're going to lose the financial benefit of running it on the black market. (Also you'll end up having an entire framework to deal with crimes related to the work [i.e. abuse, violence related, etc])

anbop 7y ago
So the solution to trafficked 14 year olds is to legalize 14 year old prostitutes?
- monksy 7y ago
  Never said that. Illegal activities would still be considered illegal, it's just the industry would be legal within a set of regulations. Take a baseline for the age of consent for the entire nation, maybe go conservative about who can work in that industry. (Say 18, or 21, etc) Other countries have legalized the work, have very stringent guidelines, and have addressed the societal issues that come about with having it.
- skinnymuch 7y ago
  No. Is there a good reason we don’t have a well regulated set of laws and enforcement for legal sex work for people 18 (or 21) and up?
  - anbop 7y ago
    Because legalizing sex work has empirically not reduced the amount of sex trafficking / nonconsensual sex work that occurs. That’s what happened in Amsterdam and why they reduced the size of their brothel economy.

skinnymuch 7y ago

You make it sound so clear cut and yourself as such a virtuous person knowing who is a monster and who isn’t. Has human trafficking gone down since Backpage went down? Has sex work gotten better or worse for sex workers since Backpage went down? Have pimps and other assialiants and middle men of [rougher] sex work and trafficking stopped doing their work since Backpage went down? Or been caught more? If nothing actually changed, but now all we have are the morally bankrupt Backpage founders fighting against government overreach and abuse, why are people monsters for being against what the government is doing (and thus in a way, on the side of Backpage.com)?

zokula 7y ago

Stop the hyperbole. I'll be on backpages side way before I'm on some puritan's law enforcement side.

scarface74 7y ago
If it were just about consenting adults I would agree. While I’m the last person to preach “think about the children” in most cases, I draw the line at child sex trafficking.

JamesBarney 7y ago

The report is 53 pages, mind pointing out the damning pages?