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Notorious website backpage.com has been seized according to NY Daily News.
Sex ads platform Backpage.com was seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Friday hours after its founder's Phoenix home was raided.
Visitors to the site landed on a notice from the federal government announcing its seizure.
"Backpage.com and affiliated websites have been seized as part of an enforcement action by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, with analytical assistance from the Joint Regional Intelligence Center," the announcement read.
Founder's home also raided by the FBI Friday morning.
U.S. Government Seizes backpage.com
The FBI, Justice Department, and other agencies have seized backpage.com, and one of the co-founders had their home raided:
On Friday, federal law enforcement authorities seized Backpage domain names, including Backpage.com and Backpage.ca. In addition, the Arizona Republic reported that on Friday morning, law enforcement raided the Sedona-area home of Michael Lacey, a co-founder of the site.
For years, Backpage has acted with impunity as a place that offered thinly veiled online prostitution ads. In December 2016, Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer and his co-defendants beat back a state prosecution in California.
Sex workers aren't happy, and could be endangered by the move as well as the recent passage of the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act (SESTA). SESTA is not yet in effect.
Also at CNN, WSJ, The Hill, and The Verge.
Previously: Supreme Court Chief Justice Blocks Congressional Subpoena Over First Amendment Rights
Backpage's Dallas Offices Raided, CEO Charged With "Pimping"
"Pimping" Charges Against Backpage Executives Dismissed
After Release of U.S. Senate Report, Backpage Shuts Down U.S. Adult Section
Related: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act - 20 Years of Protecting Intermediaries
Craigslist Removes Personals Sections in the U.S.
(Score: -1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @04:25PM (32 children)
This summary puts it in a positive light. But lets put it in less than glowing terms. There was human trafficking going on there. If it was just some people hooking up to get their swerv on no biggie. The FBI ended up there. Someone told them how the system works...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Saturday April 07 2018, @04:33PM (5 children)
If you wanted to prevent robberies, and all the robbers regularly posted their contact info at the Robber Grill, would you close the place ?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by requerdanos on Saturday April 07 2018, @05:25PM (3 children)
Hmm. Thinking about it, I guess I would just keep preventing the robberies as they were announced.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Arik on Saturday April 07 2018, @07:26PM (2 children)
s/keep/start
This is assuming the goal is to prevent crimes. Clearly that is not the case.
So what is the goal then? Perhaps apprehending the criminals?
That's more plausible, but it still doesn't fit. If that were the goal LE would be ecstatic to have sites like this in service, a constantly updated list of leads to work, right?
Yet that does not seem to be the reaction either.
So what is the real goal? It seems to be one that is familiar from history, a common theme from many times and place - simply to push it out of sight. We don't really want to free the slaves, we just don't want to have to see that they are slaves, perhaps.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday April 08 2018, @04:02AM
For a while now the Portland Police Bureau was heavily into backpages.com so they could regularly supply a list of johns to The Oregonian.
With backpages and craigslist being knocked out, it will be two or three days for their replacements to show up in the SERPS.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by wisnoskij on Tuesday April 10 2018, @01:11AM
The goal is to punish crimes, as that is the charge of law enforcement.
they raided Backpage.com because it was a criminal enterprise that conducted many thousands to millions of crimes on an annual basis. Its very existence was a crime, I doubt that law enforcement even have the power to allow crimes to continue to be committed in perpetuity forever, simply because they benefit form said crimes.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday April 07 2018, @08:08PM
That's the exact argument of why this will hurt trafficking victims. A treasure trove of intelligence for both law enforcement and NGOs alike.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Saturday April 07 2018, @04:39PM (23 children)
Evidence needed. Prostitution does not always equal human trafficking.
As far as I can tell from the evidence so far presented, what Backpage was doing was no more illegal than what escort services do.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Informative) by requerdanos on Saturday April 07 2018, @05:36PM (1 child)
Well, fortunately not a lot of effort is necessary [yandex.com] to find more evidence.
"An advertisement on a website called Backpage, allegedly soliciting prostitution, led police to a young girl who was reported missing in North Carolina, according to a police report released on Thursday’s human trafficking arrests.", Backpage advertisement helps police find missing girl in human trafficking case https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/crime/article169775157.html [myrtlebeachonline.com]
"The documents show that Backpage hired a company in the Philippines to lure advertisers — and customers seeking sex — from sites run by its competitors.", Backpage has always claimed it doesn’t control sex-related ads. New documents show otherwise., https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/backpage-has-always-claimed-it-doesnt-control-sex-related-ads-new-documents-show-otherwise/2017/07/10/b3158ef6-553c-11e7-b38e-35fd8e0c288f_story.html?utm_term=.483a9ed46a5e [washingtonpost.com]
"A mother whose daughter was trafficked on Backpage at the age of 15 was among some of the women who have lost lawsuits against Backpage for trafficking and prostitution charges. Her daughter was trafficked on Backpage for nearly 3 months.", Backpage.com and Human Trafficking, http://www.frcblog.com/2017/07/backpagecom-and-human-trafficking-what-christian-americas-response/ [frcblog.com]
"Dorchy was identified as a suspect and was traced to a motel room in Prince George’s County. Serving a search warrant on the room, police found Dorchy and three females, 17 to 24. Dorchy is suspected of forcing the women to perform sex acts for money after placing photos of them on the website Backpage", Md. man charged with human trafficking via Backpage; 4 victims freed, http://wjla.com/news/local/md-man-charged-with-human-trafficking-via-backpage-4-victims-freed [wjla.com]
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Saturday April 07 2018, @05:41PM
But, it is apparently more trouble [yandex.com] than I initially thought.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @06:13PM (17 children)
True prostitution doesn't always equal human trafficking, there are other horrible reasons why people engage in prostitution rather than be a legal, and possibly somewhat slutty, girlfriend. None of them are particularly good. Lack of access to decent paying jobs, extreme low self esteem due to sexual abuse, being LGBTQ and the image issues that can result from the hate speech.
The whole happy hooker idea is something that's far less common than people like you suggest, assuming there are any at all. Being a prostitute isn't great and a significant portion of the client base are paying for sex for a reason.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @06:22PM (13 children)
I don't care if there was actual sex trafficking going on there. Shutting down the entire website merely because of that is blatantly unconstitutional.
The vast majority of jobs aren't great, but for some reason, many people only get angry when the job relates to sex. More nonsensical puritanism, perhaps?
The main issue with prostitution is that it's currently illegal and unregulated, making the job worse than it would otherwise be. It's similar to drugs.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @06:35PM (8 children)
Most other jobs don't come with the risk of STIs and pregnancy that prostitution does. If you can't conceive of there being real social problems that come from prostitution that don't come from other jobs, then you're a great fool.
There's also a non-sexual taboo when it comes to selling people's bodies. Most jobs that people do is an exchange of _time_ for money, when it comes to prostitution, it's more of an exchange of _body_ for money which is uncomfortably close to slavery and indentured servitude for most people.
But, the biggest issue is just how challenging it is to tell the difference between a prostitute that's voluntarily working as a prostitute and somebody that's a sex slave. I don't think that most people paying for sex would do so if they thought the person was being forced to do so, but the reality tends to be that it's harder to tell the difference than what might imagine. We already have tons of problems figuring out which employers are breaking the employment laws we have due to the employees having to take massive risks when complaining. Do you really think that selling sex is going to be easier when most people won't admit if they're paying for sex?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Saturday April 07 2018, @07:43PM (5 children)
Plumbing comes with significantly increased risk of STDs and many non-STD diseases; steelworker comes with risks of falling off buildings; martial arts and football (to name only two) come with risks of brain damage and all manner of other serious injuries; etc., etc., etc. We use regulation and education to improve the level of informed consent in all of these pursuits. We don't do it with sex-as-a-service because the legislators and a fair number of their constituents are addled.
Plumber is a particularly good example. People are willing to pay someone to dig through their shit-clogged toilets. But if risk is the excuse, they think that paying someone to fiddle with their junk or perhaps exchange (lower) body fluids is so much worse that they make it illegal. But then again if you're not paying, it's fine. Do you really think risk is a serious player in the reasoning here?
When we start telling people what risks they can choose to take strictly on the basis of our knowledge that there are risks, we're screwing up. Badly.
What we should be doing is trying to make as sure as possible that people are informed of risk so that they are making as-informed-as-practical choices, while seeing to it that they are not forced into the underground, unregulated, and far-more-dangerous economy for making those choices.
When we start forcing our taboos on other people, we're screwing up. There should be no right "not to be offended." I am incredibly offended when people inculcate their children with superstition. Should I be able to force them to not do so because it offends me? Of course not. They're your kids. You should be free to raise them the way you see fit, just as I am and do (did.)
Selling people's bodies without their informed consent is a problem, and (obviously) should not be permitted, and should be punished harshly. But, back to plumbers, the person running the plumbing business sells "their" plumber's (meaning, those plumbers that person employs) services with their informed consent. They'll come right to the privacy of your home and dig right through your shit, and you'll pay through the nose for this type of risky service, just as you should. This is perfectly okay; and it should be okay. Likewise, if someone who is in a state of informed consent has their services sold to come to your home and meddle with your sacred little pee-pee, it should be perfectly fine.
If prostitution were licensed and regulated (as it bloody well should be), then this would not be an issue at all. We would have above board licensed services to select from and those people would be highly unlikely to be under any form of duress any worse than anyone else who has to work to eat. The fact that it is illegal and has to operate below the surface of legality is what makes this a problem.
(Score: 4, Informative) by edIII on Saturday April 07 2018, @08:15PM (3 children)
If you want to see a licensed and regulated place in action, look no further than Pahrump, Nevada. There is reason why prostitution is relatively hard to find in Las Vegas, and certainly doesn't pay as well as the licensed and regulated places. Pahrump is like a 30 minute ride away from Las Vegas in a shuttle, which companies are operating.
There's a whole show on HBO about how the place works. If we were really interested in learning about that environment, we have one to study.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @11:57PM (2 children)
The Wiki page on Nevada prostitution [wikipedia.org] seems to contradict what you're saying. I'm not sure what their methodology is for measuring a black market is; but illegal prostitution seems to be doing most of the business. It just makes common sense--if you're staying in Vegas are you going to cart your ass all the way out to the middle of no where, or are you going to suss out hookers *right there*. Also, it looks like the working conditions in the brothels are pretty draconian. From the hooker's PoV, hanging out in bars, doing "massage", etc. in Vegas and being independent is probably worth the risk vs. being caged up in one of those isolated sex shops.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Sunday April 08 2018, @01:23AM (1 child)
Nevada doesn't have prostitution. The boonies have prostitution, leaving the black market to the actual market, the cities.
Exactly.
It's a half-assed, dumb-shit way to go about it, and of course it doesn't work well.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday April 08 2018, @04:00AM
Whether to permit prostitution is left up to the counties.
Mustang Ranch was the first mostly-legal brothel. All the "buildings" were trailers. The Ranch was located near the borders of three different counties, so as its legality came and went they could just redomicile to a different county.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 08 2018, @06:36PM
Writing software comes with the risk of increased likelihood of heart-failure, obesity, hair-loss and arthritis.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @07:45PM
There are many legal jobs that involve a decently-high risk of death even after safety measures are implemented.
The social problems mainly stem from bigotry and irrationality. If prostitution were legal and regulated, many of these issues could be greatly reduced. This is what authoritarian fools don't seem to comprehend.
And your body as well. You're not the one who decides what to do with that time. You have to complete specific tasks dictated by others. This involves using your body. But it doesn't matter because no sex is involved.
It can be indentured servitude or slavery if someone is forced to be a prostitute. Otherwise, no it's not. You don't get to call it those things just because sex is involved.
That's once again mainly only an issue because it's illegal.
It's still less of a risk than having those jobs be on a black market where problems are solved with violence. I hope you don't fall victim to a nirvana fallacy.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 08 2018, @03:12PM
You've only worked pussy jobs then. Consider yourself lucky and don't comment on the subject.
(Score: 0, Troll) by frojack on Saturday April 07 2018, @06:49PM (2 children)
Seriously? Did you get in your black robe and bring your bailiff to make that ruling?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @07:49PM (1 child)
Nope. I don't worship the government like you apparently do, and can therefore form opinions of my own. I don't see how taking down an entire website like this is anything but a violation of the first amendment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 08 2018, @03:15PM
The constitution is part of the government and you worship it like a holy text even though you don't understand it.
Somehow there are a lot of you.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday April 08 2018, @04:05AM
It's legal in Switzerland, the UK and Mexico.
Back in the mid-60s, some Naval officers' wives went shopping in Tijuana. They were all arrested then forced to buy prostitution licenses.
That's just the one instance of that that I know specifically about. I've always puzzled over whether my mother was one of those wives.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @06:47PM
Not all prostitution is street walkers and crack dens. There are plenty of escorts who make good money providing good company to wealthy individuals who value quality. I suspect that there are far more "happy hookers" than there are trafficked minors.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday April 08 2018, @05:34PM (1 child)
So by your same logic, nobody would willingly go into pornography, stripping, or anything else related to combining business and sex. And yet, they do: I know some folks who do those kinds of jobs, and they've at least never let on that they were particularly unhappy doing that job. For example, I was chatting with somebody at a party who works as a stripper, and she basically got into it because she likes dancing, she's completely comfortable being naked in front of people, it pays well, and there are far more jobs available for strippers than there are for professional dancers. And a friend-of-a-friend was a SuicideGirl for a while, and she apparently found the job fun and relatively easy money.
What percentage of sex workers are doing so by choice versus by coercion is an open question, but it's known to be a non-zero number on both sides. Also, most of the people I've talked to that work in human trafficking prevention think that making prostitution itself illegal is counter-productive, because it gives victims of sex trafficking an incentive to avoid contact with the legal authorities that might be able to help them.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 08 2018, @06:40PM
Point in case - at almost the same time Sweden outlawed prostitution and Germany outlawed pimping. Guess which country saw a huge increase in women willing to sell sex?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @08:47PM (1 child)
True, but human trafficking always includes prostitution.
(Score: 3, Informative) by JNCF on Sunday April 08 2018, @02:41AM
Incorrect. Human trafficking includes slave labor for non-sexual purposes. Modern example: [washingtonpost.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @12:45AM
Turns out the people on backpage were doing the trafficking....
https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/backpage.com-pleads-guilty-to-human-trafficking-in-texas [texasattorneygeneral.gov]
You wanted evidence. There you go. I seriously doubt the FBI 'just' heard about them...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 07 2018, @07:01PM
hmm, is that like The Lawnmower Man [imdb.com]? how does that work exactly? they may have had postings from (ostensibly non-backpage) parties that advertised for possibly yet another party who *may*(unlikely) been forcing someone to have sex for money but that's not really the same thing now is it? just because police depts don't do shit about prostitution (except maybe take a cut)(not that they should be involved unless actual force is being used), now we have to have the kid killers/terrorist creators coming in and raiding website owners? and the braying jackasses trumpet their approval, as usual.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday April 08 2018, @09:31PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves