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In response to the passage of the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), Craigslist has removed Personals sections for U.S. users:
Classified advertising website Craigslist has closed its dating ads section in the US, in response to a new bill against sex trafficking.
The bill states that websites can now be punished for "facilitating" prostitution and sex trafficking.
Ads promoting prostitution and child sexual abuse have previously been posted in the "personals" section of Craigslist.
The company said keeping the section open in the US was too much of a risk.
In a statement, Craigslist said the new law would "subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully".
Reddit also took the opportunity to ban a number of subreddits (list not exhaustive), including some like /r/escorts, but many more broadly related to "transactions for goods and services".
Also at Ars Technica and The Verge.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 27 2018, @04:09AM
The room appeared to be a luxurious office. An expensive-looking desk and chair sat in the center of the room. There was a man sitting in the chair, typing away on the computer. The man's name was Peterson, and he was an employee at this facility.
"Hmmm... Now, who am I with today? Oh, that one! Excellent! Hehe!" Peterson said, as he giggled like a child.
The truth was that Peterson thoroughly enjoyed his job; it was like a dream to him. Peterson had somehow stumbled upon this secretive place at just the right time, and was hired immediately after a long discussion with the owner. Indeed, there probably weren't any other jobs that matched Peterson's preferences so closely. The man remembered that it was almost time to work, and got up and left the room.
Peterson walked down an empty, silent hallway until he saw a room labeled "E12". He unlocked the door and entered. Every surface on the inside of the room was padded, and no furnature was present. A small boy was sitting in the corner of the room, sobbing uncontrollably. Seeing the boy's wretched state made Peterson grin. It was time to begin.
Violation. The boy squealed. Peterson could not help but think that the boy's reactions have dulled, and so it was almost time to discard it. Company policy stated that resources aren't to be thrown away until they were completely broken, so Peterson simply had to enjoy the last few scraps of entertainment the boy could offer. Suddenly, a vomit-inducing snapping sound was heard.
"Oh! Looks like I got a bit too excited. We'll need a replacement for this one." Peterson muttered while wearing a revolting smile. Although it would have been better to prolong the boy's motion a bit longer, small errors like this were within acceptable range. Peterson made sure to discard the corpse into a trash can before heading to his next assigned location.
A classroom. There were hard chairs with desks attached to them neatly arranged in rows and columns. Children - both girls and boys - sat at the desks, their eyes gazing at an image on the wall created by a projector. No, it would be more correct to say that they were forced to gaze: Their eyelids were forcibly held open with various instruments, and their bodies were tightly bound to the chairs.
The projector displayed a slideshow featuring pictures of all the magnanimous employees at the facility. Childish music played as the slideshow displayed picture after picture, and an out-of-place recording repeatedly asked the children who their favorite was. The children were screaming, and the creepy-looking men watching them were grinning. Oh, yes, they grinned. And the more they grinned, the more garbage the facility output.
One day, the men became more playful than usual; nothing remained after that but silence. It was time to harvest more resources.