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Wikipedia

Backpage

February 15, 2024

For the Australian television series, see Back Page Live. For the American films, see Back Page (film) and The Back Page (film).

Backpage.com was a classified advertising website founded in 2004 by the alternative newspaper chain New Times Inc./New Times Media (later known as Village Voice Media or VVM) as a rival to Craigslist.[1]

Backpage
Type of businessWeb communications
Available inEnglish, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Russian, Chinese, Finnish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, and Turkish
Founded2004 (2004)
OwnerAtlantische Bedrijven CV
Former owner: Village Voice Media
Launched2004; 20 years ago (2004)
Current statusSeized by the United States FBI on April 6, 2018; 5 years ago (2018-04-06)

Similar to Craigslist, Backpage let users post ads to categories such as personals, automotive, rentals, jobs and adult services. It soon became the second largest online classified site in the United States.[2]

Craigslist closed its "Adult Services" section in 2010 in response to pressure from state attorneys general and other critics claiming the section facilitated prostitution.[3] Much of Craigslist's share of the adult ad market migrated to other sites, with Backpage being the main beneficiary.[1]

Craigslist's former critics focused on Backpage, which resisted moves to censor the site until January 2017; Backpage closed their adult section prior to a Congressional hearing.[4]

On April 6, 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the seizure and takedown of Backpage, part of a 93-count indictment of seven former owners and executives, charging them with facilitating prostitution under the U.S. Travel Act, as well as money laundering and conspiracy.[5]

In July 2018, a superseding indictment increased the number of counts to 100.[6] In August 2018, one defendant accepted a plea deal.[7] The remaining six defendants pled not guilty to all charges, and a trial by jury began on September 1, 2021.[8]

On September 14, 2021, federal Judge Susan Brnovich declared a mistrial in the case, saying the prosecution and their witnesses made excessive references to child sex trafficking in a case where the defendants are not charged with that crime. This "is something I can't overlook and will not overlook," she said, setting a status hearing for October 5.[9] At that hearing, Brnovich scheduled a new trial for February 22, 2022.[10]

Brnovich recused herself over a conflict of interest with her husband[11] who was Attorney General on October 29, 2021, and federal Judge Diane Humetewa was chosen by lot to replace her.[12] (Humetewa became the fourth judge to be assigned the case so far.)[12] Reason magazine reported that a new trial had been delayed as the defense appealed Humetewa's denial of a motion to dismiss the case.[13]

On September 21, 2022, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the defendants' request that the court reverse Humetewa and dismiss the case because a new trial would violate the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on Double Jeopardy.[14] The panel wrote that "the government's misconduct" during the trial "was not so egregious as to compel a finding" that prosecutors intended to provoke a mistrial, the legal standard for dismissal in this instance.[15]

On July 31, 2023, co-owner and co-founder James Larkin committed suicide about one week before the new trial was scheduled to start.[16]

In November 2023 a jury found co-founder Michael Lacey guilty of one count of money laundering and acquitted him of another money laundering charge, but deadlocked on 84 other charges leading to a second mistrial.[17]

History edit

Craigslist and Backpage edit

Craigslist's founder, Craig Newmark, started Craigslist as a free e-mail distribution list in 1995, featuring events and other listings in the San Francisco area. Newmark registered "craigslist.org," taking the site live in 1996. In 2000, the company expanded outside of San Francisco, and by 2009, it served over 700 cities in 70 countries.[18]

Non-commercial users post free ads in most categories on Craigslist.[19] 2006, then-San Francisco Bay Guardian executive editor Tim Redmond wrote Craigslist "pretty-much wiped-out traditional daily newspaper classified ads" in 115 U.S. markets.[20] A 2009 Pew Research Center study found that between the years 2000–2008, newspapers lost almost half their classified ad sales to Craigslist and similar sites.[21]

Based in Phoenix, Ariz., the New Times chain of alt-weeklies started in 1970, with the founding of what became the Phoenix New Times as a response to the Vietnam War and the murders at Kent State.[22] Under the leadership of executive editor Michael Lacey and publisher Jim Larkin, the company expanded to several other cities, eventually merging with New York's Village Voice and other papers to become Village Voice Media in 2005. The new company boasted 17 alt-weeklies coast-to-coast.[23]

As with other outlets in the alternative press, New Times' papers were free, relying on advertising, especially classified advertising to earn money.[24] To counter Craigslist's influence on a vital revenue stream, Lacey and Larkin in 2004 founded Backpage.com, which WIRED magazine described as "a bare-bones inter-face wrapped in Facebooky blue, similar to Craigslist in form and function."[25]

The site's name was a nod to the classified ads in the back section of every New Times paper, "culminating in a premium-priced ad showcase on the paper's back page."[24] The idea for Backpage.com came from New Times salesman Carl Ferrer; Larkin put him in charge of the new venture.[25]

Backpage helped sustain first New Times', then Village Voice Media's papers, and expanded to become the second-largest online classifieds site next to Craigslist.[26] Lacey and Larkin sold Village Voice Media to company executives in 2012.[27] The pair sold Backpage to Ferrer in 2015.[25]

Craigslist and Backpage had listings for a variety of goods and services, such as real estate, yard sales, personals, work wanted and jobs offered, and adult-themed advertising.

Reason magazine wrote in an August 2018 article, "Like Craigslist, Backpage was divided into categories for different types of posts, most of which had nothing to do with sex work. But the 'adult' wing of the site, sub-divided into sections for strippers, 'phones and websites,' 'dom and fetish,' 'male escorts,' 'escorts,' and more, garnered the most attention."[24]

For Craigslist and Backpage, their adult sections would prove to be public relations nightmares, with state attorneys general and activists condemning them as havens for ads for prostitution and more.[28] Reporters and academics noted similar adult advertising is a staple of alt-weeklies for many years, and could be found in other print outlets, such as the Yellow Pages and even some dailies.[29][30][31]

Escort 'Erotic Services' edit

By 2006, Craigslist's nearly-all-free business model dominated the classified ad market.[32] For years, adult listings under Craigslist's "erotic services" section were free. That changed as the company faced calls from state attorneys general and other groups to restrict or do away with all adult ads on the site.

Craigslist's critics often conflated consensual adult prostitution with the far more serious crimes of coerced adult prostitution and child prostitution. The latter two are regarded as forms of "sex trafficking" under federal law,[33] though sex trafficking involving children is sometimes called "child sex trafficking."

For example, in 2007, Atlanta's mayor slammed Craigslist for allowing itself to be used "as a means of promoting and enabling child prostitution,"[34] asking the site remove all ads for sexual services, not just those suspected of involving child sex trafficking.

In March 2008, Connecticut's then-Attorney General Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to Craigslist demanding that the site remove its adult ads, which the AG alleged were promoting prostitution. Blumenthal threatened possible legal action, stating that a "Connecticut woman" had recently been arrested for prostitution after advertising sexual services on Craigslist.[35]

 
U.S. Senator from Connecticut Richard Blumenthal: As state AG, he pressured Craigslist to drop its adult ads; as Senator, he became a vociferous opponent of Backpage. (Senate Democrats / CC-BY 2.0)

Techdirt editor Mike Masnick observed that Craigslist was unfairly being blamed for posts by third parties, writing that Craigslist is "the tool provider, not the content provider,"[36] and that it was not liable for third-party content under Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act.

In November 2008, Craigslist entered into an agreement with Blumenthal and Attorneys General from 39 other states, agreeing to charge customers $5-$10 to post adult ads. Craigslist also agreed to require a working phone number, and that payments be made by credit card, making the ads traceable.[37]

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), a government-funded nonprofit established as an information clearinghouse on missing and exploited kids, joined the Craigslist-Blumenthal agreement. NCMEC President Ernie Allen claimed that the sex traffickers of children "no longer parade them on the streets of America's cities," but now, "market them via the Internet."[38]

Still, the pressure on Craigslist continued. In March 2009, Cook County, Illinois Sheriff Tom Dart sued Craigslist in federal court, claiming that Craigslist's erotic services section was a "public nuisance", referring to it as "the single largest source of prostitution in America".[39][40]

In May 2009, South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster threatened Craigslist with a possible criminal investigation over the ads, and Illinois AG Lisa Madigan said that the "walls were closing in" for Craigslist, labeling it "an Internet brothel."[41] Later that month, Craigslist announced that it was replacing its "erotic services" section with a new, heavily-monitored "adult" section.[42]

Articles about Craigslist's transition to its new "adult" section often mentioned Philip Markoff, an alleged armed robber and murderer dubbed "the Craigslist killer" because police said he targeted his victims through the site's erotic services section.[43] (Years later, in 2016, one industry watchdog claimed that ads posted to Craigslist by its users were linked to more than 100 murders.)[44][45]

On October 20, 2009, Craigslist scored a legal win in Dart v. Craigslist, Inc., with federal Judge John F. Grady denying Dart's attempt to censor the site. Grady rejected the notion that the listings in Craigslist's adult category were obviously illegal, noting that a striptease artist advertising on the site was "not prostitution."[46]

Craigslist had argued that it cooperated with law enforcement, including Dart, and that direct sex-for-money ads were banned by its terms of use. Craigslist further argued that it was shielded by Section 230.[47]

 
Screenshot of the webpage on April 13, 2018, following the seizure of Backpage on April 6, 2018.

Judge Grady agreed that Section 230 protected the site from liability, writing that, under the law, "Intermediaries are not culpable for 'aiding and abetting' their customers who misuse their services to commit unlawful acts."

Despite the ruling, Blumenthal continued his campaign against the classified ads giant, penning a letter to Craigslist joined by 17 other attorneys general. The AGs called on the site to rid itself of all adult ads, though the AGs recognized that Craigslist "may lose considerable revenue" as a result.[48]

Masnick and other commentators defended Craigslist, observing that the site was making money off the ads because Blumenthal and other state AGs asked Craigslist to charge a fee for them.[49][50]

In September 2010, Craigslist shut down its adult section, initially leaving only a notice that read "Censored" in place of the adult listings. It later took down the "Censored" notice, and confirmed the demise of the section.[51] The New York Times observed that "advocacy groups and attorneys general" went after Craigslist in part because the site was "widely known," but the coalition would now set their sights on other targets.[52]

One year later, in an interview with The Guardian, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster admitted that the decision to nix the ads troubled him.

"For a long time we tried to do what, in our minds, was the principled thing. We ended up doing the pragmatic thing," he said.[53]

Backpage and adult advertising edit

After Craigslist ended the adult section, some adult listings almost immediately migrated to the Backpage's "personals" section.[54][55] They scattered to other sites as well, but Backpage, already number two in the classified ads market, received the most of the post-Craigslist-era adult-content migrated listings.[56] Many of the same controversies regarding content moderation and adult advertising that plagued Craigslist would now target Backpage.[57]

In an internal email after Craigslist's takedown of its adult category, CEO Ferrer acknowledged the coming challenge.

"It is an opportunity for us. Also a time when we need to make sure our content is not illegal," he wrote.[58]

In September 2010, a Missouri girl sued Village Voice Media, claiming that she'd been trafficked at age 14 via ads placed on the site, and that Backpage had been negligent.[59] A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, based on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.[60]

A month after the suit was filed, Backpage hired former federal prosecutor and NCMEC board member Hemanshu Nigam to come up with a strategic plan to combat the misuse of the site for trafficking. Nigam and Backpage consulted with anti-trafficking organizations about measures to take, such as preventing the use of suggestive terms such as "Lolita," "incest" and "new in town." According to WIRED, Backpage had implemented most of these new protocols by January 2011.[61]

VVM's news coverage cast a skeptical eye on the issue of sex trafficking, accusing the media and anti-trafficking organizations of wrongly conflating sex trafficking with consensual sex work, sometimes referred to as prostitution.[62] In a series of investigative pieces beginning in early 2011, VVM criticized and debunked many misleading statistics and assertions regarding sex trafficking. In a March 23, 2011, piece, reporter Nick Pinto questioned the methodology of a study by the Women's Funding Network claiming that the number of girls being trafficked had risen "exponentially" in three states, calling it "junk science."[63] Similarly, the series, which ran in several VVM papers, debunked the much-criticized urban legend that the Super Bowl brings with it a spike in sex trafficking to the game's host city.[64] The series looked into the often repeated claim that 100,000 to 300,000 children were "at risk" of commercial sexual exploitation in the U.S. VVM's reporters found the figure to be based on the faulty assumptions of a flawed study, with one expert saying the study "has no scientific credibility to it."[65]

In October 2011, in a full page ad in The New York Times, 36 clergymen demanded that VVM and Backpage remove the latter's adult classifieds section, citing reports of adult ads connected to underage prostitution, stating, "Even if one minor is sold for sex, it is one too many."[66]

In a response to the ad, VVM asserted that it had "extensive working relationships with law enforcement from FBI to the local police", and claiming it had "spent millions of dollars and dedicated countless resources to protecting children from those who would misuse an adult site".[67]

According to both Reason and WIRED, the cooperation between law enforcement and Backpage was genuine, with Backpage receiving praise from various police agencies for its help in finding trafficked persons and convicting their exploiters. In May 2011, the FBI awarded a certificate of recognition to Ferrer, then VP of Backpage, "for your outstanding cooperation and assistance in connection with an investigation of great importance."[1][24]

In November 2011, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women organized a demonstration outside of The Village Voice's offices in New York City, with some people chanting slogans and waving signs in protest against "Backpage.com's facilitation of sex trafficking."[68]

Backpage and Village Voice split edit

Increasingly, Backpage critics and law enforcement accused Backpage of being a hub for sex trafficking of both adults and minors[69][70][71][72][73][74][75] despite claims by the website that it sought to block ads suspected of child sex trafficking or prostitution[11] and reported hundreds per month to the NCMEC, which in turn notified law enforcement.[12] [13]

Backpage supporters claimed that by providing prompt and detailed information about suspicious postings to law enforcement, including phone numbers, credit card numbers and IP addresses, the website helped protect minors from trafficking. They contended that shutting down Backpage would drive traffickers to other places on the internet that would be less forthcoming about crucial information for law enforcement.[73][76][77]

Numerous writers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) legal experts and law enforcement officials including the Electronic Frontier Foundation,[78][79] the Internet Archive,[80] and the Cato Institute,[81] argued that freedom of speech and potentially the internet itself would be threatened if adult-themed ads were prohibited on Backpage. These groups cited both the First Amendment as well as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act,[82] which holds that service providers were not liable for content produced by third parties.[82][83]

In 2012, at the behest of a number of NGO's including Fair Girls and NCMEC, Fitzgibbon Media (at the time, a well-known progressive/liberal public relations agency) created a multimedia campaign to garner support for the anti-Backpage position. They enlisted support from musicians, politicians, journalists, media companies and retailers.

 
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof (left) wrote several pieces denouncing Village Voice Media; VVM responded by criticizing Kristof's journalism. (DFID-UK Department of International Development)

(In 2015, Fitzgibbon Media closed its doors after its founder, Trevor Fitzgibbon, was accused of sexual harassment and assault by female employees of the company.[84][85] Prosecutors declined to press charges. Fitzgibbon apologized, saying he was "sincerely sorry for my behavior and for any women who were harmed".[86])

The Fitzgibbon campaign created a greater public dialogue, both pro and con, regarding Backpage.[87] Some companies including H&M, IKEA, and Barnes & Noble canceled ads for publications owned by Village Voice Media. Over 230,000 people including 600 religious leaders, 51 attorneys general, 19 U.S. senators, over 50 non-governmental associations, musician Alicia Keys, and members of R.E.M., The Roots, and Alabama Shakes petitioned the website to remove sexual content.[72]

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof authored a number of columns criticizing Backpage,[88][89][90] to which Backpage publicly responded.[91] In a March 17, 2012, column, "Where Pimps Peddle Their Goods," Kristof told the story of a young woman whose "street name" was Alissa. Kristof wrote that pimps had coerced Alissa into a life of prostitution and posted ads for her on Backpage while she was underage. He also urged mainstream advertisers to boycott Village Voice Media and linked to a Change.org petition asking VVM to stop allowing its users to post adult ads on Backpage.

In response to the article, the Village Voice criticized Kristof's reporting, noting that Backpage had not existed in the cities where Alissa had been prostituted at the time she was underage. The unsigned Voice article also contended that Backpage dedicated "hundreds of staff to screen adult classifieds in order to keep juveniles off the site and to work proactively with law enforcement in their efforts to locate victims".[92]

In 2012, Village Voice Media separated its newspaper company, which then consisted of 13 weekly alternative newspapers and their affiliated web properties from Backpage, leaving Backpage in the control of shareholders Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin.[93]

In interviews with Phoenix media, Lacey explained that the controversies over Backpage had become "a distraction" for the editors of VVM's papers[93] and that Backpage had come to monopolize his and Larkin's time.[94]

Executives for the spinoff holding company, called Voice Media Group (VMG) and based in Denver, raised "some money from private investors" in order to purchase the newspapers;[95] the executives who formed the new company were lower-ranked than Lacey and Larkin.[96] In December 2014, Village Voice Media sold Backpage to a Dutch holding company. Carl Ferrer, the founder of Backpage, remained as CEO of the company.[97] Michael Hardy of the Texas Observer stated that since Lacey and Larkin remained at Backpage, "it would be more accurate to say that Backpage spun off Village Voice Media."[96]

Legal decisions edit

Beginning in 2011 a number of legal challenges were brought in attempts to eliminate the adult section of Backpage or shut down the website entirely. Backpage successfully argued that the First Amendment protections of free speech would be compromised by any restriction on postings by individuals on the Backpage website.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA) served as an additional cornerstone in the defense. Section 230 says that "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." This portion of the CDA was drafted to protect ISPs and other interactive service providers on the Internet from liability for content originating from third parties.[98] The enactment of this portion of the CDA overturned the decision in Stratton Oakmont, Inc. v. Prodigy Services Co. in which Prodigy was deemed by the court to be a publisher and therefore liable for content posted on its site.[98] Many observers have credited the passage of section 230 of the CDA as the spark that ignited the explosive growth of the internet.[82] The protection afforded to website owners under section 230 was upheld in numerous court cases subsequent to the passage of the legislation in 1996 including Doe v. MySpace Inc., 528 F.3d 413 (5th Cir. 2008) and Dart v. Craigslist, Inc., 665 F. Supp. 2d 961 (N.D. Ill. October 20, 2009).

Some of the most important civil cases involving Backpage are described below:

M.A., et al. vs. Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC

Plaintiff M.A., a 14-year-old runaway, claimed to be a victim of sex trafficking by one Latasha Jewell McFarland, who later pleaded guilty to taking nude photos of M.A. and posting them to Backpage in ads offering M.A. for commercial sex. M.A. sued Backpage, arguing Backpage was liable because Backpage had created an "adult" category on the site and was aware that other minors had been trafficked through ads in that category.[99] In 2011, the court ruled that CDA Section 230 still applied and "even if Backpage knows that third parties are posting illegal content, 'the service providers' failure to intervene is immunized'".[100]

Backpage.com, LLC vs. McKenna

In 2012, Washington state passed SB 6251, which made it a felony to either directly or indirectly publish or cause to be published "any advertisement for a commercial sex act...that includes the depiction of a minor".[101] Ignorance of the age of the minor depicted in the ad was no defense. Backpage, joined by the Internet Archive, sued in federal court to stop the law from going into effect. The court barred enforcement, finding the statute precluded by federal law, specifically, CDA Section 230.[102] It also ruled that SB 6251 likely violated the First Amendment, as the state could not assume that all ads in an "adult" section were for prostitution without trampling free speech rights.[103]

Backpage.com v. Cooper

Here, a federal judge enjoined a Tennessee law passed in 2012, SB 2371, which was a broader version of the Washington state statute. SB 2371 made it a felony to "sell or offer to sell" an ad that "would appear to a reasonable person" to be for a commercial sex act with a minor. As in McKenna, the court found that the law was both precluded by CDA 230 and likely in violation of the First Amendment and the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The court also ruled that the law's definition of "commercial sex act" was so broad as to potentially include legal adult services, such as phone sex. "[W]hen freedom of speech hangs in the balance – the state may not use a butcher knife on a problem that requires a scalpel to fix," the court noted.[104]

Backpage v. Hoffman

This August 2013 ruling was the third strike against state laws attempting to legislate Backpage out of existence. In this case, New Jersey enacted a statute, referred to by the court as 12(b)1,[105] which largely echoed the language of the Washington state and Tennessee laws.[106] Again, a federal judge enjoined the law, finding it preempted by CDA Section 230, and in violation of the First Amendment and the Commerce Clause. The act is "hopelessly vague and overbroad" and "impermissibly chills protected speech," the judge wrote, ridiculing NJ's Attorney General for ignoring the statute's plain language in his defense of it. The Internet Archive also joined in this suit.

 
Federal Judge Richard Posner at Harvard University

Backpage v. Dart

Following his loss in Dart v. Craigslist, Cook County, Illinois Sheriff Tom Dart turned his attention to Backpage, and more specifically, two of Backpage's payment processors, MasterCard and Visa.[107] In June 2015, Dart wrote a letter to both companies, requesting that they "cease and desist" allowing their cards to purchase any ads on Backpage, even non-adult ones, suggesting that they could be in violation of federal law due to human trafficking via ads on the site. Both MasterCard and Visa complied. Backpage then sued Dart in federal court, arguing he had used the power of his office to violate Backpage's First Amendment rights. The district court ruled in Dart's favor, but in November 2015, a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court in an opinion written by Judge Richard Posner.[108]

Posner noted that Dart would only be in the right if there had been "no constitutional protected speech in the ads on Backpage's website". As a result, Posner found Dart's letter to be a First Amendment violation.[109] Posner pointed out that Dart's claim that "everything in the adult section of Backpage's website is criminal, violent, or exploitive," was inaccurate.

Posner wrote:

"Fetishism? Phone sex? Performances by striptease artists? (Vulgar is not violent.) One ad in the category 'dom & fetish' is for the services of a 'professional dominatrix'—a woman who is paid to whip or otherwise humiliate a customer in order to arouse him sexually . . . It's not obvious that such conduct endangers women or children or violates any laws, including laws against prostitution."[110]

Posner ordered the lower court to enjoin Dart from taking any actions against payment processors for Backpage. Backpage's legal victory did not reverse MasterCard and Visa's earlier decision to disallow the use of their payment cards on Backpage.

Jane Doe, et al. v. Backpage.com

Three anonymous Jane Does who were allegedly sex trafficked as minors sued Backpage in 2014 in federal court, arguing that their traffickers used Backpage to post ads selling them for sex. They claimed to have been raped numerous times while underage and accuse Backpage of facilitating sex trafficking due to its business and editorial practices, as well as the design of the website itself. The district court ruled against the plaintiffs, who then appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. In an opinion written by Judge Bruce M. Seyla, the appeals court ruled that the actions by Backpage were "traditional publisher functions" regarding third-party content, and therefore were shielded by CDA Section 230.[111] Stearns conceded that the Does' suffering evoked "outrage," but that the "remedy is through legislation not litigation".[112] The appellants sought certiorari by the U.S. Supreme Court and were denied.[113] The case became the basis for the 2017 documentary, I Am Jane Doe.

In June 2017, the three Jane Does re-filed their complaint in federal court using information taken from the U.S. Senate's investigation into Backpage, which concluded Backpage had facilitated sex trafficking.[114] The complaint alleged that Backpage substantially changed the ads connected to the three Jane Does, thereby losing its Section 230 protection. The court agreed that in the case of one ad involving Jane Doe 3, an edit occurred suggesting that she was an adult. Backpage's counsel argued that the ad's poster actually made the change, but the court said this was a fact to be determined at trial and allowed Jane Doe 3's case to continue.[115] In the case of Jane Does 1 and 2, the court said there was no evidence that Backpage substantially contributed to the ads, so Backpage would have Section 230 immunity against those claims.[116] In August 2018, the court stayed proceedings in the case pending the conclusion of the criminal case in Arizona.

Backpage.com v. Lynch

In 2015, Congress passed the Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation Act (SAVE ACT), a vaguely worded law that forbade advertising that involved underage or coerced prostitution, i.e., sex trafficking. The law supposedly took aim at adult ads on Backpage, but civil liberties groups argued that the law was too broad and would have a chilling effect on speech.[117][118] Backpage sued then-U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to preclude the law's enforcement, arguing that despite its best efforts to keep illegal ads off its site, the wording of the law raised the bar for prosecution from a "knowing" standard to one of "reckless disregard," and therefore violated the First Amendment.[119]

In October 2016, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that the law did not criminalize protected speech, and that because Backpage took steps to avoid having illegal content on its site, it arguably was not in imminent danger of prosecution.[120] But Backpage's suit won a significant clarification from the court, which interpreted the law as requiring a "knowing" mens rea standard for a conviction, which is a higher standard than "reckless disregard".[121] Wrote the court: "...while it might be true that some Congressional members had Backpage.com in mind when enacting the SAVE ACT, the statute is 'aimed' at individuals who knowingly advertise or benefit from advertising sex trafficking."[122]

California prosecution edit

On October 6, 2016, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced that Texas authorities had raided the Dallas headquarters of Backpage.com and arrested CEO Carl Ferrer at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on felony charges of pimping, pimping a minor, and conspiracy to commit pimping. In a press release, Harris denounced Backpage as "the world's largest online brothel".[123] The California arrest warrant alleged that 99% of Backpage's revenue was directly attributable to prostitution-related ads and that many of the ads involved victims of sex trafficking, including children under the age of 18. The State of Texas was also considering a money laundering charge pending its investigation.[124][125] Arrest warrants were issued against former Backpage owners and founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin. Lacey and Larkin were charged with conspiracy to commit pimping.[126][127]

Backpage general counsel Liz McDougall dismissed the raid as an "election year stunt", which wasn't "a good-faith action by law enforcement". McDougall said that the company would "take all steps necessary to end this frivolous prosecution and will pursue its full remedies under federal law against the state actors who chose to ignore the law, as it has done successfully in other cases."[128] Backpage accused California attorney general Kamala Harris, who was running for the U.S. Senate at the time, of an illegal prosecution.[129]

Harris's office fought against releasing the men on bail, and the three prisoners appeared together in court, confined to a cage inside a Sacramento courtroom, wearing orange jumpsuits.[130] They were released on October 13, 2016, with bail set at $500,000 for Ferrer, and $250,000 each for Lacey and Larkin.[131] All three pleaded not guilty.

Writing for the magazine Pacific Standard, reporter Melissa Gira Grant observed that news outlets repeatedly referred to the three men as being charged with "sex trafficking," though the charges were actually related to prostitution.[132]

 
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton partnered with Harris on the 2016 Backpage busts.

"None are accused with forcing anyone into prostitution," Grant wrote. "None are even accused of having had any physical contact with anyone in the sex trade. What the complaint claims the men did was earn money from a website where users could place advertisements for what Backpage categorized as 'adult' services."

On October 17, 2016, attorneys for Ferrer, Larkin and Lacey sent a letter to Harris asking that all charges against their clients be dropped.[133] Harris refused. The letter accused Harris of acting in bad faith, since she had signed a letter to Congress in 2013, along with 48 other state attorneys general, telling Congress that Section 230 of the CDA "prevents State and local law enforcement agencies from prosecuting" companies such as Backpage, and asking that Congress change the law.[134]

On November 17, 2016, Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman issued a tentative ruling on a motion to dismiss the charges, indicating that he would likely do so. He ruled that the many of Backpage's decisions regarding third-party content were "all traditional publishing decisions", which are "generally immunized under" Section 230. Bowman wrote, "In short, any victimization resulted from the third party's placement of the ad, not because Backpage [profited] from the ad placement."[135]

On December 9, 2016, Bowman issued his final ruling, dismissing all the charges in the complaint, stating that: "...Congress has precluded liability for online publishers for the action of publishing third party speech and thus provided for both a foreclosure from prosecution and an affirmative defense at trial. Congress has spoken on this matter and it is for Congress, not this Court, to revisit."[136]

On December 23, 2016, the state of California filed new charges against Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer and former Backpage owners Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin accusing them of pimping and money laundering.[137] Lawyers for Backpage responded that the new charges rehashed the earlier case, which had been dismissed. The filing of new charges came just a few weeks before Kamala Harris was to be sworn in as U.S. Senator from California.[138]

Superior Court Judge Lawrence Brown dismissed the new pimping charges on August 23, 2017, writing that the state's "attempt to assign criminal liability to defendants who offered an online forum on which other people posted advertisements that led to prostitution . . . confuse moral obligations with legal ones and have been rejected in other jurisdictions".[139]

Brown allowed most of the money-laundering counts to stand. The state alleges that Backpage illegally set up separate accounts to accept payments for ads from credit card companies that refused to do business with them after Sheriff Dart threatened them. Brown warned that prosecutors would be obliged to "show that the profits came solely from that underlying criminal activity."[140]

As part of his plea deal with the federal government, Ferrer pled guilty to one conspiracy count and three counts of money-laundering in California state court, as well as to charges in Texas and in federal court.[141] The California case against Lacey and Larkin for money laundering remains on hold pending the outcome of the federal trial. Ferrer has promised to testify against Lacey and Larkin in return for leniency.[142]

U.S. Senate investigation edit

Since April 2015, the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations ("PSI") had been investigating Backpage.com as part of an overall investigation of human trafficking. After a voluntary, day-long briefing and interview provided by the company's General Counsel, PSI followed up with a subpoena to Backpage.com demanding over 40 categories of documents, covering 120 subjects, regarding Backpage's business practices. Much of the subpoena targeted Backpage's editorial functions as an online intermediary.

Over the ensuing months, Backpage raised objections to the subpoena which PSI rejected, including that the subpoena was impermissibly burdensome both in the volume of documents PSI demanded and in its intrusion into constitutionally-protected editorial discretion. PSI subsequently issued a shorter document subpoena with only eight requests but broader in scope and also targeting Backpage.com's editorial functions. Backpage.com continued to object on First Amendment and other grounds.

PSI applied in March 2016 for a federal court order to enforce three of the eight categories of documents in the subpoena. In August 2016, the U.S. District Court in D.C. granted PSI's application and ordered Backpage to produce documents responsive to the three requests.[143]

 
U.S. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio chaired the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) during the January 10, 2017, Backpage hearing.

Backpage immediately filed an appeal and sought a stay, which the district court denied, then filed emergency stay petitions with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Each appellate court issued temporary stays to consider whether to grant a stay pending appeal,[144] but eventually denied the emergency stay requests.[145] The D.C. Circuit agreed to expedite the appeal, and one of its judges who considered the emergency stay said he would have granted it. Backpage has continued to pursue its appeal, producing thousands of documents to PSI pursuant to the District Court order. PSI scheduled a Subcommittee hearing regarding Backpage.com for January 10, 2017.

On January 9, 2017, prior to its scheduled hearings on Backpage the next day, the PSI released a report, denouncing what it referred to as Backpage's "...knowing facilitation of online sex trafficking..."[146][147][148]

That same day, Backpage removed its adult category from all of its sites in the United States. In its place, the site posted a banner that read, "CENSORED," stating that "the government has unconstitutionally censored this content".[149] Backpage said it took the action due to the government's harassment and extra-legal tactics, which made it too costly for Backpage to continue hosting adult ads.[150][151]

Subcommittee chair Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, and ranking Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill, issued statement denying that Backpage's move was in response to censorship, saying the site's shutdown of its adult ad section was a "validation of our findings".[152]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation weighed in, stating that the site was succumbing to "years of government pressure"; as a result, both the First Amendment and CDA Section 230 were imperiled.[153] Lois Lee, founder of the anti-trafficking organization, Children of the Night, bemoaned the loss of Backpage as an investigative tool, saying that child prostitution "...existed long before Backpage or the Internet..." and that Backpage is "...not the cause or even a cause..." Rather, arguing that Backpage provided, "...an opportunity to better attack the problem..."[154]

NCMEC applauded the takedown in a statement, saying it was "...gratified to know that as a result of the recent decision, a child is now less likely to be sold for sex on Backpage."[155]

Lacey and Larkin sold the site to Ferrer in 2015. The PSI subpoenaed all three, along with two current Backpage execs, to be present at the Jan 10 hearing. In response to attempted questioning from senators on the subcommittee, each witness declined to answer, "...based on the rights provided by the Fifth and First Amendments..." to the Constitution.[156]

Portman claimed that the subcommittee's investigators discovered that Backpage had created a "filter" to delete "...hundreds of words indicative of sex trafficking or prostitution before publication..."—words such as "Lolita," "teen," "young" and so forth, ostensibly to hide questionable ads from law enforcement.[157]

Techdirt editor Mike Masnick later wrote that such moderation was actually encouraged by Section 230's safe harbor, stating that one could "...quite clearly see this as Backpage letting users know that it is not a place that should be used for sex trafficking, because it clearly alerts them to things that they don't want on the site." Masnick also noted that the same day as the hearing, Backpage had won another legal battle when the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a lower court's dismissal of Jane Doe, et al. v. Backpage.com.[158]

In a piece on the hearing, Elizabeth Nolan Brown, a senior editor at Reason magazine, wrote that the terms in question did not necessarily indicate sex trafficking, since, for example, "teen" could apply to 18 and 19-year-olds, who were "both 'teens' and, legally, adults". She also quotes NCMEC as stating that "It is virtually impossible to determine how old the young women in these ads are without an in-depth criminal investigation".[156]

But Portman, McCaskill and others saw these moderation practices as nefarious. In his concluding remarks, Portman stated that, "Backpage deliberately sanitized [these ads] to conceal evidence of prostitution, to conceal evidence of child trafficking", and as a result had allegedly broken the law. Portman said that he and McCaskill would promptly consider whether to refer this matter to the Department of Justice (DOJ)...for further investigation."[157]

By April 2017, the Arizona Republic was reporting that a federal grand jury had been impaneled in Phoenix and was considering possible indictments of Lacey and Larkin.[159]

Federal prosecution edit

In late March 2018 and early April 2018, courts in Massachusetts and Florida ruled that Backpage's moderation practices may have fallen outside the immunity from civil suits granted by Section 230. The latter ruling argued that because Backpage "...materially contributed to the content of the advertisement..." by censoring specific keywords, it became a publisher of content and thus no longer protected.[160][161]

Backpage's adult services sections became the subject of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the United States Department of Justice,[162] the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigator Division, with analytical assistance from the Joint Regional Intelligence Center over accusations that the website knowingly allowed and encouraged users to post ads related to prostitution and human trafficking, particularly involving minors, and took steps to intentionally obfuscate these activities.

On April 6, 2018, Backpage was seized by the FBI and other federal agencies, and Michael Lacey's home was raided by authorities. Lacey was arrested at gunpoint that day at his home in Paradise Valley; Larkin was arrested at an airport in Phoenix before exiting the plane, having returned from a trip overseas.[1] Lacey was charged with money laundering and violations of the Travel Act.

On April 9, 2018, the US Department of Justice's indictment against Backpage was unsealed.[163][164] The 93 counts included "conspiracy to facilitate prostitution using a facility in interstate or foreign commerce, facilitating prostitution using a facility in interstate or foreign commerce, conspiracy to commit money laundering, concealment money laundering, international promotional money laundering, and transactional money laundering."[165][166] According to prosecutors, the seven people charged in the indictment are: Michael Lacey of Paradise Valley, Arizona; James Larkin of Paradise Valley, Arizona; Scott Spear of Scottsdale, Arizona; John E. "Jed" Brunst of Phoenix, Arizona; Daniel Hyer of Dallas, Texas; Andrew Padilla of Plano, Texas; and Jaala Joye Vaught of Addison, Texas.[165][167]

Its CEO, Carl Ferrer, pleaded guilty to charges of facilitating prostitution and money laundering, acknowledging that "the great majority" of the adult advertisements on Backpage were actually advertisements for prostitution. As part of his plea agreement Ferrer agreed to shut down the site and give its data to law enforcement.[168] He agreed to testify against other alleged co-conspirators, such as but not limited to founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin. Backpage also pleaded guilty to human trafficking.

In July 2018, the grand jury in Phoenix issued a superseding indictment, increasing the total number of charges to 100, though the nature of the charges remained the same.[169] The new indictment focused on 50 distinct adult ads culled from the millions of adult and non-adult ads that ran on the site daily, and the indictment used the fact that Backpage had worked with law enforcement to show that Backpage's executives were aware of illegal content on the site.[170][171]

In August 2018, Backpage sales Dan Hyer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to facilitate prostitution, all other charges against him were dropped; the remaining six defendants pled not guilty to all charges.[172]

The jury trial began in federal court in Phoenix, Arizona on September 1, 2021.[173] In his opening statement, federal prosecutor Reginald Jones claimed that the site's owners and operators were aware that Backpage was being used for illegal activity, specifically prostitution, "but they didn't shut down the website."[174] Defense attorneys countered that the adult services ads posted to Backpage were controversial, but still protected by the First Amendment.[175]

Prosecutors called four witnesses during the eight days of trial: Special Agent Brian Fichtner of the California Office of the Attorney General;[176] Sharon Cooper, a physician who works with trafficking victims;[177] Jessika Svendgard;[178] and Svendgard's mother Nacole Svendgard.[179]

According to The Arizona Republic, Jessika Svendgard testified that she had been lured into a 105-day stint as a prostitute at age 15, where she would be "raped for money." She said both she and her trafficker advertised on Backpage, indicating falsely that she was 18 at the time. Under cross-examination, she indicated that she had never "met, spoken to, or communicated in writing" with any of the six defendants. Her struggle in suing Backpage and obtaining a settlement in Washington state was depicted in the 2017 anti-Backpage documentary, "I Am Jane Doe."[178]

Special Agent Brian Fichtner testified about his investigation into Backpage on behalf of the California Attorney General's Office under then-Attorney General Kamala Harris, which led to the arrests on pimping charges of Lacey, Larkin and Ferrer in 2016.[176] (Though the pimping charges were twice dismissed, state money laundering charges against the defendants survived.[139]) According to Reason magazine, the prosecution called Fichtner "to present Backpage ads that he and federal prosecutors deemed to be clear evidence of illegal sex work," but Fichtner conceded that "none of the ads alone would be enough to justify a prostitution arrest."[13]

Sharon Cooper described her work with sex trafficking victims and "casually mentioned child victims" of sex trafficking "throughout her testimony," as reported by The Arizona Republic.[177]

On September 14, 2021, federal Judge Susan Brnovich declared a mistrial in the case, saying that prosecution had abused the leeway she had given it by making constant references to child sex trafficking rather than focusing on the crimes the defendants are charged with: facilitating prostitution.[9]

"The government, as prosecutors, are held to a higher standard," Brnovich said. "Their goal is not to win at any costs, but their goal is to win by the rules."[180]

The trial had been expected to last two to three months.[175] Brnovich granted the defense motion for mistrial on day eight.[12]

Brnovich then set an October 5 status hearing in the case.[9]

At the October 5 hearing, Brnovich scheduled a new trial for February 22, 2022.[10]

Brnovich recused herself over a conflict of interest with her husband[11] who was Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich on October 29, 2021, and federal Judge Diane Humetewa was chosen by lot to replace her.[12] (Humetewa is the fourth judge to be assigned the case so far.)[12] A new trial has been delayed as the defense appeals Humetewa's denial of a motion to dismiss the case for good.[13]

On September 2, 2022, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the defense's appeal of Humetewa's ruling. Defendants argued that the case should be dismissed because a new trial would violate the Fifth Amendment's prohibition on Double Jeopardy. Though the defendants had moved for the mistrial, their attorneys argued that the prosecution "goaded" them into doing so by engaging in intentional misconduct; specifically, by focusing too much on the subject of child-sex trafficking.[181]

On September 21, 2022, the appeals panel ruled against the defendants, upholding Humetewa's ruling and finding that the prosecution "...had no reason to sabotage its own trial." The decision reportedly made it likely that Lacey, Larkin, et al. would face a retrial sometime in 2023.[14]

Backpage was launched in 2004 by New Times Media (later to be known as Village Voice Media), a publisher of 11 alternative newsweeklies, as a free classified advertising website.[2]

The site included the various categories found in newspaper classified sections including those that were unique to and part of the First Amendment-driven traditions of most alternative weeklies. These included personals (including adult-oriented personal ads), adult services, musicians and "New Age" services.

Until January 9, 2017, Backpage contained an adult section containing different subcategories of various sex work. The company suspended its adult listings following accusations by a United States Senate subcommittee of being involved with sex-trafficking and the sexual exploitation of minors.[182] However, many escorts and erotic masseuses admit to moving their ads to the "massage" and "women seeking men" listings.[183] Prostitution is illegal throughout the United States, except for some counties in Nevada.

Kristen DiAngelo, executive director of the Sex Workers Outreach Project of Sacramento, criticized the shutdown, describing how many sex workers across the United States no longer had a way to support themselves. Backpage allowed for sex workers using the site to post bad date lists, screen clients, and communicate with other sex workers to ensure for the safest possible experience.[184] Activists argued that the move would force some of the site's users to work on the street.[185] An article from Reason published in April 2023 supported this claim stating, "5 Years After the Backpage Shutdown, Sex Workers...are still suffering", and "...the shutdown is still worsening the lives it was supposed to improve."[186]

In 2015 Backpage lost all credit card processing agreements as banks came under pressure from law enforcement, leaving Bitcoin as the sole remaining option for paid ads.[171]

Subsequent history edit

Then president, Donald Trump, signed SESTA/FOSTA, into law on April 11, 2018,[187] a law making it illegal to promote or facilitate prostitution. The new law also created an exception to CDA Section 230, removing an interactive computer service's immunity from civil and criminal state laws regarding sex trafficking.[188] The law's proponents claimed that it was needed to crackdown on Backpage, which they accused of facilitating sex trafficking through its adult section.[189] Yet, the defendants in the Backpage case were not charged under SESTA/FOSTA, but under the U.S. Travel Act and money laundering statutes.[190] Their arrests were on April 6, 2018.[191]

DOJ Memos edit

U.S. Department of Justice memos from 2012 and 2013, obtained by Reason and published in August 2019, revealed that Backpage actively fought against child prostitution on the website. Reason reports that federal prosecutors accidentally sent the memos to defense lawyers in the Backpage case sometime in 2018 as part of discovery, but the memos were placed under seal and cannot be used at trial.[192][193]

Attorneys at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington wrote both memos, assessing the possibilities of a successful prosecution of Backpage. The 2012 memo paraphrased an FBI agent with the Innocence Lost Task Force stating that, "...unlike virtually every other website that is used for prostitution and sex trafficking, Backpage is remarkably responsive to law enforcement requests and often takes proactive steps to assist in investigations."[194]

According to the 2012 memo, Backpage employees testified in criminal cases, answered subpoenas within 24 hours (sometimes within the hour), and also gave law enforcement information without a subpoena in "exigent circumstances", such as a missing child. Law enforcement was able to "...contact Backpage and obtain immediate removal of certain posts" suspected of involving juveniles. Backpage's age-verification protocol was imperfect but standard in the industry and it reported ads suspected of involving child sex trafficking to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The memo concludes that "...any prosecution of Backpage would likely have to overcome Backpage's efforts to actively cooperate with law enforcement."[194]

The 2013 memo was also skeptical of a successful prosecution, stating, "[W]e have yet to uncover compelling evidence of criminal intent or a pattern of reckless conduct regarding minors." It described how Backpage's moderation changed over time, and paraphrased NCMEC's then-president and CEO, Ernie Allen as saying he believed Backpage wanted child sex trafficking off its site, but that "...the use of the Internet to market commercial sex was so fluid that any system of moderation and reporting was destined to fail". The memo suggests that the government may want to consider going after Backpage using money laundering statutes.[195]

Hacking/Hustling survey edit

Published in January 2020, a survey of sex workers by the sex-worker-rights group Hacking/Hustling indicated that sex workers suffered in the wake of SESTA/FOSTA's passage and the federal government's seizure of Backpage.[196] According to The Daily Beast, the survey found that "...33.8 percent of respondents reported an increase in violence from clients after the law was signed, and 72.5 percent reported they were facing increased financial insecurity...", and sex-worker rights advocates "...related stories of sex workers who were thrust into the arms of pimps in order to find work, or back into abusive relationships for want of somewhere to stay."[197]

GAO report edit

In June 2021, the U.S. Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) released a report, stating that SESTA/FOSTA had only been used once by the DOJ since it was passed in 2018. Both SESTA/FOSTA and the takedown of Backpage using other statutes had caused the adult online ad market to fragment and scatter to sites hosted in other countries.[197][198]

The GAO report concludes that the seizure of Backpage has had an adverse effect on federal law enforcement's ability to investigate sex trafficking cases. It reads:

...gathering evidence to bring cases against users of online platforms has also become more difficult. According to a 2019 FBI document, the FBI's ability to identify and locate sex trafficking victims and perpetrators was significantly decreased following the takedown of backpage.com. According to FBI officials, this is largely because law enforcement was familiar with backpage.com, and backpage.com was generally responsive to legal requests for information. In contrast, officials said, law enforcement may be less familiar with platforms located overseas. Further, obtaining evidence from entities overseas may be more cumbersome and time-intensive, as those who control such platforms may not voluntarily respond to legal process, and mutual legal assistance requests may take months, if not years, according to DOJ officials. Despite these investigative challenges, DOJ officials said they are committed to holding accountable those who control online platforms that promote sex trafficking.[199]

Alleged victims edit

On April 9, 2018, the US Department of Justice's indictment against Backpage was unsealed. One 15-year-old is alleged to have been forced to do in-calls at hotels. A second teenager was allegedly told to "...perform sexual acts at gunpoint and choked..." until she had seizures, before being gang raped. A third victim, advertised under the pseudonym "Nadia", was stabbed to death, while a fourth victim was murdered in 2015, and her corpse deliberately burned. The lawyer for Backpage operations manager Andrew Padilla stated that his client was "not legally responsible for any actions of third parties under U.S. law. He is no more responsible than the owner of a community billboard when someone places an ad on it".[164][200]

In October 2018, a Texas woman sued Backpage and Facebook, claiming she had been sex trafficked on Backpage by a man who lured her into prostitution by posing as her friend on the social media network.[201] On April 15, 2019, a Wisconsin man was convicted on federal sex trafficking charges over victims who he brought across state lines, forced into prostitution and advertised on Backpage.[202] On April 29, 2019, a Florida former middle school teacher was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for buying sex with a 14-year-old girl who was advertised on Backpage.[203]

See also edit

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External links edit

  • "Backpage.com seized by feds over sex trafficking ads". CBS Evening News. April 6, 2018.

February 15, 2024
backpage, australian, television, series, back, page, live, american, films, back, page, film, back, page, film, this, article, lead, section, long, please, read, length, guidelines, help, move, details, into, article, body, december, 2023, classified, adverti. For the Australian television series see Back Page Live For the American films see Back Page film and The Back Page film This article s lead section may be too long Please read the length guidelines and help move details into the article s body December 2023 Backpage com was a classified advertising website founded in 2004 by the alternative newspaper chain New Times Inc New Times Media later known as Village Voice Media or VVM as a rival to Craigslist 1 BackpageType of businessWeb communicationsAvailable inEnglish Spanish German French Portuguese Japanese Korean Norwegian Russian Chinese Finnish Italian Dutch Swedish and TurkishFounded2004 2004 OwnerAtlantische Bedrijven CVFormer owner Village Voice MediaLaunched2004 20 years ago 2004 Current statusSeized by the United States FBI on April 6 2018 5 years ago 2018 04 06 Similar to Craigslist Backpage let users post ads to categories such as personals automotive rentals jobs and adult services It soon became the second largest online classified site in the United States 2 Craigslist closed its Adult Services section in 2010 in response to pressure from state attorneys general and other critics claiming the section facilitated prostitution 3 Much of Craigslist s share of the adult ad market migrated to other sites with Backpage being the main beneficiary 1 Craigslist s former critics focused on Backpage which resisted moves to censor the site until January 2017 Backpage closed their adult section prior to a Congressional hearing 4 On April 6 2018 the U S Department of Justice announced the seizure and takedown of Backpage part of a 93 count indictment of seven former owners and executives charging them with facilitating prostitution under the U S Travel Act as well as money laundering and conspiracy 5 In July 2018 a superseding indictment increased the number of counts to 100 6 In August 2018 one defendant accepted a plea deal 7 The remaining six defendants pled not guilty to all charges and a trial by jury began on September 1 2021 8 On September 14 2021 federal Judge Susan Brnovich declared a mistrial in the case saying the prosecution and their witnesses made excessive references to child sex trafficking in a case where the defendants are not charged with that crime This is something I can t overlook and will not overlook she said setting a status hearing for October 5 9 At that hearing Brnovich scheduled a new trial for February 22 2022 10 Brnovich recused herself over a conflict of interest with her husband 11 who was Attorney General on October 29 2021 and federal Judge Diane Humetewa was chosen by lot to replace her 12 Humetewa became the fourth judge to be assigned the case so far 12 Reason magazine reported that a new trial had been delayed as the defense appealed Humetewa s denial of a motion to dismiss the case 13 On September 21 2022 a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the defendants request that the court reverse Humetewa and dismiss the case because a new trial would violate the U S Constitution s prohibition on Double Jeopardy 14 The panel wrote that the government s misconduct during the trial was not so egregious as to compel a finding that prosecutors intended to provoke a mistrial the legal standard for dismissal in this instance 15 On July 31 2023 co owner and co founder James Larkin committed suicide about one week before the new trial was scheduled to start 16 In November 2023 a jury found co founder Michael Lacey guilty of one count of money laundering and acquitted him of another money laundering charge but deadlocked on 84 other charges leading to a second mistrial 17 Contents 1 History 1 1 Craigslist and Backpage 1 2 Escort Erotic Services 1 3 Backpage and adult advertising 1 4 Backpage and Village Voice split 1 5 Legal decisions 1 6 California prosecution 1 7 U S Senate investigation 1 8 Federal prosecution 1 9 Subsequent history 1 9 1 DOJ Memos 1 9 1 1 Hacking Hustling survey 1 9 1 2 GAO report 1 10 Alleged victims 2 See also 3 References 4 External linksHistory editCraigslist and Backpage edit Craigslist s founder Craig Newmark started Craigslist as a free e mail distribution list in 1995 featuring events and other listings in the San Francisco area Newmark registered craigslist org taking the site live in 1996 In 2000 the company expanded outside of San Francisco and by 2009 it served over 700 cities in 70 countries 18 Non commercial users post free ads in most categories on Craigslist 19 2006 then San Francisco Bay Guardian executive editor Tim Redmond wrote Craigslist pretty much wiped out traditional daily newspaper classified ads in 115 U S markets 20 A 2009 Pew Research Center study found that between the years 2000 2008 newspapers lost almost half their classified ad sales to Craigslist and similar sites 21 Based in Phoenix Ariz the New Times chain of alt weeklies started in 1970 with the founding of what became the Phoenix New Times as a response to the Vietnam War and the murders at Kent State 22 Under the leadership of executive editor Michael Lacey and publisher Jim Larkin the company expanded to several other cities eventually merging with New York s Village Voice and other papers to become Village Voice Media in 2005 The new company boasted 17 alt weeklies coast to coast 23 As with other outlets in the alternative press New Times papers were free relying on advertising especially classified advertising to earn money 24 To counter Craigslist s influence on a vital revenue stream Lacey and Larkin in 2004 founded Backpage com which WIRED magazine described as a bare bones inter face wrapped in Facebooky blue similar to Craigslist in form and function 25 The site s name was a nod to the classified ads in the back section of every New Times paper culminating in a premium priced ad showcase on the paper s back page 24 The idea for Backpage com came from New Times salesman Carl Ferrer Larkin put him in charge of the new venture 25 Backpage helped sustain first New Times then Village Voice Media s papers and expanded to become the second largest online classifieds site next to Craigslist 26 Lacey and Larkin sold Village Voice Media to company executives in 2012 27 The pair sold Backpage to Ferrer in 2015 25 Craigslist and Backpage had listings for a variety of goods and services such as real estate yard sales personals work wanted and jobs offered and adult themed advertising Reason magazine wrote in an August 2018 article Like Craigslist Backpage was divided into categories for different types of posts most of which had nothing to do with sex work But the adult wing of the site sub divided into sections for strippers phones and websites dom and fetish male escorts escorts and more garnered the most attention 24 For Craigslist and Backpage their adult sections would prove to be public relations nightmares with state attorneys general and activists condemning them as havens for ads for prostitution and more 28 Reporters and academics noted similar adult advertising is a staple of alt weeklies for many years and could be found in other print outlets such as the Yellow Pages and even some dailies 29 30 31 Escort Erotic Services edit By 2006 Craigslist s nearly all free business model dominated the classified ad market 32 For years adult listings under Craigslist s erotic services section were free That changed as the company faced calls from state attorneys general and other groups to restrict or do away with all adult ads on the site Craigslist s critics often conflated consensual adult prostitution with the far more serious crimes of coerced adult prostitution and child prostitution The latter two are regarded as forms of sex trafficking under federal law 33 though sex trafficking involving children is sometimes called child sex trafficking For example in 2007 Atlanta s mayor slammed Craigslist for allowing itself to be used as a means of promoting and enabling child prostitution 34 asking the site remove all ads for sexual services not just those suspected of involving child sex trafficking In March 2008 Connecticut s then Attorney General Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to Craigslist demanding that the site remove its adult ads which the AG alleged were promoting prostitution Blumenthal threatened possible legal action stating that a Connecticut woman had recently been arrested for prostitution after advertising sexual services on Craigslist 35 nbsp U S Senator from Connecticut Richard Blumenthal As state AG he pressured Craigslist to drop its adult ads as Senator he became a vociferous opponent of Backpage Senate Democrats CC BY 2 0 Techdirt editor Mike Masnick observed that Craigslist was unfairly being blamed for posts by third parties writing that Craigslist is the tool provider not the content provider 36 and that it was not liable for third party content under Section 230 of the U S Communications Decency Act In November 2008 Craigslist entered into an agreement with Blumenthal and Attorneys General from 39 other states agreeing to charge customers 5 10 to post adult ads Craigslist also agreed to require a working phone number and that payments be made by credit card making the ads traceable 37 The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children NCMEC a government funded nonprofit established as an information clearinghouse on missing and exploited kids joined the Craigslist Blumenthal agreement NCMEC President Ernie Allen claimed that the sex traffickers of children no longer parade them on the streets of America s cities but now market them via the Internet 38 Still the pressure on Craigslist continued In March 2009 Cook County Illinois Sheriff Tom Dart sued Craigslist in federal court claiming that Craigslist s erotic services section was a public nuisance referring to it as the single largest source of prostitution in America 39 40 In May 2009 South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster threatened Craigslist with a possible criminal investigation over the ads and Illinois AG Lisa Madigan said that the walls were closing in for Craigslist labeling it an Internet brothel 41 Later that month Craigslist announced that it was replacing its erotic services section with a new heavily monitored adult section 42 Articles about Craigslist s transition to its new adult section often mentioned Philip Markoff an alleged armed robber and murderer dubbed the Craigslist killer because police said he targeted his victims through the site s erotic services section 43 Years later in 2016 one industry watchdog claimed that ads posted to Craigslist by its users were linked to more than 100 murders 44 45 On October 20 2009 Craigslist scored a legal win in Dart v Craigslist Inc with federal Judge John F Grady denying Dart s attempt to censor the site Grady rejected the notion that the listings in Craigslist s adult category were obviously illegal noting that a striptease artist advertising on the site was not prostitution 46 Craigslist had argued that it cooperated with law enforcement including Dart and that direct sex for money ads were banned by its terms of use Craigslist further argued that it was shielded by Section 230 47 nbsp Screenshot of the webpage on April 13 2018 following the seizure of Backpage on April 6 2018 Judge Grady agreed that Section 230 protected the site from liability writing that under the law Intermediaries are not culpable for aiding and abetting their customers who misuse their services to commit unlawful acts Despite the ruling Blumenthal continued his campaign against the classified ads giant penning a letter to Craigslist joined by 17 other attorneys general The AGs called on the site to rid itself of all adult ads though the AGs recognized that Craigslist may lose considerable revenue as a result 48 Masnick and other commentators defended Craigslist observing that the site was making money off the ads because Blumenthal and other state AGs asked Craigslist to charge a fee for them 49 50 In September 2010 Craigslist shut down its adult section initially leaving only a notice that read Censored in place of the adult listings It later took down the Censored notice and confirmed the demise of the section 51 The New York Times observed that advocacy groups and attorneys general went after Craigslist in part because the site was widely known but the coalition would now set their sights on other targets 52 One year later in an interview with The Guardian Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster admitted that the decision to nix the ads troubled him For a long time we tried to do what in our minds was the principled thing We ended up doing the pragmatic thing he said 53 Backpage and adult advertising edit After Craigslist ended the adult section some adult listings almost immediately migrated to the Backpage s personals section 54 55 They scattered to other sites as well but Backpage already number two in the classified ads market received the most of the post Craigslist era adult content migrated listings 56 Many of the same controversies regarding content moderation and adult advertising that plagued Craigslist would now target Backpage 57 In an internal email after Craigslist s takedown of its adult category CEO Ferrer acknowledged the coming challenge It is an opportunity for us Also a time when we need to make sure our content is not illegal he wrote 58 In September 2010 a Missouri girl sued Village Voice Media claiming that she d been trafficked at age 14 via ads placed on the site and that Backpage had been negligent 59 A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit based on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act 60 A month after the suit was filed Backpage hired former federal prosecutor and NCMEC board member Hemanshu Nigam to come up with a strategic plan to combat the misuse of the site for trafficking Nigam and Backpage consulted with anti trafficking organizations about measures to take such as preventing the use of suggestive terms such as Lolita incest and new in town According to WIRED Backpage had implemented most of these new protocols by January 2011 61 VVM s news coverage cast a skeptical eye on the issue of sex trafficking accusing the media and anti trafficking organizations of wrongly conflating sex trafficking with consensual sex work sometimes referred to as prostitution 62 In a series of investigative pieces beginning in early 2011 VVM criticized and debunked many misleading statistics and assertions regarding sex trafficking In a March 23 2011 piece reporter Nick Pinto questioned the methodology of a study by the Women s Funding Network claiming that the number of girls being trafficked had risen exponentially in three states calling it junk science 63 Similarly the series which ran in several VVM papers debunked the much criticized urban legend that the Super Bowl brings with it a spike in sex trafficking to the game s host city 64 The series looked into the often repeated claim that 100 000 to 300 000 children were at risk of commercial sexual exploitation in the U S VVM s reporters found the figure to be based on the faulty assumptions of a flawed study with one expert saying the study has no scientific credibility to it 65 In October 2011 in a full page ad in The New York Times 36 clergymen demanded that VVM and Backpage remove the latter s adult classifieds section citing reports of adult ads connected to underage prostitution stating Even if one minor is sold for sex it is one too many 66 In a response to the ad VVM asserted that it had extensive working relationships with law enforcement from FBI to the local police and claiming it had spent millions of dollars and dedicated countless resources to protecting children from those who would misuse an adult site 67 According to both Reason and WIRED the cooperation between law enforcement and Backpage was genuine with Backpage receiving praise from various police agencies for its help in finding trafficked persons and convicting their exploiters In May 2011 the FBI awarded a certificate of recognition to Ferrer then VP of Backpage for your outstanding cooperation and assistance in connection with an investigation of great importance 1 24 In November 2011 the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women organized a demonstration outside of The Village Voice s offices in New York City with some people chanting slogans and waving signs in protest against Backpage com s facilitation of sex trafficking 68 Backpage and Village Voice split edit Increasingly Backpage critics and law enforcement accused Backpage of being a hub for sex trafficking of both adults and minors 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 despite claims by the website that it sought to block ads suspected of child sex trafficking or prostitution 11 and reported hundreds per month to the NCMEC which in turn notified law enforcement 12 13 Backpage supporters claimed that by providing prompt and detailed information about suspicious postings to law enforcement including phone numbers credit card numbers and IP addresses the website helped protect minors from trafficking They contended that shutting down Backpage would drive traffickers to other places on the internet that would be less forthcoming about crucial information for law enforcement 73 76 77 Numerous writers non governmental organizations NGOs legal experts and law enforcement officials including the Electronic Frontier Foundation 78 79 the Internet Archive 80 and the Cato Institute 81 argued that freedom of speech and potentially the internet itself would be threatened if adult themed ads were prohibited on Backpage These groups cited both the First Amendment as well as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act 82 which holds that service providers were not liable for content produced by third parties 82 83 In 2012 at the behest of a number of NGO s including Fair Girls and NCMEC Fitzgibbon Media at the time a well known progressive liberal public relations agency created a multimedia campaign to garner support for the anti Backpage position They enlisted support from musicians politicians journalists media companies and retailers nbsp New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof left wrote several pieces denouncing Village Voice Media VVM responded by criticizing Kristof s journalism DFID UK Department of International Development In 2015 Fitzgibbon Media closed its doors after its founder Trevor Fitzgibbon was accused of sexual harassment and assault by female employees of the company 84 85 Prosecutors declined to press charges Fitzgibbon apologized saying he was sincerely sorry for my behavior and for any women who were harmed 86 The Fitzgibbon campaign created a greater public dialogue both pro and con regarding Backpage 87 Some companies including H amp M IKEA and Barnes amp Noble canceled ads for publications owned by Village Voice Media Over 230 000 people including 600 religious leaders 51 attorneys general 19 U S senators over 50 non governmental associations musician Alicia Keys and members of R E M The Roots and Alabama Shakes petitioned the website to remove sexual content 72 New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof authored a number of columns criticizing Backpage 88 89 90 to which Backpage publicly responded 91 In a March 17 2012 column Where Pimps Peddle Their Goods Kristof told the story of a young woman whose street name was Alissa Kristof wrote that pimps had coerced Alissa into a life of prostitution and posted ads for her on Backpage while she was underage He also urged mainstream advertisers to boycott Village Voice Media and linked to a Change org petition asking VVM to stop allowing its users to post adult ads on Backpage In response to the article the Village Voice criticized Kristof s reporting noting that Backpage had not existed in the cities where Alissa had been prostituted at the time she was underage The unsigned Voice article also contended that Backpage dedicated hundreds of staff to screen adult classifieds in order to keep juveniles off the site and to work proactively with law enforcement in their efforts to locate victims 92 In 2012 Village Voice Media separated its newspaper company which then consisted of 13 weekly alternative newspapers and their affiliated web properties from Backpage leaving Backpage in the control of shareholders Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin 93 In interviews with Phoenix media Lacey explained that the controversies over Backpage had become a distraction for the editors of VVM s papers 93 and that Backpage had come to monopolize his and Larkin s time 94 Executives for the spinoff holding company called Voice Media Group VMG and based in Denver raised some money from private investors in order to purchase the newspapers 95 the executives who formed the new company were lower ranked than Lacey and Larkin 96 In December 2014 Village Voice Media sold Backpage to a Dutch holding company Carl Ferrer the founder of Backpage remained as CEO of the company 97 Michael Hardy of the Texas Observer stated that since Lacey and Larkin remained at Backpage it would be more accurate to say that Backpage spun off Village Voice Media 96 Legal decisions edit Beginning in 2011 a number of legal challenges were brought in attempts to eliminate the adult section of Backpage or shut down the website entirely Backpage successfully argued that the First Amendment protections of free speech would be compromised by any restriction on postings by individuals on the Backpage website Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 CDA served as an additional cornerstone in the defense Section 230 says that No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider This portion of the CDA was drafted to protect ISPs and other interactive service providers on the Internet from liability for content originating from third parties 98 The enactment of this portion of the CDA overturned the decision in Stratton Oakmont Inc v Prodigy Services Co in which Prodigy was deemed by the court to be a publisher and therefore liable for content posted on its site 98 Many observers have credited the passage of section 230 of the CDA as the spark that ignited the explosive growth of the internet 82 The protection afforded to website owners under section 230 was upheld in numerous court cases subsequent to the passage of the legislation in 1996 including Doe v MySpace Inc 528 F 3d 413 5th Cir 2008 and Dart v Craigslist Inc 665 F Supp 2d 961 N D Ill October 20 2009 Some of the most important civil cases involving Backpage are described below M A et al vs Village Voice Media Holdings LLCPlaintiff M A a 14 year old runaway claimed to be a victim of sex trafficking by one Latasha Jewell McFarland who later pleaded guilty to taking nude photos of M A and posting them to Backpage in ads offering M A for commercial sex M A sued Backpage arguing Backpage was liable because Backpage had created an adult category on the site and was aware that other minors had been trafficked through ads in that category 99 In 2011 the court ruled that CDA Section 230 still applied and even if Backpage knows that third parties are posting illegal content the service providers failure to intervene is immunized 100 Backpage com LLC vs McKennaIn 2012 Washington state passed SB 6251 which made it a felony to either directly or indirectly publish or cause to be published any advertisement for a commercial sex act that includes the depiction of a minor 101 Ignorance of the age of the minor depicted in the ad was no defense Backpage joined by the Internet Archive sued in federal court to stop the law from going into effect The court barred enforcement finding the statute precluded by federal law specifically CDA Section 230 102 It also ruled that SB 6251 likely violated the First Amendment as the state could not assume that all ads in an adult section were for prostitution without trampling free speech rights 103 Backpage com v CooperHere a federal judge enjoined a Tennessee law passed in 2012 SB 2371 which was a broader version of the Washington state statute SB 2371 made it a felony to sell or offer to sell an ad that would appear to a reasonable person to be for a commercial sex act with a minor As in McKenna the court found that the law was both precluded by CDA 230 and likely in violation of the First Amendment and the Commerce Clause of the U S Constitution The court also ruled that the law s definition of commercial sex act was so broad as to potentially include legal adult services such as phone sex W hen freedom of speech hangs in the balance the state may not use a butcher knife on a problem that requires a scalpel to fix the court noted 104 Backpage v HoffmanThis August 2013 ruling was the third strike against state laws attempting to legislate Backpage out of existence In this case New Jersey enacted a statute referred to by the court as 12 b 1 105 which largely echoed the language of the Washington state and Tennessee laws 106 Again a federal judge enjoined the law finding it preempted by CDA Section 230 and in violation of the First Amendment and the Commerce Clause The act is hopelessly vague and overbroad and impermissibly chills protected speech the judge wrote ridiculing NJ s Attorney General for ignoring the statute s plain language in his defense of it The Internet Archive also joined in this suit nbsp Federal Judge Richard Posner at Harvard UniversityBackpage v DartFollowing his loss in Dart v Craigslist Cook County Illinois Sheriff Tom Dart turned his attention to Backpage and more specifically two of Backpage s payment processors MasterCard and Visa 107 In June 2015 Dart wrote a letter to both companies requesting that they cease and desist allowing their cards to purchase any ads on Backpage even non adult ones suggesting that they could be in violation of federal law due to human trafficking via ads on the site Both MasterCard and Visa complied Backpage then sued Dart in federal court arguing he had used the power of his office to violate Backpage s First Amendment rights The district court ruled in Dart s favor but in November 2015 a three judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court in an opinion written by Judge Richard Posner 108 Posner noted that Dart would only be in the right if there had been no constitutional protected speech in the ads on Backpage s website As a result Posner found Dart s letter to be a First Amendment violation 109 Posner pointed out that Dart s claim that everything in the adult section of Backpage s website is criminal violent or exploitive was inaccurate Posner wrote Fetishism Phone sex Performances by striptease artists Vulgar is not violent One ad in the category dom amp fetish is for the services of a professional dominatrix a woman who is paid to whip or otherwise humiliate a customer in order to arouse him sexually It s not obvious that such conduct endangers women or children or violates any laws including laws against prostitution 110 Posner ordered the lower court to enjoin Dart from taking any actions against payment processors for Backpage Backpage s legal victory did not reverse MasterCard and Visa s earlier decision to disallow the use of their payment cards on Backpage Jane Doe et al v Backpage comThree anonymous Jane Does who were allegedly sex trafficked as minors sued Backpage in 2014 in federal court arguing that their traffickers used Backpage to post ads selling them for sex They claimed to have been raped numerous times while underage and accuse Backpage of facilitating sex trafficking due to its business and editorial practices as well as the design of the website itself The district court ruled against the plaintiffs who then appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals In an opinion written by Judge Bruce M Seyla the appeals court ruled that the actions by Backpage were traditional publisher functions regarding third party content and therefore were shielded by CDA Section 230 111 Stearns conceded that the Does suffering evoked outrage but that the remedy is through legislation not litigation 112 The appellants sought certiorari by the U S Supreme Court and were denied 113 The case became the basis for the 2017 documentary I Am Jane Doe In June 2017 the three Jane Does re filed their complaint in federal court using information taken from the U S Senate s investigation into Backpage which concluded Backpage had facilitated sex trafficking 114 The complaint alleged that Backpage substantially changed the ads connected to the three Jane Does thereby losing its Section 230 protection The court agreed that in the case of one ad involving Jane Doe 3 an edit occurred suggesting that she was an adult Backpage s counsel argued that the ad s poster actually made the change but the court said this was a fact to be determined at trial and allowed Jane Doe 3 s case to continue 115 In the case of Jane Does 1 and 2 the court said there was no evidence that Backpage substantially contributed to the ads so Backpage would have Section 230 immunity against those claims 116 In August 2018 the court stayed proceedings in the case pending the conclusion of the criminal case in Arizona Backpage com v LynchIn 2015 Congress passed the Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation Act SAVE ACT a vaguely worded law that forbade advertising that involved underage or coerced prostitution i e sex trafficking The law supposedly took aim at adult ads on Backpage but civil liberties groups argued that the law was too broad and would have a chilling effect on speech 117 118 Backpage sued then U S Attorney General Loretta Lynch to preclude the law s enforcement arguing that despite its best efforts to keep illegal ads off its site the wording of the law raised the bar for prosecution from a knowing standard to one of reckless disregard and therefore violated the First Amendment 119 In October 2016 the U S District Court for the District of Columbia found that the law did not criminalize protected speech and that because Backpage took steps to avoid having illegal content on its site it arguably was not in imminent danger of prosecution 120 But Backpage s suit won a significant clarification from the court which interpreted the law as requiring a knowing mens rea standard for a conviction which is a higher standard than reckless disregard 121 Wrote the court while it might be true that some Congressional members had Backpage com in mind when enacting the SAVE ACT the statute is aimed at individuals who knowingly advertise or benefit from advertising sex trafficking 122 California prosecution edit On October 6 2016 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced that Texas authorities had raided the Dallas headquarters of Backpage com and arrested CEO Carl Ferrer at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on felony charges of pimping pimping a minor and conspiracy to commit pimping In a press release Harris denounced Backpage as the world s largest online brothel 123 The California arrest warrant alleged that 99 of Backpage s revenue was directly attributable to prostitution related ads and that many of the ads involved victims of sex trafficking including children under the age of 18 The State of Texas was also considering a money laundering charge pending its investigation 124 125 Arrest warrants were issued against former Backpage owners and founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin Lacey and Larkin were charged with conspiracy to commit pimping 126 127 Backpage general counsel Liz McDougall dismissed the raid as an election year stunt which wasn t a good faith action by law enforcement McDougall said that the company would take all steps necessary to end this frivolous prosecution and will pursue its full remedies under federal law against the state actors who chose to ignore the law as it has done successfully in other cases 128 Backpage accused California attorney general Kamala Harris who was running for the U S Senate at the time of an illegal prosecution 129 Harris s office fought against releasing the men on bail and the three prisoners appeared together in court confined to a cage inside a Sacramento courtroom wearing orange jumpsuits 130 They were released on October 13 2016 with bail set at 500 000 for Ferrer and 250 000 each for Lacey and Larkin 131 All three pleaded not guilty Writing for the magazine Pacific Standard reporter Melissa Gira Grant observed that news outlets repeatedly referred to the three men as being charged with sex trafficking though the charges were actually related to prostitution 132 nbsp Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton partnered with Harris on the 2016 Backpage busts None are accused with forcing anyone into prostitution Grant wrote None are even accused of having had any physical contact with anyone in the sex trade What the complaint claims the men did was earn money from a website where users could place advertisements for what Backpage categorized as adult services On October 17 2016 attorneys for Ferrer Larkin and Lacey sent a letter to Harris asking that all charges against their clients be dropped 133 Harris refused The letter accused Harris of acting in bad faith since she had signed a letter to Congress in 2013 along with 48 other state attorneys general telling Congress that Section 230 of the CDA prevents State and local law enforcement agencies from prosecuting companies such as Backpage and asking that Congress change the law 134 On November 17 2016 Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman issued a tentative ruling on a motion to dismiss the charges indicating that he would likely do so He ruled that the many of Backpage s decisions regarding third party content were all traditional publishing decisions which are generally immunized under Section 230 Bowman wrote In short any victimization resulted from the third party s placement of the ad not because Backpage profited from the ad placement 135 On December 9 2016 Bowman issued his final ruling dismissing all the charges in the complaint stating that Congress has precluded liability for online publishers for the action of publishing third party speech and thus provided for both a foreclosure from prosecution and an affirmative defense at trial Congress has spoken on this matter and it is for Congress not this Court to revisit 136 On December 23 2016 the state of California filed new charges against Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer and former Backpage owners Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin accusing them of pimping and money laundering 137 Lawyers for Backpage responded that the new charges rehashed the earlier case which had been dismissed The filing of new charges came just a few weeks before Kamala Harris was to be sworn in as U S Senator from California 138 Superior Court Judge Lawrence Brown dismissed the new pimping charges on August 23 2017 writing that the state s attempt to assign criminal liability to defendants who offered an online forum on which other people posted advertisements that led to prostitution confuse moral obligations with legal ones and have been rejected in other jurisdictions 139 Brown allowed most of the money laundering counts to stand The state alleges that Backpage illegally set up separate accounts to accept payments for ads from credit card companies that refused to do business with them after Sheriff Dart threatened them Brown warned that prosecutors would be obliged to show that the profits came solely from that underlying criminal activity 140 As part of his plea deal with the federal government Ferrer pled guilty to one conspiracy count and three counts of money laundering in California state court as well as to charges in Texas and in federal court 141 The California case against Lacey and Larkin for money laundering remains on hold pending the outcome of the federal trial Ferrer has promised to testify against Lacey and Larkin in return for leniency 142 U S Senate investigation edit Since April 2015 the U S Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations PSI had been investigating Backpage com as part of an overall investigation of human trafficking After a voluntary day long briefing and interview provided by the company s General Counsel PSI followed up with a subpoena to Backpage com demanding over 40 categories of documents covering 120 subjects regarding Backpage s business practices Much of the subpoena targeted Backpage s editorial functions as an online intermediary Over the ensuing months Backpage raised objections to the subpoena which PSI rejected including that the subpoena was impermissibly burdensome both in the volume of documents PSI demanded and in its intrusion into constitutionally protected editorial discretion PSI subsequently issued a shorter document subpoena with only eight requests but broader in scope and also targeting Backpage com s editorial functions Backpage com continued to object on First Amendment and other grounds PSI applied in March 2016 for a federal court order to enforce three of the eight categories of documents in the subpoena In August 2016 the U S District Court in D C granted PSI s application and ordered Backpage to produce documents responsive to the three requests 143 nbsp U S Senator Rob Portman of Ohio chaired the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations PSI during the January 10 2017 Backpage hearing Backpage immediately filed an appeal and sought a stay which the district court denied then filed emergency stay petitions with the U S Court of Appeals for the D C Circuit and the U S Supreme Court Each appellate court issued temporary stays to consider whether to grant a stay pending appeal 144 but eventually denied the emergency stay requests 145 The D C Circuit agreed to expedite the appeal and one of its judges who considered the emergency stay said he would have granted it Backpage has continued to pursue its appeal producing thousands of documents to PSI pursuant to the District Court order PSI scheduled a Subcommittee hearing regarding Backpage com for January 10 2017 On January 9 2017 prior to its scheduled hearings on Backpage the next day the PSI released a report denouncing what it referred to as Backpage s knowing facilitation of online sex trafficking 146 147 148 That same day Backpage removed its adult category from all of its sites in the United States In its place the site posted a banner that read CENSORED stating that the government has unconstitutionally censored this content 149 Backpage said it took the action due to the government s harassment and extra legal tactics which made it too costly for Backpage to continue hosting adult ads 150 151 Subcommittee chair Sen Rob Portman a Republican and ranking Democrat Sen Claire McCaskill issued statement denying that Backpage s move was in response to censorship saying the site s shutdown of its adult ad section was a validation of our findings 152 The Electronic Frontier Foundation weighed in stating that the site was succumbing to years of government pressure as a result both the First Amendment and CDA Section 230 were imperiled 153 Lois Lee founder of the anti trafficking organization Children of the Night bemoaned the loss of Backpage as an investigative tool saying that child prostitution existed long before Backpage or the Internet and that Backpage is not the cause or even a cause Rather arguing that Backpage provided an opportunity to better attack the problem 154 NCMEC applauded the takedown in a statement saying it was gratified to know that as a result of the recent decision a child is now less likely to be sold for sex on Backpage 155 Lacey and Larkin sold the site to Ferrer in 2015 The PSI subpoenaed all three along with two current Backpage execs to be present at the Jan 10 hearing In response to attempted questioning from senators on the subcommittee each witness declined to answer based on the rights provided by the Fifth and First Amendments to the Constitution 156 Portman claimed that the subcommittee s investigators discovered that Backpage had created a filter to delete hundreds of words indicative of sex trafficking or prostitution before publication words such as Lolita teen young and so forth ostensibly to hide questionable ads from law enforcement 157 Techdirt editor Mike Masnick later wrote that such moderation was actually encouraged by Section 230 s safe harbor stating that one could quite clearly see this as Backpage letting users know that it is not a place that should be used for sex trafficking because it clearly alerts them to things that they don t want on the site Masnick also noted that the same day as the hearing Backpage had won another legal battle when the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a lower court s dismissal of Jane Doe et al v Backpage com 158 In a piece on the hearing Elizabeth Nolan Brown a senior editor at Reason magazine wrote that the terms in question did not necessarily indicate sex trafficking since for example teen could apply to 18 and 19 year olds who were both teens and legally adults She also quotes NCMEC as stating that It is virtually impossible to determine how old the young women in these ads are without an in depth criminal investigation 156 But Portman McCaskill and others saw these moderation practices as nefarious In his concluding remarks Portman stated that Backpage deliberately sanitized these ads to conceal evidence of prostitution to conceal evidence of child trafficking and as a result had allegedly broken the law Portman said that he and McCaskill would promptly consider whether to refer this matter to the Department of Justice DOJ for further investigation 157 By April 2017 the Arizona Republic was reporting that a federal grand jury had been impaneled in Phoenix and was considering possible indictments of Lacey and Larkin 159 Federal prosecution edit In late March 2018 and early April 2018 courts in Massachusetts and Florida ruled that Backpage s moderation practices may have fallen outside the immunity from civil suits granted by Section 230 The latter ruling argued that because Backpage materially contributed to the content of the advertisement by censoring specific keywords it became a publisher of content and thus no longer protected 160 161 Backpage s adult services sections became the subject of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation the United States Postal Inspection Service the United States Department of Justice 162 the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigator Division with analytical assistance from the Joint Regional Intelligence Center over accusations that the website knowingly allowed and encouraged users to post ads related to prostitution and human trafficking particularly involving minors and took steps to intentionally obfuscate these activities On April 6 2018 Backpage was seized by the FBI and other federal agencies and Michael Lacey s home was raided by authorities Lacey was arrested at gunpoint that day at his home in Paradise Valley Larkin was arrested at an airport in Phoenix before exiting the plane having returned from a trip overseas 1 Lacey was charged with money laundering and violations of the Travel Act On April 9 2018 the US Department of Justice s indictment against Backpage was unsealed 163 164 The 93 counts included conspiracy to facilitate prostitution using a facility in interstate or foreign commerce facilitating prostitution using a facility in interstate or foreign commerce conspiracy to commit money laundering concealment money laundering international promotional money laundering and transactional money laundering 165 166 According to prosecutors the seven people charged in the indictment are Michael Lacey of Paradise Valley Arizona James Larkin of Paradise Valley Arizona Scott Spear of Scottsdale Arizona John E Jed Brunst of Phoenix Arizona Daniel Hyer of Dallas Texas Andrew Padilla of Plano Texas and Jaala Joye Vaught of Addison Texas 165 167 Its CEO Carl Ferrer pleaded guilty to charges of facilitating prostitution and money laundering acknowledging that the great majority of the adult advertisements on Backpage were actually advertisements for prostitution As part of his plea agreement Ferrer agreed to shut down the site and give its data to law enforcement 168 He agreed to testify against other alleged co conspirators such as but not limited to founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin Backpage also pleaded guilty to human trafficking In July 2018 the grand jury in Phoenix issued a superseding indictment increasing the total number of charges to 100 though the nature of the charges remained the same 169 The new indictment focused on 50 distinct adult ads culled from the millions of adult and non adult ads that ran on the site daily and the indictment used the fact that Backpage had worked with law enforcement to show that Backpage s executives were aware of illegal content on the site 170 171 In August 2018 Backpage sales Dan Hyer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to facilitate prostitution all other charges against him were dropped the remaining six defendants pled not guilty to all charges 172 The jury trial began in federal court in Phoenix Arizona on September 1 2021 173 In his opening statement federal prosecutor Reginald Jones claimed that the site s owners and operators were aware that Backpage was being used for illegal activity specifically prostitution but they didn t shut down the website 174 Defense attorneys countered that the adult services ads posted to Backpage were controversial but still protected by the First Amendment 175 Prosecutors called four witnesses during the eight days of trial Special Agent Brian Fichtner of the California Office of the Attorney General 176 Sharon Cooper a physician who works with trafficking victims 177 Jessika Svendgard 178 and Svendgard s mother Nacole Svendgard 179 According to The Arizona Republic Jessika Svendgard testified that she had been lured into a 105 day stint as a prostitute at age 15 where she would be raped for money She said both she and her trafficker advertised on Backpage indicating falsely that she was 18 at the time Under cross examination she indicated that she had never met spoken to or communicated in writing with any of the six defendants Her struggle in suing Backpage and obtaining a settlement in Washington state was depicted in the 2017 anti Backpage documentary I Am Jane Doe 178 Special Agent Brian Fichtner testified about his investigation into Backpage on behalf of the California Attorney General s Office under then Attorney General Kamala Harris which led to the arrests on pimping charges of Lacey Larkin and Ferrer in 2016 176 Though the pimping charges were twice dismissed state money laundering charges against the defendants survived 139 According to Reason magazine the prosecution called Fichtner to present Backpage ads that he and federal prosecutors deemed to be clear evidence of illegal sex work but Fichtner conceded that none of the ads alone would be enough to justify a prostitution arrest 13 Sharon Cooper described her work with sex trafficking victims and casually mentioned child victims of sex trafficking throughout her testimony as reported by The Arizona Republic 177 On September 14 2021 federal Judge Susan Brnovich declared a mistrial in the case saying that prosecution had abused the leeway she had given it by making constant references to child sex trafficking rather than focusing on the crimes the defendants are charged with facilitating prostitution 9 The government as prosecutors are held to a higher standard Brnovich said Their goal is not to win at any costs but their goal is to win by the rules 180 The trial had been expected to last two to three months 175 Brnovich granted the defense motion for mistrial on day eight 12 Brnovich then set an October 5 status hearing in the case 9 At the October 5 hearing Brnovich scheduled a new trial for February 22 2022 10 Brnovich recused herself over a conflict of interest with her husband 11 who was Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich on October 29 2021 and federal Judge Diane Humetewa was chosen by lot to replace her 12 Humetewa is the fourth judge to be assigned the case so far 12 A new trial has been delayed as the defense appeals Humetewa s denial of a motion to dismiss the case for good 13 On September 2 2022 a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the defense s appeal of Humetewa s ruling Defendants argued that the case should be dismissed because a new trial would violate the Fifth Amendment s prohibition on Double Jeopardy Though the defendants had moved for the mistrial their attorneys argued that the prosecution goaded them into doing so by engaging in intentional misconduct specifically by focusing too much on the subject of child sex trafficking 181 On September 21 2022 the appeals panel ruled against the defendants upholding Humetewa s ruling and finding that the prosecution had no reason to sabotage its own trial The decision reportedly made it likely that Lacey Larkin et al would face a retrial sometime in 2023 14 Backpage was launched in 2004 by New Times Media later to be known as Village Voice Media a publisher of 11 alternative newsweeklies as a free classified advertising website 2 The site included the various categories found in newspaper classified sections including those that were unique to and part of the First Amendment driven traditions of most alternative weeklies These included personals including adult oriented personal ads adult services musicians and New Age services Until January 9 2017 Backpage contained an adult section containing different subcategories of various sex work The company suspended its adult listings following accusations by a United States Senate subcommittee of being involved with sex trafficking and the sexual exploitation of minors 182 However many escorts and erotic masseuses admit to moving their ads to the massage and women seeking men listings 183 Prostitution is illegal throughout the United States except for some counties in Nevada Kristen DiAngelo executive director of the Sex Workers Outreach Project of Sacramento criticized the shutdown describing how many sex workers across the United States no longer had a way to support themselves Backpage allowed for sex workers using the site to post bad date lists screen clients and communicate with other sex workers to ensure for the safest possible experience 184 Activists argued that the move would force some of the site s users to work on the street 185 An article from Reason published in April 2023 supported this claim stating 5 Years After the Backpage Shutdown Sex Workers are still suffering and the shutdown is still worsening the lives it was supposed to improve 186 In 2015 Backpage lost all credit card processing agreements as banks came under pressure from law enforcement leaving Bitcoin as the sole remaining option for paid ads 171 Subsequent history edit Then president Donald Trump signed SESTA FOSTA into law on April 11 2018 187 a law making it illegal to promote or facilitate prostitution The new law also created an exception to CDA Section 230 removing an interactive computer service s immunity from civil and criminal state laws regarding sex trafficking 188 The law s proponents claimed that it was needed to crackdown on Backpage which they accused of facilitating sex trafficking through its adult section 189 Yet the defendants in the Backpage case were not charged under SESTA FOSTA but under the U S Travel Act and money laundering statutes 190 Their arrests were on April 6 2018 191 DOJ Memos edit U S Department of Justice memos from 2012 and 2013 obtained by Reason and published in August 2019 revealed that Backpage actively fought against child prostitution on the website Reason reports that federal prosecutors accidentally sent the memos to defense lawyers in the Backpage case sometime in 2018 as part of discovery but the memos were placed under seal and cannot be used at trial 192 193 Attorneys at the U S Attorney s Office for the Western District of Washington wrote both memos assessing the possibilities of a successful prosecution of Backpage The 2012 memo paraphrased an FBI agent with the Innocence Lost Task Force stating that unlike virtually every other website that is used for prostitution and sex trafficking Backpage is remarkably responsive to law enforcement requests and often takes proactive steps to assist in investigations 194 According to the 2012 memo Backpage employees testified in criminal cases answered subpoenas within 24 hours sometimes within the hour and also gave law enforcement information without a subpoena in exigent circumstances such as a missing child Law enforcement was able to contact Backpage and obtain immediate removal of certain posts suspected of involving juveniles Backpage s age verification protocol was imperfect but standard in the industry and it reported ads suspected of involving child sex trafficking to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children NCMEC The memo concludes that any prosecution of Backpage would likely have to overcome Backpage s efforts to actively cooperate with law enforcement 194 The 2013 memo was also skeptical of a successful prosecution stating W e have yet to uncover compelling evidence of criminal intent or a pattern of reckless conduct regarding minors It described how Backpage s moderation changed over time and paraphrased NCMEC s then president and CEO Ernie Allen as saying he believed Backpage wanted child sex trafficking off its site but that the use of the Internet to market commercial sex was so fluid that any system of moderation and reporting was destined to fail The memo suggests that the government may want to consider going after Backpage using money laundering statutes 195 Hacking Hustling survey edit Published in January 2020 a survey of sex workers by the sex worker rights group Hacking Hustling indicated that sex workers suffered in the wake of SESTA FOSTA s passage and the federal government s seizure of Backpage 196 According to The Daily Beast the survey found that 33 8 percent of respondents reported an increase in violence from clients after the law was signed and 72 5 percent reported they were facing increased financial insecurity and sex worker rights advocates related stories of sex workers who were thrust into the arms of pimps in order to find work or back into abusive relationships for want of somewhere to stay 197 GAO report edit In June 2021 the U S Governmental Accountability Office GAO released a report stating that SESTA FOSTA had only been used once by the DOJ since it was passed in 2018 Both SESTA FOSTA and the takedown of Backpage using other statutes had caused the adult online ad market to fragment and scatter to sites hosted in other countries 197 198 The GAO report concludes that the seizure of Backpage has had an adverse effect on federal law enforcement s ability to investigate sex trafficking cases It reads gathering evidence to bring cases against users of online platforms has also become more difficult According to a 2019 FBI document the FBI s ability to identify and locate sex trafficking victims and perpetrators was significantly decreased following the takedown of backpage com According to FBI officials this is largely because law enforcement was familiar with backpage com and backpage com was generally responsive to legal requests for information In contrast officials said law enforcement may be less familiar with platforms located overseas Further obtaining evidence from entities overseas may be more cumbersome and time intensive as those who control such platforms may not voluntarily respond to legal process and mutual legal assistance requests may take months if not years according to DOJ officials Despite these investigative challenges DOJ officials said they are committed to holding accountable those who control online platforms that promote sex trafficking 199 Alleged victims edit On April 9 2018 the US Department of Justice s indictment against Backpage was unsealed One 15 year old is alleged to have been forced to do in calls at hotels A second teenager was allegedly told to perform sexual acts at gunpoint and choked until she had seizures before being gang raped A third victim advertised under the pseudonym Nadia was stabbed to death while a fourth victim was murdered in 2015 and her corpse deliberately burned The lawyer for Backpage operations manager Andrew Padilla stated that his client was not legally responsible for any actions of third parties under U S law He is no more responsible than the owner of a community billboard when someone places an ad on it 164 200 In October 2018 a Texas woman sued Backpage and Facebook claiming she had been sex trafficked on Backpage by a man who lured her into prostitution by posing as her friend on the social media network 201 On April 15 2019 a Wisconsin man was convicted on federal sex trafficking charges over victims who he brought across state lines forced into prostitution and advertised on Backpage 202 On April 29 2019 a Florida former middle school teacher was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for buying sex with a 14 year old girl who was advertised on Backpage 203 See also editCraigslist I Am Jane DoeReferences edit a b c d Inside Backpage com s Vicious Battle With the Feds WIRED June 18 2019 Archived from the original on June 18 2019 Retrieved May 28 2021 a b Kiefer Michael September 23 2012 Phoenix New Times founders selling company Phoenix The Arizona Republic retrieved December 1 2015 Adult Services Shutdown Is Permanent Craigslist Tells Congress Wired ISSN 1059 1028 Retrieved May 28 2021 Backpage Shutters Adult Ads Section Following Years of Government Bullying Reason com January 10 2017 Retrieved May 28 2021 Justice Department Leads Effort to Seize Backpage Com the Internet s Leading Forum for Prostitution Ads and Obtains 93 Count Federal Indictment www justice gov April 9 2018 Retrieved May 28 2021 Indictment levels new charges against Backpage com officials ABC News July 28 2018 Archived from the original on July 28 2018 Retrieved July 8 2021 Sales director for Backpage com pleads guilty to conspiracy NBC News Retrieved July 8 2021 U S v Lacey et al Court Listener U S District Court Arizona August 16 2021 Archived from the original on August 17 2021 a b c Judge declares mistrial at trial of Backpage com founders AP NEWS September 14 2021 Retrieved September 19 2021 a b New trial set for Backpage founders after recent mistrial AP NEWS October 5 2021 Retrieved January 25 2022 a b Appeals court won t remove Judge Brnovich from Backpage case over Attorney General husband Arizona Republic a b c d e Docket for United States v Lacey 2 18 cr 00422 CourtListener com CourtListener Retrieved January 25 2022 a b c Maggy Krell Repackages Her Bogus Backpage Prosecution Into a Book Reason com January 20 2022 Retrieved January 25 2022 a b Brown Elizabeth Nolan September 22 2022 Retrial of Backpage execs wouldn t be double jeopardy court says Reason com Retrieved October 14 2022 U S v Lacey et al Memorandum Decision PDF Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals September 21 2022 Retrieved October 13 2022 Backpage exec James Larkin dies by suicide a week before trial August 4 2023 Backpage founder Michael Lacey convicted of money laundering PBS NewsHour November 16 2023 Retrieved November 17 2023 The Top 10 Internet Moments of the Decade ABC News Retrieved June 1 2021 The Rise of Craigslist and How It s Killing Your Newspaper New York Magazine Nymag New York Magazine January 6 2006 Retrieved June 1 2021 San Francisco Bay Guardian News August 13 2006 Archived from the original on August 13 2006 Retrieved June 1 2021 Pew Center illustrates how Craigslist is killing newspapers CNET May 20 2014 Archived from the original on May 20 2014 Retrieved June 1 2021 About Us Phoenix New Times Retrieved June 1 2021 Can New Owner Michael Lacey Make the Village Voice Relevant Again Nymag New York Magazine November 3 2005 Retrieved June 1 2021 a b c d The Senate Accused Them of Selling Kids for Sex The FBI Raided Their Homes Backpage com s Founders Speak for the First Time Reason com August 21 2018 Retrieved June 1 2021 a b c Inside Backpage com s Vicious Battle With the Feds WIRED June 18 2019 Archived from the original on June 18 2019 Retrieved June 1 2021 Sept 23 Michael Kiefer azcentral com 2012 09 13 PM The Republic Phoenix New Times founders selling company azcentral com Retrieved June 1 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint numeric names authors list link Stern Ray September 27 2012 Michael Lacey Talks About Selling New Times and Village Voice Media to Trusted Colleagues Phoenix New Times Retrieved June 1 2021 Athens News Staff December 15 2008 Erotic services ads Soliciting sex or exercising free speech Athens News Singel Minded Craigslist Took One for the Open Internet Wired ISSN 1059 1028 Retrieved June 2 2021 An alternative paper axes escort ads but it s no morals case The Boston Globe archive boston com Retrieved June 2 2021 The Elephant in the Room Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology amp the Ancient World at Brown University Retrieved June 2 2021 Who killed the newspaper The Economist August 24 2006 ISSN 0013 0613 Retrieved June 2 2021 18 U S Code 1591 Sex trafficking of children or by force fraud or coercion LII Legal Information Institute Retrieved June 3 2021 Atlanta mayor says Craigslist used for child prostitution San Francisco Business Times Retrieved June 2 2021 March 27 Verne Kopytoff on PM 2008 at 1 40 March 27 2008 Craigslist gets heat for prostitution ads The Technology Chronicles Retrieved June 2 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint numeric names authors list link Fri March 28 2008 7 58pm Mike Masnick March 28 2008 Craigslist Blamed Yet Again For Something It Didn t Do Techdirt Retrieved June 2 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link CS1 maint numeric names authors list link Graybow Martha November 6 2008 Craigslist agrees to crack down on erotic ads Reuters Retrieved June 2 2021 Craigslist agrees to crack down on prostitution ads The Philadelphia Inquirer November 6 2008 Retrieved June 2 2021 Sheriff Tom Dart About Tom sherifftomdart com Retrieved June 2 2021 Lawsuit accuses craigslist of promoting prostitution CNN com www cnn com Retrieved June 2 2021 Craigslist Threatened With Criminal Investigation ABC News Retrieved June 2 2021 Stone Brad May 13 2009 Under Pressure Craigslist to Remove Erotic Ads The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved June 2 2021 Szep Jason May 13 2009 Craigslist to drop erotic services ads Reuters Retrieved June 2 2021 Think twice before answering that ad 101 murders have been linked to Craigslist Washington Post ISSN 0190 8286 Retrieved June 3 2021 Wed January 13 2016 9 37am Tim Cushing January 13 2016 The Unbelievably True Story Of How Craigslist Murdered Over 100 People Techdirt Retrieved June 3 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link CS1 maint numeric names authors list link Dart v Craigslist Inc PDF PDF Bloomberg Law Craigslist Motion for Judgment PDF Digital Media Law Project Attorneys general call for Craigslist to get rid of adult services ads CNN com www cnn com Retrieved June 3 2021 Tue April 27 2010 10 41am Mike Masnick April 27 2010 Attorneys General Upset That Craigslist Is Profiting From Procedure He Forced Craigslist To Put In Place Techdirt Retrieved June 3 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link CS1 maint numeric names authors list link Popper Benjamin September 8 2010 In Defense of Craigslist The Atlantic Retrieved June 3 2021 Miller Claire Cain September 6 2010 Some See a Ploy as Craigslist Blocks Sex Ads The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved June 3 2021 Miller Claire Cain September 15 2010 Craigslist Says It Has Shut Its Section for Sex Ads The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved June 3 2021 Jim Buckmaster Craigslist put up an ad for a programmer It got a chief executive the Guardian October 6 2011 Retrieved June 3 2021 Fowler Geoffrey A September 7 2010 Craigslist Step Won t End Fight Wall Street Journal ISSN 0099 9660 Retrieved June 3 2021 Foundation Thomson Reuters Why cracking down on websites won t stop online sex trafficking news trust org Retrieved June 29 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a first has generic name help Inside Backpage com s Vicious Battle With the Feds WIRED June 18 2019 Archived from the original on June 18 2019 Retrieved June 3 2021 Backpage com Succumbing to Government Is Blow to Free Speech Online Center for Democracy and Technology Retrieved June 3 2021 Biederman Christine June 18 2019 Inside Backpage com s Vicious Battle With the Feds Wired Magazine Mo girl sues Village Voice Media over sex ads The Seattle Times September 17 2010 Retrieved June 12 2021 Patrick Robert August 17 2011 Federal judge dismisses teen s sex trafficking lawsuit against website STLtoday com Retrieved June 12 2021 Biederman Christine June 18 2019 Inside Backpage com s Vicious Battle With the Feds WIRED Briefing Paper 03 Sex Work Is Not Sex Trafficking PDF Global Network of Sex Work Projects NSWP Women s Funding Network Sex Trafficking Study Is Junk Science The Village Voice March 23 2011 Retrieved June 12 2021 Kotz Pete February 2 2012 The Super Bowl Prostitution Hoax Houston Press Retrieved June 12 2021 Real Men Get Their Facts Straight The Village Voice June 29 2011 Retrieved June 12 2021 Carr David October 31 2011 Fighting Over Online Sex Ads The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved June 13 2021 Media Village Voice October 25 2011 Village Voice Media Responds to Clergy Miami New Times Retrieved June 13 2021 Village Voice HQ Is Being Protested for Facilitation of Sex Trafficking The Village Voice November 16 2011 Retrieved June 13 2021 Manuel Gamiz Jr July 12 2014 Website fuels surge in prostitution police say The Morning Call Retrieved January 29 2017 Backpage com was formed in 2004 but didn t factor much in vice investigations until its adult services section flooded with ads around 2010 the same year Craigslist stopped its adult section Roy S Johnson January 25 2017 Sex Trafficking Victim Sues Backpage com Choice Hotels Alabama com Retrieved January 29 2017 Last September however the Supreme Court in Washington state ruled 6 3 that a 2012 suit against Backpage com by three Washington teenaged girls who were allegedly trafficked on the site could proceed in what turned out to be a preliminary blow against the site Backpage was seized by the federal government on April 6 2018 Amicus Curiae Brief of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children PDF Archived from the original PDF on April 27 2017 Retrieved January 29 2017 a b Feyerick Deborah Steffen Sheila May 10 2012 A lurid journey through Backpage com CNN com Retrieved January 21 2016 a b Irvine Martha August 16 2015 Backpage ad site Aider of traffickers or way to stop them Seattle Times Seattle Washington Retrieved February 17 2016 Fisher Daniel Backpage Takes Heat But Prostitution Ads Are Everywhere Forbes Retrieved November 10 2012 Kristof Nicholas January 25 2012 Opinion How Pimps Use the Web to Sell Girls The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved April 15 2019 Ruvolo Julie June 26 2012 Sex Lies and Suicide What s Wrong with the War on Sex Trafficking Forbes Retrieved January 21 2016 Charles J B November 17 2016 America s top online brothel a critical tool for law enforcement TheHill Retrieved November 21 2016 Washington State Drops Defense of Unconstitutional Sex Trafficking Law www eff org Electronic Frontier Foundation December 6 2012 Retrieved February 21 2016 Reitman Rainey July 6 2015 Caving to Government Pressure Visa and MasterCard Shut Down Payments to Backpage com www eff org Retrieved January 20 2016 United States District Court Western District of Washington at Seattle December 10 2012 Text Backpage v Dart United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit October 23 2015 Text a b c Masnick Mike February 8 2016 20 Years Ago Today The Most Important Law On The Internet Was Signed Almost By Accident www techdirt com Techdirt Retrieved February 21 2016 Goldman Eric July 30 2016 Overzealous Legislative Effort Against Online Child Prostitution Ads at Backpage Fails Providing a Big Win for User Generated Content Forbes Retrieved January 21 2016 Am Terkel a Grim Ryan Stein Sam December 17 2015 The Disturbing Story Of Widespread Sexual Assault Allegations At A Major Progressive PR Firm HuffPost Retrieved June 23 2021 Otis Laura Bult Ginger Adams December 18 2015 Progressive PR firm FitzGibbon Media closes after coward president Trevor FitzGibbon faces multiple sexual harassment accusations nydailynews com Retrieved June 23 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Founder of PR Firm Shut Down Over Sexual Harassment Allegations Launches Project to Protect Women at Work Jezebel May 17 2017 Retrieved June 23 2021 Exposing Backpage com www fitzgibbonmedia com Fitzgibbon Media Retrieved January 21 2016 Kristof Nicholas November 1 2014 Teenagers Stand Up to Backpage The New York Times Retrieved January 21 2016 Kristof Nicholas March 17 2012 Where Pimps Peddle Their Goods The New York Times Retrieved January 21 2016 Kristof Nicholas March 31 2012 Financers and Sex Trafficking The New York Times Retrieved January 21 2016 What Nick Kristof Didn t Tell You in his Sunday Column about Backpage com www villagevoice com Village Voice March 21 2012 Archived from the original on December 12 2016 Retrieved June 22 2021 What Nick Kristof Got Wrong Village Voice Media Responds Village Voice December 12 2016 Archived from the original on December 12 2016 Retrieved June 22 2021 a b Sept 23 Michael Kiefer azcentral com 2012 09 13 PM The Republic Phoenix New Times founders selling company azcentral com Retrieved June 22 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint numeric names authors list link Stern Ray September 27 2012 Michael Lacey Talks About Selling New Times and Village Voice Media to Trusted Colleagues Phoenix New Times Retrieved June 22 2021 Francescani Chris Nadia Damouni September 24 2012 Village Voice newspaper chain to split from controversial ad site Reuters Retrieved December 1 2015 a b Hardy Michael December 14 2017 Requiem for an Alt Weekly Texas Observer Retrieved December 14 2017 Kezar Korri December 30 2014 Backpage com sold to Dutch company for undisclosed amount Dallas Dallas Business Journal retrieved December 1 2015 a b Ehrlich Paul January 1 2002 Communications Decency Act 230 Berkeley Technology Law Journal 17 1 Retrieved January 16 2016 Goldman Eric August 17 2011 Backpage Gets 47 USC 230 Defense for Prostitution Ads M A v Village Voice Technology amp Marketing Law Blog Retrieved June 25 2021 M A v Village Voice Media 809 F Supp 2d 1041 E D Miss 2011 Electronic Frontier Foundation November 5 2012 Retrieved June 25 2021 Does Washington State s SB 6251 Require Online Classified Sites to Monitor All Third Party Content Digital Media Law Project www dmlp org Retrieved June 25 2021 Backpage com et al v McKenna et al No 2 2012cv00954 Document 69 W D Wash 2012 Justia Law Retrieved June 25 2021 Mccann Nick December 10 2012 Washington Drops Online Sex Traffic Law Courthouse News Service Retrieved June 25 2021 AMENDED ORDER The Court ADOPTS all of its factual findings and legal conclusions contained in the January 3 Order into this Order and GRANTS summary judgment for Backpage for Backpage com LLC v Cooper et al Justia Dockets amp Filings Retrieved June 25 2021 P L 2013 c 51 A3352 5R www njleg state nj us Retrieved June 25 2021 Internet Archive v Hoffman Electronic Frontier Foundation June 26 2013 Retrieved June 25 2021 Hermes Jeff July 2015 Media Law Letter Backpage Obtains TRO to Stop Interference with Payment Processing for Adult Ads Media Law Resource Center MLRC pp 31 39 Backpage com Wins First Amendment Victory Against Censorious Sheriff Reason com December 1 2015 Retrieved June 25 2021 Backpage com LLC v Dart No 15 3047 7th Cir 2015 Justia Law Retrieved June 25 2021 Stern Mark Joseph December 2 2015 A Judge Smacks Down a Sheriff s Absurd Intimidation Campaign Against Adult Ads Slate Magazine Retrieved June 25 2021 Goldman Eric Big Win For Free Speech Online In Backpage Lawsuit Forbes Retrieved June 25 2021 FindLaw s United States First Circuit case and opinions Findlaw Retrieved June 25 2021 Doe v Backpage com LLC SCOTUSblog Retrieved June 25 2021 With New Evidence from U S Senate Report Ropes amp Gray Files Another Lawsuit Against Backpage com its CEO and Owners www ropesgray com Retrieved July 6 2021 Fri March 30 2018 9 40am Mike Masnick March 30 2018 Court Shows SESTA Is Not Needed Says Backpage Can Lose Its CDA 230 Protections If It Helped Create Illegal Content Techdirt Retrieved July 6 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link CS1 maint numeric names authors list link Regulation Eric Goldman in Content Liability Derivative E Commerce Marketing March 30 2018 District Court Ruling Highlights Congress Hastiness To Pass Worst of Both Worlds FOSTA Doe 1 v Backpage Technology amp Marketing Law Blog Retrieved July 6 2021 Anti Backpage com Bill Will Shut Down Free Speech American Civil Liberties Union Retrieved July 12 2021 Cope Sophia January 29 2015 SAVE Act Passes in House Comes One Step Closer to Unnecessarily Chilling Online Speech Electronic Frontier Foundation Retrieved July 12 2021 Backpage com Sues Federal Government Over SAVE Act Reason com December 15 2015 Retrieved July 12 2021 Regulation Eric Goldman in Content Liability Derivative E Commerce Marketing November 10 2016 Backpage Can t Challenge the SAVE Act Backpage v Lynch Technology amp Marketing Law Blog Retrieved July 12 2021 Mens Rea LII Legal Information Institute Retrieved July 12 2021 Gerstein Josh October 25 2016 Backpage wins by losing in suit over new trafficking law POLITICO Retrieved July 12 2021 Attorney General Kamala D Harris Announces Criminal Charges Against Senior Corporate Officers of Backpage com for Profiting from Prostitution and Arrest of Carl Ferrer CEO State of California Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General October 6 2016 Retrieved July 2 2021 Backpage CEO to appear in Houston court on prostitution bust Houston Chronicle Retrieved November 21 2016 Attorney General Kamala D Harris Announces Criminal Charges Against Senior Corporate Officers of Backpage com for Profiting from Prostitution and Arrest of Carl Ferrer CEO State of California Department of Justice Kamala D Harris Attorney General October 6 2016 Retrieved November 21 2016 Mele Christopher October 6 2016 C E O of Backpage com Known for Escort Ads Is Charged with Pimping a Minor The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved November 21 2016 Backpage com raided CEO arrested for sex trafficking The Big Story Retrieved November 21 2016 Hamilton Matt October 7 2016 Backpage says criminal charges by Kamala Harris are election year stunt Los Angeles Times Retrieved November 21 2016 Backpage com CEO Will Fight Sex Trafficking Charges Lawyer Says CBS Los Angeles October 7 2016 Retrieved November 21 2016 Kamala Harris s Dishonest Campaign To Destroy Backpage com Reason com August 20 2020 Retrieved July 2 2021 Smith Darrell October 13 2016 Backpage com CEO partners to be released on bail The Sacramento Bee Retrieved July 1 2021 Grant Melissa Gira August 9 2017 What s Behind the Backpage Prosecution Pacific Standard Retrieved July 2 2021 James C Grant October 17 2016 The Honorable Kamala D Harris Re People v Ferrer et al Case No 16FE019224 Sup Ct Sacramento County PDF Davis Wright Tremaine Retrieved January 29 2017 Former Backpage com Heads Say Pimping Charges Motivated by Politics Not Facts Reason com October 20 2016 Retrieved July 2 2021 Cushing Tim November 17 2016 Judge Leaning Strongly Towards Tossing Pimping Charges Against Backpage Executives Techdirt Retrieved July 2 2021 California vs Ferrar et al Cal Super December 9 2016 Congress has precluded liability for online publishers for the action of publishing third party speech and thus provided for both a foreclosure from prosecution and an affirmative defense at trial Congress has spoken on this matter and it is for Congress not this Court to revisit Text California v Ferrer PDF December 23 2016 Archived from the original PDF on August 25 2020 Retrieved January 29 2017 Fri December 23 2016 3 57pm Mike Masnick December 23 2016 Merry Christmas Kamala Harris Files Brand New Criminal Charges Against Backpage Execs After Last Ones Were Tossed Out Techdirt Retrieved July 2 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link CS1 maint numeric names authors list link a b Regulation Eric Goldman in Content Liability Derivative E Commerce Marketing August 24 2017 Backpage Executives Must Face Money Laundering Charges Despite Section 230 People v Ferrer Technology amp Marketing Law Blog Retrieved July 2 2021 Tue August 29 2017 11 53am Mike Masnick August 29 2017 California Case Against Backpage Moves Forward Over Money Laundering Claims Techdirt Retrieved July 2 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link CS1 maint numeric names authors list link Attorney General Becerra Announces Guilty Plea by Backpage com CEO Carl Ferrer and Permanent Shutdown of the Online Sex Trafficking Website State of California Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General April 12 2018 Retrieved July 2 2021 Backpage Plea to Texas Sex Trafficking Charge Turns On CEO s Admission to Brokering Adult Prostitution Reason com April 16 2018 Retrieved July 2 2021 Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations v Ferrer F Supp 3d 2016 WL 4179289 Misc Action No 16 mc 621 RMC D D C August 16 2016 Ferrer v Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations 137 S Ct 1 Mem 195 L E 2d 900 85 USLW 3075 September 6 2016 Ferrer v Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations 137 S Ct 28 Mem 195 L E 2d 901 85 USLW 3084 September 13 2016 Backpage com s knowing facilitation of online sex trafficking PDF United States Senate PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 2017 Archived from the original PDF on January 13 2017 Retrieved January 29 2017 Neidig Harper January 10 2017 Senators blast Backpage executives as site closes adult section TheHill Retrieved January 11 2017 U S Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations January 2017 Backpage s Knowing Facilitation of Online Sex Trafficking PDF Courthouse News Retrieved July 3 2021 Backpage pulls adult ads and accuses government of censorship NBC News January 10 2017 Retrieved July 3 2021 Backpage com shuts down adult services ads after relentless pressure from authorities The Washington Post Washington D C Retrieved January 11 2017 Backpage Kills Adult Ads On The Same Day Supreme Court Backed Its Legal Protections Due To Grandstanding Senators Techdirt Retrieved January 11 2017 Gerstein Josh January 9 2017 Under Senate pressure Backpage shutters adult section POLITICO Retrieved July 3 2021 Cope Sophia January 12 2017 Government Pressure Shutters Backpage s Adult Services Section Electronic Frontier Foundation Retrieved July 3 2021 Backpage Shutters Adult Ads Section Following Years of Government Bullying Reason com January 10 2017 Retrieved July 3 2021 Dellinger A J January 10 2017 Backpage Claims Censorship Closes Adult Ads Over Pressure From Government Alleging Child Sex Trafficking International Business Times Retrieved July 4 2021 a b Backpage Backed Into Corner Over Adult Ads Is Government s Goal a Goodbye to Sex Trafficking or Free Speech Reason com January 13 2017 Retrieved July 4 2021 a b BACKPAGE COM S KNOWING FACILITATION OF ONLINE SEX TRAFFICKING www govinfo gov Retrieved July 4 2021 Tue January 10 2017 6 22am Mike Masnick January 10 2017 Backpage Kills Adult Ads On The Same Day Supreme Court Backed Its Legal Protections Due To Grandstanding Senators Techdirt Retrieved July 4 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link CS1 maint numeric names authors list link Hess Sarah Jarvis Lily Altavena and Kelsey As allegations increase against Backpage founders have become big political donors in Arizona The Arizona Republic Retrieved July 4 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Court Shows SESTA Is Not Needed Says Backpage Can Lose Its CDA 230 Protections If It Helped Create Illegal Content Techdirt Retrieved April 7 2018 Yet Another Court Says Victims Don t Need SESTA FOSTA To Go After Backpage Techdirt Retrieved April 7 2018 Backpage com CEO pleads guilty to California money charges Business Insider Retrieved April 13 2018 Brice Makini Mason Jeff Oatis Jonathan April 11 2018 Trump signs law to punish websites for sex trafficking Reuters Retrieved April 13 2018 a b Lynch Sarah N April 9 2018 Backpage com founders others indicted on prostitution related charges Reuters Retrieved April 13 2018 a b Bhardwaj Prachi April 9 2018 Backpage com executives have been charged with a 93 count federal indictment that alleges conspiracy to facilitate prostitution and money laundering Business Insider Retrieved April 12 2018 Heater Brian April 9 2018 DOJ issues 93 count indictment against Backpage over sex ads TechCrunch TechCrunch Retrieved April 12 2018 Thomson Iain April 12 2018 Backpage com swoop Seven bods hit with 93 charges as AG Sessions blasts alleged child sex trafficking cyber haven The Register Retrieved April 12 2018 Astor Maggie April 12 2018 Backpage Chief Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy and Money Laundering The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved April 19 2019 Indictment levels new charges against Backpage com officials ABC News July 28 2018 Archived from the original on July 28 2018 Retrieved July 4 2021 U S v Lacey July 25 2018 DocumentCloud www documentcloud org Retrieved July 4 2021 a b The Senate Accused Them of Selling Kids for Sex The FBI Raided Their Homes Backpage com s Founders Speak for the First Time Reason com August 21 2018 Retrieved July 4 2021 Sales director for Backpage com pleads guilty to conspiracy NBC News Retrieved July 4 2021 Ex Backpage owners head to trial over alleged sex ads AP NEWS August 31 2021 Retrieved September 19 2021 Cooper Jonathan September 3 2021 Prosecutor Backpage Managers Knew Site Had Prostitution Ads U S News amp World Report a b Defense lawyers say 1st Amendment protected ads on Backpage PAhomepage com September 8 2021 Retrieved September 19 2021 a b Biased Testimony in Backpage Case Triggers Mistrial Reason com September 14 2021 Retrieved January 26 2022 a b Ruelas Richard Federal judge declares mistrial for Backpage executives accused of facilitating prostitution The Arizona Republic Retrieved January 26 2022 a b Ruelas Richard I would be raped for money Former teen prostitute testifies in Backpage trial The Arizona Republic Retrieved January 26 2022 United States v Lacey No CR 18 00422 001 PHX DJH Casetext Search Citator casetext com Retrieved January 26 2022 Ruelas Richard Federal judge declares mistrial for Backpage executives accused of facilitating prostitution The Arizona Republic Retrieved September 19 2021 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Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 www congress gov Retrieved July 6 2021 House passes anti online sex trafficking bill allows targeting of websites like Backpage com Washington Post ISSN 0190 8286 Retrieved July 6 2021 The Backpage Scandal Isn t What You Think Reason com November 15 2018 Retrieved July 4 2021 The War on Backpage com Is a War on Sex Workers Reason com June 26 2019 Retrieved July 6 2021 Secret Memos Show the Government Has Been Lying About Backpage All Along Reason com August 26 2019 Retrieved July 4 2021 Wed August 28 2019 6 51am Mike Masnick August 28 2019 New Government Documents Reveal That Backpage Was Actively Helping Law Enforcement Track Down Traffickers Techdirt Retrieved July 7 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link CS1 maint numeric names authors list link a b Backpage DOJ 2012 Memo April 3 2012 Memorandum Backpage Investigation Document Cloud Archived from the original on August 26 2019 Retrieved July 7 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint numeric names authors list link Backpage DOJ 2013 January 16 2013 Backpage com Investigation Update Document Cloud Archived from the original on August 26 2019 Retrieved July 7 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint numeric names authors list link Blunt Danielle Wolf Ariel April 27 2020 Erased The impact of FOSTA SESTA and the removal of Backpage on sex workers Anti Trafficking Review 14 117 121 doi 10 14197 atr 201220148 ISSN 2287 0113 S2CID 219067016 a b Shugerman Emily September 1 2021 Backpage Kingpins Go on Trial and Sex Workers May Pay the Price The Daily Beast Retrieved January 26 2022 Office U S Government Accountability Sex Trafficking Online Platforms and Federal Prosecutions www gao gov Retrieved July 7 2021 U S Government Accountability Office June 2021 Sex Trafficking Online Platforms and Federal Prosecutions PDF GAO gov Archived PDF from the original on June 27 2021 Retrieved July 7 2021 Amatulli Jenna Reilly Ryan J April 9 2018 Backpage com Founders Indicted For Facilitating Prostitution On Site HuffPost Canada Retrieved April 13 2018 Whitcomb Dan Woman sues Facebook claims site enabled sex trafficking Reuters Retrieved October 3 2018 Wisconsin man found guilty of sex trafficking on now defunct Reuters April 16 2019 Retrieved April 16 2019 Florida man imprisoned for trafficking girl 14 via Backpage com Reuters April 30 2019 Retrieved April 30 2019 External links edit Backpage com seized by feds over sex trafficking ads CBS Evening News April 6 2018 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Backpage amp oldid 1207014028, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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