FBI Seizes Backpage.com, a Site Criticized For Sex-Related Ads (reuters.com)

The FBI has reportedly seized the sex marketplace website Backpage.com, according to a posting on its website on Friday. "The posting said the U.S. Justice Department would provide more information at 6 p.m. EDT," reports Reuters. "It said U.S. attorneys in Arizona and California, as well as the Justice Department's section on child exploitation and obscenity and the California and Texas attorneys general had supported the work in shutting down the website." From the report: Lawmakers and enforcement officials have been working to crack down on the site, the second largest classified ad service in the country after Craigslist that is used primarily to sell sex. The U.S. Senate passed legislation last month making it easier for state prosecutors and sex-trafficking victims to sue social media networks, advertisers and others that fail to keep sex trafficking and other exploitative materials off their platforms. The Supreme Court in January 2017 refused to consider reviving a lawsuit against backpage.com filed by three young women alleging the site facilitated their forced prostitution. But the site has since then faced a slew of other lawsuits alleging child sex trafficking. According to AZCentral, local FBI officials have confirmed "law enforcement activity" Friday morning at the Sedona-area home of Michael Lacey, a co-founder of Backpage.com. The raid comes amid what appears to be a shut-down of the website.

Comments

Re:sex is bad

[b0s0z0ku]

No, according to the Christian Right, sex should be ONLY for making babies, no enjoyment permitted. Only politicians and CEOs get to boink pr0n stars for fun, since the rules don't apply to them.

Re:sex is bad

[Mashiki]

Keep in mind that the Christian right really hasn't been a voting force for a while. On the other hand, the puritan left has become a voting force. You've got sex-negative feminism as you pointed out, but there's also a general sex-negative leftism as well. Just look at all the neo-puritains that rail against video games and movies that have sexual content from the left.

What I find annoying as hell is how the old-hacks who railed against movies and video games, now feel emboldened by the very loud minority voices among the left pushing for censorship to the point that they can dust off their old talking points and start anew. And the same media outlets, those same voices who screeched that those right-wingers were assholes for trying to censor, are right there...nodding their heads in agreement. Here's two good examples, Jack Thompson is now paraded by leftist sites as a moral voice. And a nearly dead right-wing organization got Cosmopolitan removed from walmart by riding on the heels of left wing screeching.