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ChaosKitty

Queen Bitch From Hell
Alrighty, right up there with the sniveling porn revenger sites but with a lot more damage this rag is responsible for aiding and abetting human trafficking of minors and at risk adults and has been for some time. Personally I think their mewling whines should be met with a kick in the teeth and will site their version site of freedom of press claims after original and a watch groups. it just doesn't want to reward my perseverance and hard work with letting me click and publish and claims to need more words so here it is
backpage_lead_1.0.png

http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/10/14223770/backpage-closes-goverment-pressure
Classified ad site Backpage.com has closed its adult section in the United States, citing “unconstitutional government censorship” as the cause. Since Craigslist closed its adult section in 2010, Backpage has become a popular advertising platform for escorts and illegal adult services.

The LA Times reports that Backpage shuttered the section following the release of a blistering report from the US Senate. The document accused the site of revising ads that suggested criminal activity in order to keep them online. The report claims Backpage went so far as to delete information from ads indicative of sex trafficking and prostitution, especially of children — but not remove the posts entirely.

The adult section now reroutes to the claim of censorship, pointing to a statement that alleges the government pressured “credit card companies to cease doing business with Backpage.”

Screen_Shot_2017_01_10_at_9.54.09_AM.png

The closure marks the end of a long and turbulent path for Backpage’s adult section. The site’s CEO and co-founders were cleared of criminal charges related to pimping, pimping a minor, and accusations of sex trafficking just shy of a month ago. In the statement posted on its site, Backpage claims the government aims to “force Backpage to follow in the footsteps of Craigslist and abandon its Adult advertising section.”

“This will not end the fight for online freedom of speech,” the site reads. “Backpage.com will continue to pursue its efforts in court to vindicate its First Amendment rights and those of other online platforms for third party expression.”

US Senators Rob Portman and Claire McCaskill, in a statement via Reuters, said the site was more complicit in sex trafficking than previously thought. "Backpage's response wasn't to deny what we said. It was to shut down their site," they said. "That's not 'censorship' — it's validation of our findings." The hearing for the report is today.
HTO and site:
https://polarisproject.org/news/press-releases/polaris-statement-backpagecom
"
Polaris Statement on Backpage.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 10, 2017) – Polaris, a global leader in the fight against human trafficking, issued the following statement tonight as Backpage.com, a long-time facilitator of sex trafficking in the United States, shut down the “adult” section of its website. The move comes hours before a hearing scheduled by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Bradley Myles, CEO of Polaris, said:

“A monumental step in the fight against sex trafficking in America has been achieved now that Backpage.com has shuttered the adult escort section of its website. While long overdue, we strongly hope this is a permanent action. We applaud the many leaders who have worked towards this moment for years—from the survivor leaders and families who spoke out to share their stories and expertise, to the many determined lawyers, State Attorneys General, advocates, other law enforcement officials, and Members of Congress who have all shined a spotlight on how traffickers use Backpage to place ads and attract customers for commercial sex acts involving trafficking victims. From an anti-trafficking lens, the presence of Backpage's adult escort section was far more part of the problem than it ever was part of the solution.

“For over five years, Polaris has raised serious concerns about how sex trafficking victims were being advertised online on Backpage. We have served victims sold on Backpage in our programs who told us their stories, and we received nearly 2,000 reports of likely sex trafficking cases involving Backpage through operating the National Human Trafficking Hotline in the U.S. This action taken by Backpage will neither eradicate the sex trafficking industry nor will it stop other websites from potentially popping up to try and play a similar role, but Backpage's adult escort section shutting down nationwide will help prevent the continued exploitation of countless more victims. It will make it harder for traffickers and sex buyers to profit from, control, and exploit adults and children who are in the sex trade against their will. This action is certainly a positive step forward for efforts to fight human trafficking in the U.S." '

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...uts-down-adult-ads-citing-government-pressure
"
 
Good riddance to bad rubbish. I hope it does some good. Unfortunately I doubt the sex trafficking can ever be totally obliterated, but this is a good step.
 
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...of-backpage-com-arrested-charged-with-pimping
"

carl-ferrer_custom-647a9d0d10cfb68af22d1d67d4a91e05da530267-s500-c85.jpg



This photo released by the Texas Office of the Attorney General shows Carl Ferrer, the CEO of Backpage, a classifieds website that allows users to post escort ads. Ferrer was arrested Thursday on felony pimping charges.

Texas Office of the Attorney General via AP
The CEO of Backpage.com, a classifieds website that allows users to post escort ads, was arrested Thursday on felony pimping charges.

Carl Ferrer was arrested in Houston after he arrived on a flight from Amsterdam; dozens of law enforcement officers then searched Backpage's Dallas headquarters, the Texas attorney general's office says.

Ferrer, 55, is charged with pimping a minor, pimping and conspiracy to commit pimping. Two controlling shareholders of Backpage — Michael Lacey and James Larkin — also are charged with conspiracy to commit pimping.

Lacey and Larkin are former owners of the Village Voice and the Phoenix New Times, The Associated Press reports.

Backpage was started by Village Voice Media and is now owned by a Dutch company. The site allows users to post a variety of classified ads, but has come under scrutiny for its "adult entertainment" section, which includes escort ads. Backpage has continued to host those ads after other sites — including, most notably, Craigslist — shut down their adult sections.

The California Department of Justice spent three years investigating Backpage, including with undercover agents posting ads, to confirm that the escorts ads were for the sole purpose of buying and selling sex.

ALL TECH CONSIDERED[/paste:font]
For Sex Industry, Bitcoin Steps In Where Credit Cards Fear To Tread
California's attorney general, Kamala Harris, says that Backpage was "purposefully and unlawfully designed" as an online brothel. Her office alleges that the "vast majority" of Backpage's profits come from fees paid by users posting ads in the "adult" section.

The investigation was prompted, in part, by reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children of thousands of instances of child sex trafficking through Backpage.

No trafficking charges were announced against Ferrer, Lacey or Larkin on Thursday, but the attorney general's office says the investigation "found that many of the ads for prostitution services involved victims of sex trafficking, including children under the age of 18."


U.S.
Online And Anonymous: New Challenges To Prosecuting Sex Trafficking

Harris, who is currently running for U.S. Senate, called profiting off trafficking and exploitation "outrageous, despicable and illegal."

The AP has more on the charges:

"One of the advertisers, identified only as 15-year-old 'E.S.,' 'was forced into prostitution at the age of 13 by her pimp,' according to an affidavit filed with the complaint. She used other online advertising services until they were shut down, the court filing says, when she turned to Backpage.com.

" 'I mean really, coming from someone my age, there is too much access, like it's too easy for people to get on it and post an ad,' she told California Special Agent Brian Fichtner, according to his affidavit. ...

"The criminal complaint includes allegations that five minors, three of them including "E.S." under age 16, paid to post advertisements on Backpage.com.

"The charges against Ferrer could bring him nearly 22 years in prison, while Larkin and Lacey face a maximum six years."

Separately, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced this week that 17 people have been charged with running an international sex-trafficking ring that imported women from Thailand and forced them into the sex trade. The indictment alleges that the traffickers advertised the women on websites including Backpage."
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Good riddance to bad rubbish. I hope it does some good. Unfortunately I doubt the sex trafficking can ever be totally obliterated, but this is a good step.
every time I have gone up to Canada it has killed me seeing the underage exploited FN girls on the street as well as all the other kids. I want to see programs for them and safe houses for all girls and women to be able to go to if they can and exposes and raids to get the ones that can't out of bondage. Many girls are being brought over from eastern europe now and living like cattle in rooms in paces like NY
 
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Anything that makes it easier for child trafficking needs to be shut down. this isn't about freedom of the Internet, 1st or anything do with your rights. This is about operating/supporting a site that promotes ILLEGAL activity! Period. Say and do what you want, but the second you break the law? There are repercussions to your actions.
 
This is such a load of shit. What a spit in the face of personal responsibility and free market capitalism.

Will cities have to raise tax dollars to wall off streetcorners next, since authorities think they can just remove any and all places prostitution is marketed?

Mighty smart plan from law enforcement to drive this stuff from the wide open internet and back deeper into the shadows. Good luck busting traffickers now.
 
From what I've been reading, Backpage's woes are actually hindering law enforcement in tracking down child sex traffickers because Backpage was actually cooperating with officials to identify and stop them. And there is a legitimate cause for fearing First Amendment rights erosion, since if the government can use any means to shut down content it doesn't like, what's to stop it from targeting anyone, even this site?
 
From what I've been reading, Backpage's woes are actually hindering law enforcement in tracking down child sex traffickers because Backpage was actually cooperating with officials to identify and stop them.

This is my position too ... the backpages are being under utilised as a tool by law enforcement.

Mighty smart plan from law enforcement to drive this stuff from the wide open internet and back deeper into the shadows. Good luck busting traffickers now.

Word ... in the big scummy pond of sex traffickers ... they go after the guy holding the net.

*** Visa very publicly jumped on the lets damn the backpages bandwagon ... jumped back off again with almost no press about it when it started to hurt their millions and millions of dollars bottom line.

Its time for some cooperation ... between Visa ... LE and the women and men on the BP
And the Exec's of backpages to tackle this problem of child trafficking. I'm sure a lot of those who post in the adult section would gladly donate a nickle, dime, quarter to LE via Visa when they post their ads everyday If it meant these funds would be used by LAW Enforcement to keep their work space clean.
 
I believe prostitution should be legalized for adults and monitored that way here as it is in other countries. What I don't believe in is human trafficking which is more of what I and others were talking about when it comes to minors and compromised individuals be it people brought into the country illegally, diminished capacity mentality/emotionally or terrorized by an individual or group to do things against their will.
 
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