Craigslist Shut Down Infamous Personals Section
Craigslist just got rid of its entire personals section, which was reportedly one of the most used parts of the site, thanks to a new law aimed at cracking down on sex trafficking.
Gizmodo reports the shutdown includes Craigslist’s dating sections-men seeking women, women seeking men, men seeking men, and women seeking women-plus miscellaneous romance and the infamous "casual encounters" section. Oddly enough, Craigslist also shut down the "strictly platonic" page. At first, Twitter users lamented that it applied to the missed connections section, which is a gold mine for fascinating (and perhaps sometimes fictional) Internet stories, but as of Friday morning that section appeared to be available.
When you try to access the personals section, you now get taken to a statement from Craigslist:
“U.S. Congress just passed HR 1865, "FOSTA", seeking to subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully. Any tool or service can be misused. We can't take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, so we are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline. Hopefully we can bring them back some day. To the millions of spouses, partners, and couples who met through craigslist, we wish you every happiness!”
According to The Verge, the Senate voted Thursday to advance the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, which is designed to fight sex trafficking on sites like Backpage.com, but opponents say could stifle free speech online and hurt operators of smaller websites. The House recently passed its own version of the legislation, amending FOSTA, or the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017, and the Senate’s version combines both parts of the legislation. President Trump is expected to sign the bill into law.
Here’s how it works: Current communications law protects operators of websites from legal liability for content its users post. So if someone posts something illegal on a site, the site isn’t legally responsible. But the new legislation Congress passed would mean that websites would be liable for user posts that promote sex trafficking; the law would also make it easier for victims of sex trafficking to sue companies that host that kind of user content. Supporters for the law, including Ivanka Trump, say the law will help fight sex trafficking and make sure victims get the justice they deserve.
But Motherboard reports that opponents say that the law could make sex workers and trafficking victims less safe, getting rid of methods to screen new clients online and shutting down forums where they can warn one another of potential threats. And the Electronic Frontier Foundation warned it was a “significant rollback” for online speech, because sites could be penalized for unknowingly hosting that kind of content, and others could shut down for fear of a legal crackdown. For now, at least, one of the Internet’s most old-school dating forums is no more.
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