Backpage Shuts Down Adult Section after Government Pressure about Sex Trafficking

Won’t all of this just move somewhere else on the web?

Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who led the bipartisan Senate investigation into the website, said Backpage’s move to shutter its adult ads attested to the damning evidence their team uncovered.

“We reported the evidence that Backpage has been far more complicit in online sex trafficking than anyone previously knew,” they said in a statement.

“Backpage’s response wasn’t to deny what we said. It was to shut down their site. That’s not ‘censorship’ — it’s validation of our findings.”

via LA TIMES

Backpage.com, one of the world’s largest classified ad websites and a frequent target in the political battle against sex trafficking, closed its adult ads section Monday in the United States, claiming to be the victim of a government witch hunt.

The extraordinary move came shortly after the release of a scathing U.S. Senate report that accused Backpage of hiding criminal activity by deleting terms from ads that indicated sex trafficking or prostitution, including of children.

The abrupt closure came on the eve of the scheduled testimony of Backpage’s founders, Michael Lacey and James Larkin, and the site’s CEO, Carl Ferrer, before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ subcommittee on investigations.

Cops Find Illegal Strip Club In Woman’s Basement

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Craigslist Prosititution Task Force Busts Online Tricks

via wcbstv

A Westchester County couple with two children is the latest targets in a crackdown on prostitution.

Police told CBS 2 HD on Friday that the couple used craigslist to find clients for their bordello in the ‘burbs.

Richard Salvatore and Rachel Grome are husband and wife — now accused as pimp and prostitute.

They are a team that allegedly used the popular Web site to market services that involved illegal sex.

Cops said they hosted “Johns” at their townhouse in a quiet Rye Brook neighborhood.

“I feel like craigslist has really brought 42nd Street and Times Square right into people’s home,” Rye Brook Police Chief Gregory Austin told CBS 2 HD.

Austin said it’s keeping area departments busy.

Craigslist is loaded with ads offering sex. The ad allegedly posted by Salvatore and Grome presented her as a college girl “just looking for help with my tuition.”

“Prostitution Free Zone” During Inauguration

 Not even Secret Service can shut down the trannys and pro-fessionals all over DC, don’t you think the focus should be on terrorists and supremacists?

via WUSAWASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) —

District police have placed signs along 5th and I Streets. They read, “Warning, Prostitution Free Zone.” Those who disobey could be fined 300 dollars, and even jailed. But will the city’s plan work?

DC City Councilman Jim Graham said officers cannot enforce loitering laws, which is the reason for these signs.

“Because this is focused, its limited in time, its aimed at a very specific issue, if you don’t move along, well put you in the car,” he said.

John Thompson lives in the neighborhood, and he said prostitution is a major problem.

He hopes the signs make a difference, but what will visitors think?

“I’m not concerned with what visitors think. I’m concerned about the problem that exists,” Thompson said.

A woman who calls herself Tamira and advertises her services on Craigslist, said otherwise. She said prostitutes who work the streets may ignore the signs.

However, she said, some prostitutes may move elsewhere.
“If I saw a sign that said, ‘Prostitution Free Zone’ I would feel a little uncomfortable that there would be a house next store where police are at,” she said.

Tamira also believes some visitors will come to the inauguration for legitimate business, but prostitute on the side to make extra money.

World’s Oldest Profession, Too, Feels Crisis

via International Tribune

PRAGUE: On a recent night at Big Sister, which calls itself the world’s biggest Internet brothel, a middle-aged man selected a prostitute from an electronic menu on a flat-screen television, pressing his index finger against it to review the age, hair color, weight and languages spoken by the women on offer.

Once he had chosen an 18-year-old brunette, he put on a mandatory burgundy terry cloth robe and proceeded to one of the brothel’s luridly-lit theme rooms, an Alpine suite decorated with foam rubber mountains covered with fake snow.

Nearby, in the brothel’s cramped control room, two young technicians used joysticks to control the dozens of hidden cameras that would film his performance and stream it, live, on Big Sister’s Internet site.

Sex is free at Big Sister, but that is not cheap enough for some men. Customers get the cut rate in return for signing a release form that allows the brothel to film their sexual exploits.

Miami Police Bust ‘Prostitution-On-Wheels’ Ring

via AP

MIAMI (AP) — An alleged brothel-on-wheels that authorities said they busted over the weekend gives a whole new meaning to keeping the party moving.

Miami Beach undercover detectives who paid a $40 entry fee and boarded a stretch limousine bus Sunday found women onboard offering oral sex and lap dances for money, authorities said.

Authorities arrested Christine Morteh, 29, of Miramar, and the driver, Clyde Scott, along with four other people Sunday. Miami-Dade jail spokeswoman Janell Hall said Morteh faces charges including offering to commit or engage in prostitution, conducting business without a license, directing another to a place of prostitution and deriving support from prostitution.

76 Arrested on Prostitution Charges in Craigslist Sting

via Chicago Tribune

Cook County sheriff’s police have arrested 76 men and women on prostitution-related charges in a sting involving the popular online classified site Craigslist.org.

Undercover officers posed as customers who made dates with women featured in “erotic services” ads on the site. Once an offer of sex for money was made, the woman was taken into custody, officials said.