Craigslist was expected to have earned an estimated $36 million from advertising associated with its Adult Services section in 2010—at least, that was the case when we first reported the projections from Advanced Interactive Media in late April of this year. You can now expect that number to drop significantly, as Craigslist has removed its Adult Services section for U.S. visitors. The move surely comes as a relief to the various entities that have been petitioning for Craigslist to shut down the section—including human rights groups and more than 17 attorneys general from states across the nation.
There's no indication that Craigslist has removed its Adult Services section for good, however. Although links to the site are now eliminated when accessing the main Craigslist page from an IP addressed based in the United States, one can still pull up the page from other countries. There's been no comment from any Craigslist spokespeople whatsoever—officially or otherwise—related to the matter.
"The increasingly sharp public criticism of craigslist's Adult Services section reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution -- including ads trafficking children -- are rampant on it," read a letter signed by the 17 attorneys general.
"In our view, the company should take immediate action to end the misery for the women and children who may be exploited and victimized by these ads. Because craigslist cannot, or will not, adequately screen these ads, it should stop accepting them altogether and shut down the Adult Services section."
Craigslist normally doesn't charge for most listings on its website: only job posts in the San Francisco Bay Area ($75), job postings elsewhere ($25), brokered apartment listings in New York ($10), and adult services or therapeutic services postings ($10).
In regards to the latter, the aforementioned $36 million estimation would have made up roughly one-third of the company's total yearly revenue. That's quite a chunk of change for Craigslist to just give away—especially when it's labeled as "censorship" instead of a simple, silent removal.
According to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster, the company started manually screening listings posted to the site's Adult Services section in May of 2009, an attempt to self-police against advertisements that fell short of Craigslist's posting guidelines. More than 700,000 listings were nuked by the site's watchdogs in such a fashion.
"Before being posted each individual ad is reviewed by an attorney licensed to practice law in the US, trained to enforce craigslist's posting guidelines, which are stricter than those typically used by yellow pages, newspapers, or any other company that we are aware of," he wrote.
jwpegler's comments Screw the first amendment. It's just too inconvenient in this modern, government dominated world.
