Craigslist vigilant in barring child sex ads:
I like this new picture of Jimmy B. Makes him look even more evil. I’ll be alternating between this one and the classic one. And by vigilant he must mean oblivious but I digress.
Anyway craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster decided to come down from his ivory tower long enough to respond to the expose about craigslist prostitution and human trafficking that CNN had. Let’s discuss some quotes from Mr. Buckmaster.
As all people of conscience will agree, human trafficking and child exploitation are utterly despicable and horrendous crimes.
Except if he was a man of conscience he would shut down the adult services section. Man of cash is more like it. Can’t give up that $30 Million in sex ad money.
In contrast with the epidemic numbers often cited for the nation as a whole, the incidence of such crimes is low and getting lower on Craigslist because of the comprehensive preventive measures we have taken. Some experts now liken the relative rarity on Craigslist to “looking for a needle in a haystack.”
It’s a little bigger than the ‘needle in the haystack’. The true needle in the haystack is the amount of cases of trafficking and child prostitution that are actually caught and prosecuted. The ones that happen on craigslist that aren’t caught are probably at least ten times more than the ones that are caught. That’s more like a jackhammer in a haystack.
Nevertheless, any misuse of our site whatsoever in facilitating such unspeakable crimes is unacceptable, and we will continue to work tirelessly, in tandem with law enforcement and key nonprofits, to ensure that any victims receive the assistance they desperately need and deserve, and that those responsible are imprisoned.
And by work tirelessly they mean do very little as they have been. Law enforcement says they get very little assistance from craigslist. Nonprofits have been returning monies. If you cared about the victims you would close adult services down.
We believe Craigslist is one of the few bright spots and success stories in the fight against these terrible scourges.
Success? You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
We’ve been told as much by experts on the front lines of this fight, many of whom we have met with, and many of whom have shared helpful suggestions that we have incorporated in our approach.
That’s funny. The people who I’ve spoken with that were actual victims of trafficking say that craigslist is helping the scourge.
Craigslist is virtually alone among advertising venues in vigorously combating these problems.
Ah, the craigslist conundrum has reared its head again. How can you combat a problem that you are causing?
Indeed, to our knowledge, only Craigslist, out of countless venues, takes any of the following measures, let alone all of them:
• Educating and encouraging users to report trafficking and exploitation
• Prominently featuring anti-trafficking and exploitation resources
• Creating specialized search interfaces for law enforcement
• Providing support for law enforcement anti-crime sweeps and stings
• Actively participating in the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s cyber-tipline program
• Leading all awareness efforts for the National Trafficking Hotline
• Meeting regularly with experts at nonprofits and in law enforcement
• Manually reviewing every adult service ad before posting
• Requiring phone verification for every adult service ad
• Implementing the PICS content labeling system.
Other sites go as far as to not let these ads on their site. I know that would mean you wouldn’t get $30 Million next year but I think people are more important. That’s just me.
Last year, we began manual screening of each adult services ad before its posting, and those unwilling to conform to Craigslist’s standards left in droves for the many venues that do not screen ads. This migration is a matter of public record.
When approached with one of your ‘manually screened’ adult services ads Craig Newmark had no explanation as to why it was approved. I seriously doubt that the ads are being manually screened with just your 24 employees. I wonder if those 24 employees are just lawyers. Or maybe that’s the amount of people who carry Jim Buckmaster on his Pharaoh-like carriage.
We are aware that some have called for “shutting down” the adult services section of Craigslist. Fortunately, most concerned parties seem to realize that declassifying adult services ads back into Craigslist personals, services, and other categories, and offsite to venues that have no interest in combating trafficking and exploitation or in assisting law enforcement, would simply undo all the progress we have made,
Again this is the conundrum. How can you combat a problem that you create? If you shut down adult services and casual encounters and the ads leak into other sections of the site wouldn’t that be where the community policing that you tout so loudly come into play. Besides, shutting down adult services and getting prostitution and trafficking off your site would cause a huge decline in prostitution and trafficking. Since craigslist is seen as a ‘mainstream’ site people think that somehow that the sex ads on your site are more ‘legitimate’ than these other much smaller sites that the traffic may go to. And again your assistance to law enforcement is reactive and not proactive.
Jim Buckmaster, I call you a liar sir. I think that you personally do not care one iota about the plight of victims of prostitution and human trafficking. If you did you would actually spend money to do something about and shut down adult services not just in the US but the erotic services section worldwide.
And since you also make money from the promotion of prostitution I feel that unequivocally you are in fact the country’s if not the world’s largest pimp.
