Craigslist france
The classifieds site has permanently removed its adult classifieds in all of its local versions.
First censored across the Atlantic, Craigslist's adult services section has been disabled in all local versions of the site. These classified ads of a special kind were until recently still available in France. But since 2009, the site has been in the crosshairs of American justice. Several prosecutors accused him of favoring and promoting prostitution. One of them, Richard Blumenthal, congratulated the Associated Press: “ This is a victory for the fight against the sexual exploitation of women and children and human trafficking linked to prostitution. This measure is, according to him, “ important in the ongoing fight to detect and stop prostitution advertisements more effectively. »
Despite this decision, ads for erotic massages offered by young people, men or women, are still available on other sections of the site in France.
Threatened with legal action for promoting prostitution, the classifieds site is censoring its services for adults in the United States.
The classifieds site closed, on September 3, the “adult” section of its versions accessible from the United States. The category has been replaced by a black rectangle with the word censored written on it . Craigslist gave no explanation for this change in policy, but the threats of legal action emanating from several American states are surely not foreign to it.
In 2009, eighteen prosecutors summoned the classifieds platform to remove this section, where “massages” were notably offered. They accused the site of promoting prostitution. So far, Craigslist had not granted their request. He had, however, agreed to review his publication policy in 2009. In particular after the murder of a masseuse by one of his clients, who had approached her through the website.
A direct attack on eBay
As Jim Buckmaster, the company's CEO, recalls in a post published on his blog a few days before the removal of the adult section: " Since May 2009, all classified ads [in the adult section] have been validated by sworn agents before they were posted on Craigslist […], over 700,000 of them were rejected by these same agents in one year. The publication of nude photographs has been banned. Also, advertisers in this category had to pay $10 to post their ad, while Craigslist is free for all other categories.
In his post, Jim Buckmaster takes the opportunity to scratch other big names on the Web, such as eBay, a direct competitor. “ eBay touts its sites as an alternative to Craigslist for families. In response to their management criticism, [it should be known that] on one of its sites, Loquo.com [bought by the online auction giant, editor's note], eBay publishes tens of thousands of pornographic advertisements explicitly proposing the marketing of sexual acts. »
With irony, the CEO even goes so far as to offer his help to his competitor to develop best practices ("best practices". Jim Buckmaster sweeps in front of his door, but not beyond the borders. Indeed, these classified ads for special genre are still available on Craigslist in other countries including France.
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