So. Carolina eyes 'criminal investigation' of Craigslist
The attorney general of South Carolina is ready to launch a criminal investigation of Craigslist in connection with erotic ads appearing on the classified ads Web site.
South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster
(Credit: South Carolina Attorney General's office)Attorney General Henry McMaster had given Craigslist until Friday afternoon to remove erotically charged material from its South Carolina listings. The AG's Web site now has this statement posted:
As of 5:00 p.m. this afternoon, the craigslist South Carolina site continues to display advertisements for prostitution and graphic pornographic material. This content was not removed as we requested. We have no alternative but to move forward with criminal investigation and potential prosecution.
Craigslist responded Saturday with a blog post voicing exasperation with the attorney general's statement, comparing the "adult services" listings on Craigslist with the adult section of a Greenville, S.C., Web site and others like it elsewhere in the state, along with telephone yellow page listings and print publications.
Seriously? The CL "adult services" section for Greenville, SC has a total of 1 ad for the last 3 days, featuring a photograph of a fully clothed person. The "erotic services" section for Greenville, recently closed, has 8 ads total, images and text all quite tame.Meanwhile, the "adult entertainment" section of greenville.backpage.com (careful with link, NSFW), owned by Village Voice Media, has over 60 ads for the last 3 days, and about 250 in total. In sharp contrast with craigslist, many of these ads are quite explicit, quoting prices for specific sex acts, featuring close-ups of bare genitalia, etc.
Craigslist views itself as unfairly targeted by the attorney general's office.
Of course, no one in mainstream legal circles thinks either company should be subject to civil suit, let alone a criminal investigation. But if for whatever reason you were so motivated, would you target a venue with 9 PG-13 rated ads, or one with 250 XXX rated ones?
The South Carolina Attorney General's office was not immediately available for comment.
On Wednesday, Craigslist bowed to pressure from authorities in a number of states and said that it would remove its "erotic services" section, replacing it with a more closely monitored "adult services" section for legal enterprises.
CEO Jim Buckmaster said at the time that Craigslist would be on the lookout for sex workers trying to outmaneuver the new restrictions. "We have blocking and filtering technologies in place site wide. And of course our flagging system remains fully in effect across all the categories, but we will be monitoring that situation," Buckmaster told CNET News.
On top of ongoing allegations that Craigslist--which runs a wide variety of classified ads, including job and apartment listings--had become an outsized Internet bordello, the company's image recently was tarnished by news stories about a so-called "Craigslist killer" in connection with a murder investigation in Boston.
Jonathan Skillings is managing editor of CNET News, based in the Boston bureau. He's been with CNET since 2000, after a decade in tech journalism at the IDG News Service, PC Week, and an AS/400 magazine. He's also been a soldier and a schoolteacher. E-mail Jon. 
They're an easy and relatively cheap target to attack, if that whole killing in relation to craigslist in Boston had been pulled out of the NY Times, McMaster probably never would of put down his coffee.
The entire 'criminal investigation' is going to turn up 3 things; servers, a posting process available to anyone willing to pay a small fee, and a filtering system. What people choose to do with the ads is entirely up to them and frankly I think it's against any small freedoms we have left to try and control human decision on such a minor scale.
Singling out craigslist is just silly and pathetic and I couldn't see this winning over anyone other than the elderly.
Mr. McMaster hasn't heard of backpage.com? Adultfriendfinder.com? Was he born in a turnip patch?
Hundreds of ads in Greenville for "personal services" and body rubs.
http://greenville.backpage.com/FemaleEscorts/classifieds/Results?category=4443
Learn the friggen law.
And try googling CDA section 230, it might help ya.
As a former South Carolinian, I can testify to the accuracy of OmegaCerebro's comments (above). The population is rampant with hypocrites, who can say or do anything (in their eyes), as long as one of the following criteria or met:
1. It's in the name of God or the far-right agenda, or,
2. You say "Bless his/her heart" at the end of your observation, e.g., "That woman is such a ****** tramp, bless her heart."
These same judgmental people are the ones having affairs or using the same services they rally against. I truly don't know how I lived there for nine years.
ShalI I wake up in the morning and wipe my rear end the way that you want me to.
- by kaisdaddy May 18, 2009 9:32 AM PDT
- As some here already guessed, McMaster is running for reelection. I'm a native and agree with OmegaCerebro to a point. There is a very vocal and active group of conservatives who feel the need to make society conform to their moral standards through the law. While I may agree with some or most of their standards, I don't want the majority of them made into laws, because:
- Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (25 Comments)A. You will not stop certain activity, especially the type that does not directly harm another person, no matter how many laws you pass.
B. Passing a bunch of laws makes a lot of otherwise peaceful, law abiding citizens into criminals and causes them to lose respect for ALL of the law.
C. Stupid laws tend to keep law enforcement busy with unproductive activities as well as overcrowd detention centers and prisons with otherwise harmless people.
D. As a Christian, I should live my life in such a way that other people are compelled by it and are curious to learn more about my faith. Trying to force people to live a good life (which the Bible says is impossible!) is counterproductive and will not win any converts.
The only thing that OmegaCerebro said that I really take issue with is that seceding from the Union was a stupid idea. I would submit that it was one of the best things they ever did and would not be opposed to them and many other states doing it again. This has nothing to do with slavery (which is evil) and everything to do with the fact that the larger and more centralized government becomes, the more totalitarian and oppressive it gets. We saw Federal power grow to unprecedented levels during the last administration and it shows no signs of slowing down during this one.
That's just my rapidly depreciating $0.02.