If you have a sofa or desk to sell, it’s hard to beat Craigslist as an Internet service that gets the job done fast and easy. Yet, the site is coming under increasing fire for a set of ads that critics say are promoting prostitution. And that’s a dilemma for the website because those ads generate huge amounts of money.
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This past spring has not been kind to the San Francisco-based ad posting service that has revolutionized the classifieds industry.. First, the website received a dose of bad publicity when a registered nurse and divorced mother of four was arrested in Chappaqua, NY – the adopted home of Bill and Hillary Clinton – for prostitution. She was caught on the basis of her Craigslist advertisement.
Then the Attorneys General in the states of Connecticut and Missouri joined a growing list of law enforcement officials in issuing subpoenas to Craigslist seeking proof that the company was living up to an agreement that they would donate profits from the adult service ads to charity. This follows a report showing that the site was on track to generate record profits largely through the sales of those very same ads.
Unlike a free posting someone might generate to sell a bookcase, adult service ads require a $10 fee. In a check of the San Francisco Craigslist site alone, there were over 900 adult service ads listed. For one day. It doesn’t take a math genius to figure out that these postings, when multiplied across all of the other major U.S. cities, generate big money.
Estimates peg the projected earnings from adult service ads on Craigslist at over $36 million this year. It was under pressure from nearly 40 states to control ads for prostitution on its website that Craigslist agreed to donate adult service profits to charity. However, when asked directly by the New York Times in April to confirm that his company was continuing these donations, the firm’s CEO – James Buckmaster – declined to do so.
Craigslist has argued, successfully, that it is legally protected under the Communications Decency Act. But they are feeling a lot of heat right now not just from state law enforcement officials, but from groups opposing prostitution and human trafficking. It will be interesting to see whether they can appease the forces lining up against them because it’s a sure bet they don’t want to abandon that huge pile of sex-generated money.
June 17, 2010
source: examiner.com