Report: Craigslist founder denies site facilitates prostitution

It should be fun when the liberals get a hold on craigslist and destroy it. There's nowhere to hind, the liberals will find you, blame you, and make you change "for the good of the people"

Perhaps Mr. Newmark should consider taking down the link on the site to:

"casual encounters"

That is clearly a link that's used for sexual hook-ups.

...He acknowledged that Craigslist offers an "erotic services" section that should not include more than "legitimate escort services, sensual massage, exotic dancers, etc.," but said that offers to exchange sexual favors for money are "strictly prohibited" and removed from the site....

Craigslist needs to stop the erotic, therapeutic services, and personals. I'm all for having legit ads but these sections are clearly for sex. Also the "I am at least 18 years old." is a joke. All kids are getting into this and parents can't always be there 24/7.

Give me a break. How many millions of people have met for sex or something else via Craigslist and nothing has happened......maybe they even got married or dated or whatever. People act as if it weren't for Craigslist this lunatic would be sitting at home reading the Bible. He would have done something like this no matter what. As a matter of fact because he used Craigslist there was an electronic trail to him so in reality Craigslist might have indirectly prevented more violence and maybe more murder,

And, spare me the comment about liberals jumping on everybody's freedoms - clearly conservatives are the ones who want to police everything that we do.

What people have not noticed yet is that "Craigslist" is more the focus of the reporting here because that site is taking a monster bite out of a site that is based in the communist of massachusetts...

I’m not sure if questioning Craigslist posting policies has anything to do with being liberal or conservative, but I love that the first comment up here reduces it to that tired debate. Although I do have to agree with the poster about liberals finding people wherever they "hind." You can run, but you'll never be able to "hind" from them. Any doubt about prostitution being advertised through Craigslist will be disappear after reading a few ads in "erotic services."

To #6, well done on catching the spelling error! You've destroyed his argument by relying on that tired debate of whether spelling discredits a person's post.

Hats off to you!

Megan,

Why in the world should Craigslist get rid of the therapeutic services and personals links? The former is mostly legit massage therapists (the other type post under erotic services). And the personals is no different than match, except it's free. Should they get rid of furniture for sale because someone might post something inappropriate there as well?

I don't think that what ads happen to run in Craigslist should be the issue- This man is accused of murder... does the fact that they may have been prostitutes make that less of a crime? Come on... the ads arent to blame.

Believe it or not, there are a large majority of people that don't look at everything from a negative viewpoint, or from a tightly foucsed political viewpoint. Red, blue, conservative, liberal, socialist, communist, democrat, republican. Everything is not mutually exclusive, even the sun and moon can share the sky some mornings.

And yes, the management at Craigslist knows exactly what their site is used for.
The founder said he hoped people would police it for them. Can't try to be any less responsible than that.

Why is it that craigslist is being looked at for their listings? The posters offered erotic services, the same such ads you can find printed weekly in the "ADULT" section of the Boston Phoenix. So.. what makes it dfferent? Is it because the Phoenix is printed on paper, and Craigslist is just digital advertising?
The posters had advertisements that fell within the law. Obviously what they agree to do after the initial contact is made is up to the 2 parties, but craigslist should not be faulted for acts above and beyond what was originally intended.
It is not against the law to offer full body massages and to be an Escort for the night if you want such company.

Craigslist is no more liable for this murder than a city sidewalk is liable for the stabbing of a street walker.

Notice that the Globe refers to the victims as "Craigslist Victims" rather than "Markoff Victims." This continuing smear of Craigslist by the Globe looks like sour grapes to me. There was a time when the classified ads funded newspapers. With the advent of the Internet and websites like Craigslist, that source of funding has dried up for newspapers like the Globe. It looks like the Globe is exploiting Markoff to eliminate this kind of competition.

ah, I love how people neglect to mention one major point: w/ the exception of rare cases involving a massive spammer/scammer, staff do NOT remove the ads from the classified page! nope, they leave that task to the users and they expect users to flag illegal and prohibited ads down using the flag buttons on the top of the page. look at any page in the classified section and you'll see that there is NO way to report an ad directly to staff if it contains illicit content. flagging doesn't bring an ad to the staff's attention and the only reason ads are eventually flagged off is because some quota has been reached for that poster and/or section. so if enough users don't flag down a prohibited or illegal ad, it stays up until it expires

Craig, craig, craig. You have the gaul to try to divert the responsibility of removing the ads for prostitution (which you knowingly admit to them being illegal ads for prostitution when you answered that they 'probably' are) to your users?! "We want people to help us get rid of it immediately." Help you - craigslist, the for-profit organization which rakes in millions of dollars a year.

Basically, what you are suggesting, is that your $80+ million dollar company with less than 25 employees wants to put the responsibility of its users to police your site, for free, rather than hire people to monitor and mediate the adult posts before they go up. Heck, you mediate your posts on your blogs before they go up so you can monitor the content there, only posting what you choose to have appear there for your own good.
C'mon craig. You've become quite pathetic now that craigslist has grown to where it is today. You've lost touch with your roots. Do you really think that the people going to that section, looking for their 'erotic' services, are actually going to flag the illegally posted ones? Do you HONESTLY believe that?

Shame on you for even suggesting that you want people to 'help you'. Help YOU, the millionaire, remove the illegal posts from your servers, which you own. You should be fined for ever instance a post of blatant sex for money appears on your site. You should be hit in the wallet where it counts for you. I bet then, and only then, would you humanly review every adult post BEFORE it goes up. How can you and Jim sit there and deny sex for money related ads on craigslist, and yet, in the erotic services category, have statements about safe sex, STD's, and human trafficking and exploitation of minors? If this category is not for selling sexual services, why bother putting that information there? Hrm?
The easiest thing to do would be to remove the category all together but you'll never do that because of all the traffic it brings to your site. You're probably hoping this will all blow over and you can continue collecting your huge profit margins without policing your own website for the illegal activity that resides there daily.

You've become a disgrace to your own website by continuing to allow ads for prostitution to exist, days after the murder.

Craigslist is a victim here and Markoff is the criminal.

I think they need to leave GRAIG'S LIST alone. The brothels and escort services want it shut down, as does EROS and the other sites because it is taking money from them!

If MARKOFF had not known of CRAIG'S LIST, he would have found another way to commit his crime. There are lots of sites out there that offer the same thing as Craig's list.

Markoff may have just ruined craigslist for other people.....I'm sure no ones going to trust those out there buying or selling items.
why couldnt they just name it "therapeutic services" something more professional the "erotic services" makes it seem dangerous and to sexy

let me know if I'm wrong. I just dont know what to think

The Cragslist part of the story is an unhealthy distraction. It could have been any number of hundreds of websites used for hookups, including AOL, that have been thriving in "casual encounters" for over 10 years. Before that, there were phone lines and classified ads. The media is making headlines with this for obvious reasons, but those latching on seem to be the "fear of technology" crowd who want to meddle with the Internet. I say leave Craigslist alone and focus on the degenerate who attacked these women.