The change comes as the service faces growing pressure in the U.S. over sex services advertised on its classifieds network, as well as allegations that it abets in human sex trafficking.

Police routinely conduct prostitution sting operations using its listings, as have some media outlets such as CNN, which has made it something of a mission (see below). Wired.com has also reported on the problem.

The stakes were raised again last week when Craigslist received a letter from 17 state attorneys general demanding the company immediately shut down its adult services listing, citing the case of two girls who said last month that they were trafficked for sex through the site.

If Craigslist has bowed to public pressure that would signal a major shift in the company’s strategy.

According the AIM Group, Craigslist’s adult services section accounts for 30 percent of its overall revenue — a projected $36.6 million in 2010 out of $122 million. More than half the company’s revenue comes from recruitment advertising and about 17 percent (almost $21 million) comes from apartment ads in New York City, the AIM Group estimates.

Craigslist has made numerous changes to its sex listings over the years to accommodate critics, changing its sex listings label from “erotic services” to “adult services,” imposing rules about the types of ads that can appear, and manually filtering ads. But it has also fiercely defended its overall practices as ethical, and censorship as a useless and hypocritical dodge.

When Craigslist was hit with a lawsuit by South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster in 2009, it struck back with a preemptive lawsuit of its own and won. Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster has also used the company’s blog to blast critics, most recently an “ambush” CNN video interview of Craigslist founder Craig Newmark.

Craiglist has a point: Given other sites on the web (and in print) serve the same types of ads without the same level of scrutiny, it seems politicians are making the pioneering, 15-year-old service an opportunistic scapegoat. Internet services may accelerate and exacerbate some social problems like prostitution, but they rarely cause them. The root of these issues — and their solutions — lie in the realm of public policy, not web sites and ham-handed web site filtering.

The news was first reported on Techcrunch.

See Also:

• Complete Craiglist coverage on Wired.com
• Craiglist Adult Services Under Scrutiny — Again
• Pimps Go Online to Lure Kids Into Prostitution
• Sued by Craigslist, South Carolina’s Top Cop Declares Victory and Goes Home

Authors: Evan Hansen

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