On Wednesday, William “Clint” Powell, Craigslist’s director of customer service and law enforcement relations, will testify in front of the House Judiciary’s subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security in a hearing on domestic minor sex trafficking. Also listed on the schedule is attorney Elizabeth McDougall, a partner at Perkins Coie in Seattle, WA. Though McDougall isn’t listed as representing Craigslist on the witness list, her law firm represents Craigslist and she has appeared in court cases on Craigslist’s behalf.

After years of pressure from state attorneys general and anti-human trafficking groups, Craigslist removed the “Adult Services” sections for cities in the U.S. on the eve of the Labor Day weekend with no public comment, other than to replace the link with the word “Censored.” Craigslist has rebuffed or ignored requests for comment or explanation, and despite telling Wired.com that it would put a blog post explaining the decision, the company has gone to ground — not even explaining to the attorneys general if the removal is permanent.

Craigslist created the section to keep escort service ads from appearing in its personals section, and began charging at the behest of attorneys general. Craigslist was manually screening the ads to keep out pornographic images or ads that seemed to be referring to minors, blocking more than 700,000 such ads in the last year, according to public statements by its CEO Jim Buckmaster.

But those concessions did not stop the mounting criticism. A federal law protects Craigslist and sites like Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo and Wired.com from legal liability for the content created by users. That law known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was enacted in 1998, and has withstood numerous court challenges.

Other witnesses include five present and former members of Congress, along with Francey Hakes, the Justice Department’s National Coordinator for Child, Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction; Ernie Allen, the CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; Tina Frundt, the executive director of Courtney’s House; Nicholas Sensley, the Truckee, CA, police department’s chief; Suzanna Tiapula, the director of the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse; and Deborah Richardson the chief program officer of the Women’s Funding Network.

While Craigslist is one of the net’s most popular sites, it is run by a staff of less than 50 from an office in a residential neighborhood in San Francisco. It’s yearly revenues are unknown, as it’s a privately held company, but it’s estimated to make more than $100 million a year, mostly from housing and job listing ads in major U.S. cities.

The hearing is at 1 pm Eastern Wednesday and is being streamed on the net.

Photo: Craigslist’s office in San Francisco, CA. Credit: Blmurch

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See Also:

• Censored! Craigslist Adult Services Blocked in U.S.
• Craigslist Adult Ads Under Scrutiny — Again
• Craigslist's Forced Censorship of Erotic Ads Saves Journalism
• Why Craigslist Is Such a Mess
• Cop's Gutsy Gambit Nails Alleged Craigslist Child-Sex Predator

Authors: Ryan Singel

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