How Censoring Craigslist Helps Pimps and Child Traffickers | Hacker News Reader

How Censoring Craigslist Helps Pimps and Child Traffickers

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49 pointscwan10 comments

I'm glad danah took the time to write this; it's a compelling point particularly given her strong background in social factors and gender on the internet.

But I really wish she hadn't re-purposed the term ISP to refer to Craigslist.

She's using the term ISP as it's defined in the Communications Decency Act. In those terms an ISP is anyone who provides a communication service over the internet, which encompasses everyone from the lowliest blogger to globespanning access networks like Verizon.

Taking something that is visible and making it invisible makes a politician look good

This pretty much sums it up, although I don't think its just about making politicians look good. Censoring craigslist will reduce the amount of prostitution and trafficking in the world from the perspective of everyone not directly involved in prostitution and trafficking.

There are some things that are only a crime when certain people who disapprove are merely aware that they took place.

Why is the 'prostitution ads in Craigslist makes policing easier' argument made by everyone but the police themselves?

I think people underestimate how much Craigslist's brand legitimizes prostitution - it's a lot easier to rationalize browsing for hookers when the ads are in the same place you look for apartments and sell your used furniture. Pushing them over to creepy-loser-forums.ws seems like a cheap way to reduce demand.

Makes sense. Craigslist does not beat prostitutes, take their money, dictate what they will do for customers, or force or encourage them to do dangerous drugs. Now prostitutes will resort to people who may do all of those things.

Look, the mere existence of a centralized buying and selling forum that 90% of the community has access to and is aware of is going to always foster illegal activity.

The thing is, if you own/operate such an environment, are you going to condone such things by giving them a place and label? Do you want to see an open drugs section on CL? Do you want to see children for sale on CL? They are all as illegal as prostitution for very good reasons, they significantly damage society.

No-one enters into prostitution willingly or happily for good reasons and there's never a good ending. PIMPS are mostly placing those ads, not your strange vision of freely-enterprising women happily renting out their bodies. They are given quotas to fill and they are kept "under control" by hooking them on hard drugs.

So please don't start making excuses that men and society in general are being held back by keeping prostitution illegal and that it should be freely available like buying/selling a car on CL.

Stop seeing CL as a victim. It's pretty darn silly.

If widespread anecdotal evidence is to be believed, there are at least some and probably many women who enter prostitution willingly and happily. Some of the ads are placed by pimps but it also provides a way for women to work without intermediaries.

You claim that prostitution damages society which might be true but, on the other hand, prostitution has always coexisted with society, sometimes legally, sometimes through organized religion (believe it or not), and currently in most of the United States and various other parts of the world, it's illegal. In Canada, for example, prostitution itself is not illegal but various activities (soliciting on the street, pimping etc) are.

I'm not saying that prostitution is a good thing or that it should be encouraged, but it's certainly nowhere near as black and white as some of the anti-prostitution campaigners like to claim.

Have you read the article at all? Or at least scanned through the section headings? Danah doesn't claim CL is a "victim" or that "men and society in general are being held back by keeping prostitution illegal".

Please take the time and try to extract the author's gist from the article before criticizing it.

I did read it. It's entirely too casual for me.

I completely disagree that making it visible helps victims.

The police know it's there, they just don't want to bother or don't have the manpower to tackle it. Instead of using the CATEGORY LABEL all they have to do is use the SEARCH ENGINE !

I literally see a few drug deals go down from my window every day. I'm pretty sure it's hard drugs. One woman is carrying a baby while she buys. I've told the police about it. All they'd have to do is watch the space for an hour they could get the dealer. But they never do anything. That is a prime example of how if it doesn't fall into their lap, police aren't going to do anything.

So teach the cops to use the damn search engine on CL, you don't need an obvious category!

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