1) Paying customer creates an ad (I haven't used Backpage, but I assume they paid to create ads).
2) Paying customer enters some words that the Government has told Backpage not to allow.
3) Backpage's automatic web form error message says... "Hey, you've added some words the Government won't let you use... sorry... it's not us, it's Uncle Sam."
4) Customer changes words to get around filters... I assume things like "sex" turns into "s3x" -- or whatever the bare minimum number of changes were to get around the censorship.
5) Customer posts ads, skirts Government censorship; feels smug and satisfied for beating the system.
6) Government isn't happy that the intent of the filtered words wasn't enforced... expected Backpage to have more (costly) manual review of ads, instead of just exact keyword blocks on ad creation.
7) Backpage was like, "Manual review would destroy our business model..." so they fought it...
8) Government took over and shut them down.
Again, I haven't read anything on this... but that's my assumption based on how the Government and tech work. Am I wrong?