Online classified site Craigslist abruptly shut its personals section just days after Congress approved a bill expanding the criminal and civil liability of website operators over user-generated content. President Trump is expected to soon sign the measure into law. Legislators amended that clause after a judge in California dismissed criminal charges against Backpage. Liara Roux, a sex worker, political organizer, and adult-media producer and director, says a handful of other sites shut advertising forums, including The Erotic Review and CityVibe, hours after FOSTA passed.
Roux says these recent closures come on the heels of other efforts by tech companies that began in , to ban or shadow ban sex workers from their platforms.
We can't take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, so we are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline. Hopefully we can bring them back some day.
Senator Richard Blumenthal D-Connecticut , a cosponsor of the bill, derided Craigslist's announcement. Moving forward, we are prohibiting transactions that are either illicit or strictly controlled. Communities focused on such transactions and users who attempt to conduct them will be banned from the site. Reddit declined to say whether its policy change was related to FOSTA, but the company signed a letter to members of Congress earlier this month protesting the bill. The letter was organized by Engine, a nonprofit representing tech startups, and was also signed by Automattic the company that owns Wordpress , Patreon, Cloudflare, Twitter, Match Group the company that owns Tinder, OkCupid, and Match.
The tech industry was initially united against this legislative effort, but the Internet Association, a trade group representing major tech firms, reversed its position under pressure from Facebook, which was facing additional regulatory pressure from the Russia investigation, WIRED reported in December.
