Website ended adult content ads amid government pressure, which some say will make it harder for officials to investigate trafficking and support victims.
The shutdown of the adult classifieds section on Backpage. The closure comes after prosecutors across the US have aggressively targeted the site and its executives , claiming that Backpage facilitates and profits from pimping and human trafficking. But sex workers have long argued that Backpage provides a safe public platform to vet clients and report predators, and that without it, the industry will be pushed further underground.
On Tuesday, activists said the termination had removed a source of income for many vulnerable people and would force some with no choice but to work on the streets where they are much more likely to face violence and police harassment. How many sex workers across the US now have no way to support themselves? But judges across the country have continually sided with the website and first amendment advocates , citing a law that is foundational to free speech on the internet , which dictates that platforms are not liable for the postings of users.
Targeting Backpage, activists say, is part of a broader campaign by liberal and conservative lawmakers in America to further criminalize sex work, which research has shown does little to protect victims of trafficking while making it harder for consenting adult workers to safely do their job.
Shuttering Backpage does not stop pimping, but it does make it harder for authorities and for sex workers to detect that kind of dangerous activity, said Maxine Doogan, president of the Erotic Service Provider Legal, Educational and Research Project. The ongoing political campaign to force Backpage to close is another example of how US lawmakers ignore sex workers in policy debates on trafficking, said Ellyn Bell, a former nonprofit director who has written about child exploitation.
