From www.abcnews.com- Under pressure from law enforcement officials, the popular Web site Craigslist plans to get rid of its controversial “erotic services” section, the Illinois and Connecticut attorneys general said today.
The ads section will be replaced with a new adult services category that site employees will review.
Details of the section were not immediately available from Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office. Craigslist officials could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the company informed him Tuesday night that it would eliminate the erotic services ads within seven days, create a new adult services section and “manually review every ad posted there.”
“Craigslist is heeding our clear call for conscience and common sense, sending a strong signal that Internet sites must police themselves to protect others,” Blumenthal said in a statement.
“We will be monitoring closely to make sure that this measure is more than a name change from erotic to adult and that the manual blocking is tough and effective to scrub prostitution and pornography,” the statement said.
Madigan, Blumenthal and Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster met with Craigslist lawyers last week, demanding the site to remove ads they contend are advertisements for illegal sexual activities. The South Carolina attorney general last week also threatened a criminal investigation of Craigslist officials if the site did not remove postings he said were pornographic or encouraged prostitution.
Craigslist has come under increasing scrutiny because of several high-profile alleged crimes that have involved the Web site, most recently those of the so-called “Craigslist Killer” who police say targeted women who advertised exotic services on the site.
In a statement posted on his blog last week, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said the site would work with the attorneys general to minimize misuse of the site but said “we see no legal basis whatsoever for filing a lawsuit against Craigslist or its principals and hope that the [South Carolina] Attorney General will realize this upon further reflection.”
Craigslist signed an agreement in November with more than 40 attorneys general in which Craigslist said it would take a number of steps to combat online prostitution, including charging people who post ads in the “erotic services” section $5 to $10 and requiring them to submit a working phone number to use the site. The information can be used by law enforcement to investigate suspected illegal activity.
The attorneys general have argued that the company was not living up to its end of the bargain and was not doing enough to keep pornography and prostitution off the site.
The company came under pressure from law enforcement after several high-profile alleged crimes appeared to stem from advertisements on the site.
Philip Markoff, 23, is suspected of using Craigslist to lure three women to upscale hotels, where he allegedly robbed them and killed one of them. Investigators believe Markoff contacted the women through Craigslist ads in which they offered erotic massages. Markoff, who has been dubbed the “Craigslist Killer” by the media, has pleaded not guilty.
Earlier this month, Michael John Anderson, 20, of Savage, Minn., was sentenced to life in prison for killing Katherine Ann Olson, who had responded to an ad for a nanny that Anderson placed on the site. And New York radio reporter George Weber was stabbed 50 times in his Brooklyn apartment earlier this year, allegedly murdered by a man who answered Weber’s ad on Craigslist, offering $60 for “rough sex.”
In an interview last month with ABC News, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark denied that the site “facilitates” prostitution and said he has no plans to change the “erotic services” section.