Fighting Back: CL Sues South Carolina Attorney General

(as usual, Jim speaks well for craigslist, here're a few excerpts)

craigslist has filed suit against SC AG Henry McMaster in federal court in South Carolina, seeking declaratory relief and a restraining order with respect to criminal charges he has repeatedly threatened against craigslist and its executives.

In addition to being unwarranted by the facts, legal experts agree that the charges threatened represent an unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech, and are clearly barred by federal law (sec 230 CDA).

Interestingly, if you read Mr McMaster's ultimatum carefully, you'll note that the only way to definitively comply with it is to take down the craigslist sites for South Carolina in their entirety. The open architecture of craigslist, quintessential to the value it provides for users, simply does not allow for the absolute prevention of solicitation or pornography, with respect to any of its categories and functions.

Usage of craigslist in South Carolina has exploded over the last two years, with some cities experiencing 2000% growth.

Mr McMaster has persisted with his threats despite the fact that craigslist:

• is operating in full compliance with all applicable laws
• has earned a reputation for being unusually responsive to requests from law enforcement
• has eliminated its "erotic services" category for all US cities
• has adopted screening measures far stricter than those Mr McMaster himself personally endorsed with his signature just 6 months ago
• has far fewer and far tamer adult service ads than many mainstream print and online venues operating in South  Carolina
• has made its representatives available to hear Mr McMaster's concerns in person
• has politely asked Mr McMaster to retract and apologize for his unreasonable threats

Comments

[4mattsmom]

02:31 PM on 06/02/2009

Look like anything else on the web, you have to use your head and read carefully. Craigslist is an awesome tool to locate goods like washers and dryers, to finding the perfect apartment, to finding a job. Which btw that's is where I found my job! Thanks Craig for all the GOOD you do, keep up the great job!

[Chantall]

10:57 PM on 05/20/2009

The agreement between Craigslist, The Center For Missing And Exploited Children and 40 Attorney Generals including South Carolina's Mr. McMasters was not successful despite Craig's and Jim's spin! The Connecticut and Illinois Attorney General addressed this agreement not working with Craigslist recently! Mr. McMaster should not ignore the 150 kids they found being prostituted out on-line in South Carolina or the 2,800 children the FBI found being sold nationally on Craigslist last year? According to the Illinois A.G. in her letter to Craigslist, Chicago had 74,000 erotic ads from 11/08 - 4/09 which all occurred post agreement. The anti-child-prostitution group "A Future, Not A Past" in Atlanta found 200 children being sold on Craigslist in the month of February and has reported more than 40% of child prostitutes advertise on Craigslist. Again clearly the agreement was not a success and many, many Sherrifs and other law enforcement professionals have been accusing Craigslist for years of aiding and abbeding child exploitation, human trafficking and prostitution.

Wouldn't it be more productive and CHEAPER for tax payers and Craigslist, if Craigslist would just reduce the number of flags required to remove a listing to like 5 or 10 instead of the current 100+ and increase banning people who are repeatedly flagged off, instead of all these law suits?

[gretchenart]

09:46 PM on 05/21/2009

eliminating the erotic services section should take care of most of the problems.

[Tyler-Durden]

12:40 PM on 05/20/2009

get 'em Craig! your site is a valuable service for America. it's one of the best things on the internet. a free online, self service classifieds. i wish everything on the web was as simple and effective as CL.

p.s. thanx for creating it.