Criagslist CEO Stands Up Against SC Attorney General

by Jason Wilk on May 18, 2009

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  • For the past month, Craigslist has been in quite the heated debate with South Carolina over removing the ‘erotic services’ section of the site. Today, SC Attorney General issued a notice saying “As of 5:00 p.m. this afternoon, the craigslist South Carolina site continues to display advertisements for prostitution and graphic pornographic material. This content was not removed as we requested. We have no alternative but to move forward with criminal investigation and potential prosecution.”. The following is what Craigslist CEO, Jim Buckmaster, had to fire back with. Good for him for standing up

An Apology Is In Order

Dear South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster,

Two days ago you accused craigslist, and me personally, of engaging in criminal acts, reiterating your previous threat to file unwarranted and unconstitutional charges against us that are clearly barred by federal law. As you put it, “We have no alternative but to move forward with criminal investigation and potential prosecution.”

These very serious allegations followed the dramatic changes we implemented last week, widely applauded by other Attorneys General, that go far beyond the policies and procedures you yourself personally endorsed just 6 months ago, as indicated by your signature on the Joint Statement.

So effective in fact, that our “adult services” and soon-to-be-retired “erotic services” sections combined, for all cities in South Carolina, currently feature a total of 40 ads, all of which comply with our terms of use. That’s 40 ads out of a total of 334,180 currently listed on our SC sites. The rest comprise a thriving marketplace for South Carolinians, offering jobs, housing, for sale items, local services, and just about everything else.

Many prominent companies, including AT&T, Microsoft, and Village Voice Media, not to mention major newspapers and other upstanding South Carolina businesses feature more “adult services” ads than does craigslist, some of a very graphic nature. For a small sampling, look (careful NSFW) here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here.

Have you fully considered the implications of your accusations against craigslist? What’s a crime for craigslist is clearly a crime for any company. Are you really prepared to condemn the executives of each of the mainstream companies linked above, and all the others that feature such ads, as criminals? craigslist may not matter in your world view, despite our popularity among your constituents, but mightn’t you want an endorsement from any of the SC newspapers for your gubenatorial campaign, whose publishers you’ve just labeled as criminals? Do you really intend to launch a criminal investigation against the phone company? What about potential new jobs connected to big data center buildouts in SC by Internet companies? Are you *sure* you want prosecute all of their CEOs as criminals???

If you are threatening our founder Craig Newmark, a board member with no operational role at craigslist other than as a customer service representative, then you are expanding your list of “criminal suspects” to include thousands of employees at the above-named companies, or the companies’ boards of directors, or both.

Mr McMaster, I strongly recommend you reconsider and retract your remarks, and positively affirm that you have no intention of launching criminal investigations aimed at any of these upstanding companies, because in truth none of them are deserving of such treatment. Certainly when it comes to craiglist, by any objective standard your threats and accusations are unreasonable and unfair:

  • threats of criminal prosecution are utterly unwarranted by the facts
  • the charges threatened are unconstitutional and barred by federal law
  • our adult ad screening regimen is stricter than the one you endorsed
  • our adult services ads are fewer and tamer than other SC venues

We’re willing to accept our share of criticism, but wrongfully accusing  craigslist of criminal misconduct is simply beyond the pale. We would very much appreciate an apology at your very earliest convenience. As I’m sure would all of the other fine companies whose executives you’ve called out as criminals.

Sincerely Yours,

Jim Buckmaster
CEO, craigslist

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  • fred flinstoned
    I think there might have been a distinction between the advertisers and user content that's being made available.
    For example on craigslist it's easy to get personal information via such ads.
    And on other sites including explicit ones the contacts are always hidden under auspices of usernames and even purchases for phone associations are hidden such as credit card transactions requiring a merchant account.
    I do have to say that it does appear the Craigslist has received many unwanted people.
    And the recent killing of the woman as well as the woman that had her baby kidnapped via Craiglist contacts are two horrifying events that have one thing in common.
    I'm in no way knocking Craigslist as I have bought an item from a posted listing and saved alot of money.
    But perhaps there is a better way for certain transactions to be listed that would be stricter and safer.
    Unlike other media outlets of advertising it seems to be easier to connect such crimes because of internet policing has worked to detect and capture a possible suspect.
    And while a crime can take place from a criminal using other means that are harder to detect,one has to wonder if Craigslist saved other would be victims from predators that would be using other venues that maybe much harder to track such crimes.
    I beleive if one thinks topically they will reach a conclusion that Craigslist needs to end such ads.
    But going deeper one can see that such a remedy will only provide a means for the criminals to go with other less tracable means of searching for victims.
  • Jason Wilk
    Anytime you mix the internet with meeting in person, it is bound to have a percentage of crime. Considering the amount of daily offline transactions happening daily with Craigslist, I'd say this percentage is extremely low. I don't see any reason to offer a safer solution, nor do I think there is one. Many have tried to create a similar business model wrapping social network features around it, so 'you know' who you are dealing with. All of these copycats have failed.
  • andy
    Rather than remove more of our rights, as is typical in today's "freedom exchanged for security" society, folks should take advantage of the rights afforded them to protect themselves. Anyone in the adult industry knows this already. But anyone using Craigslist for other reasons needs to use common sense. Meet in public places when exchanging money for goods. Keep any personal info to a minimum. For those of you that still live in somewhat free communities that allow it, ARM yourself with a pistol, NOT pepper spray. You'll feel much less the potential victim and everything will be fine.
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