Several human rights organizations on Wednesday praised Craigslist for shutting down its "adult services" section in the U.S., but called on the online classifieds Web site to do the same throughout the world.
Representatives from the Polaris Project and the Rebecca Project for Human Rights applauded Craigslist for removing "adult services," a monitored section of the site that allows users to post sex-related ads for $10 per ad. The company needs to take the next step, however, and shut it down globally, they said.
"We feel that Craigslist did the right thing, and we thank Craigslist for voluntarily closing the section," Bradley Myles, executive director of the Polaris Project, said during a conference call with reporters. "We feel like as the largest classified ads site to have an adult services section, this action will help prevent sexual predators" from targeting women and children.
Adult sections remain, however, on international versions of Craigslist. "There are more erotic ads outside the U.S. than there are inside the U.S.," he said. "We feel like if Craigslist is serious about addressing this issue … they have a global responsibility to close all these sections immediately."
Malika Saada Saar, executive director of the Rebecca Project for Human Rights, also said that she was "pleased" that adult services was removed from the U.S. site, but urged Craigslist to "show the same conscious and commitment to girls internationally."
Craigslist removed the adult services section over the weekend with little fanfare, but put a "censored" image over the former "adult services" link rather than delete it permanently. When asked if that made it seem like Craigslist was making a political statement rather than actually taking steps to combat sex trafficking, Myles and Saada Saar said they would like to think Craigslist was doing the right thing.
"We want to think the best, and … we want to think that [Craigslist founder Craig Newmark] is trying to do the right thing," Saada Saar said.
That being said, "we are absolutely saddened by the framing of it as censorship," she continued. "This is not a First Amendment issue; this is not a free speech issue. This is about human rights. When a child or woman is sold for sex, that is a human rights issue."
Craigslist has not communicated with Polaris or the Rebecca Project, they said.
Craigslist did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
When pressured on this issue in the past, Craigslist has pointed a finger at other Web sites that offer adult classifieds sections, like eBay and Backpage. Those sites do not have staff manually checking their ads before posting, Craigslist has argued. When asked Wednesday why Craigslist should be held primarily responsible for this problem, Myles and Saada Saar said Craigslist is, by far, the most well-known and heavily trafficked site offering sex services.
"By taking down the Wal-Mart of child prostitution and sex trafficking online [it's] harder to make purchases of sixth and seventh graders online for sex. That's significant," Saada Saar said.
Myles pointed to a June study commissioned by Georgia advocacy group A Future Not A Past. The group posted similar sex ads on a variety of sites, including Craigslist, and received three times the number of responses from the Craigslist ad than it did from the other sites, Myles said.
"There's almost this effect where Craigslist begins contributing to the ease of access and the normative behavior and then contributes to … trafficking of women and children," Myles said.
Saada Saar added that there is "uniform agreement around law enforcement and anti-trafficking organizations that Craigslist is the most popular platform for child prostitution and sex trafficking."
"Right now on the streets pimps are scared because they've just lost their main opportunity to post girls for sale," she concluded.
On Tuesday, Polaris and the Rebecca Project joined with the FAIR Fund and Courtney's House to issue a joint statement in support of shutting down Craigslist's adult services section.
"We hope that closing this section only in the U.S. was not simply a PR move in advance of a Congressional hearing on September 15 on sex trafficking where Craigslist has been called to testify," they said.
Last month, the FAIR Fund published ads in several newspapers asking Craigslist to shut down its adult services section. The ad, which was formatted as a letter to Newmark, discussed the abduction and forced prostitution of two women who identified themselves as AK and MC. In response, Craigslist co-founder Jim Buckmaster posted a blog post that said the company wanted to learn more in order to improve the site's preventative measures.