The feds have seized classifieds website Backpage

Elements of the United States Government have seized the website Backpage !

Sexual stuff and prostitution and trafficking possibly.

Must have been a long investigation !

The CEO (at the time) was arrested in Oct 2016.

The feds have seized classifieds website Backpage

The United States government has seized Backpage.com, the controversial classifieds website. A notice informing visitors of the seizure was posted on the site, and a Justice Department spokesperson confirmed the notice.

According to the notice, the website and its affiliates were seized “as part of an enforcement action” by the FBI, as well as other federal and local agencies. The notice provides little other information, saying the Department of Justice will provide more at 6PM EST today.

This is good news! I had gone to that site before thinking it was like a craigslist and it was clearly geared for something else. Good to see its shut down.

I've never heard of that site, but I can't agree to the government censorship of it. if it was criminal they works have been better off using it to catch criminals.

originally posted by: xuenchen
Elements of the United States Government have seized the website Backpage !

Sexual stuff and prostitution and trafficking possibly.

Must have been a long investigation !

The CEO (at the time) was arrested in Oct 2016.

The feds have seized classifieds website Backpage

The United States government has seized Backpage.com, the controversial classifieds website. A notice informing visitors of the seizure was posted on the site, and a Justice Department spokesperson confirmed the notice.

According to the notice, the website and its affiliates were seized “as part of an enforcement action” by the FBI, as well as other federal and local agencies. The notice provides little other information, saying the Department of Justice will provide more at 6PM EST today.

They shut down Craigslist personals a couple weeks ago too....

a reply to: xuenchen

Freaking A...listened to an NPR interview prior to Trump regarding child prostitution...she urged congress/government officials to act to shut it down...they didn't but guess what cooky present administration did..goid news to me along with the adult section on craigslist that also solicited young prostitutes. This I am confident of due to my line of employment.

link

Ryan says Backpage clients can use untraditional payment schemes that hide their identity.

"It could be a prepaid card, where the purchaser does not have to leave any personal information or can leave any information but it's not validated by any third-party source, which is more typical with a credit card," he says.

originally posted by: lordcomac
I've never heard of that site, but I can't agree to the government censorship of it. if it was criminal they works have been better off using it to catch criminals.

That's what they are doing. The site profits from human trafficking, child prostitution, etc. If it was just adults contacting adults, I would agree with you, but these activities have human victims.

I always got a kick out of some of the 'personals' on back-page...
I still have friends I found at Back-Page working as 'Escorts'...

the few i stll hang with... were dedicated and Savvy...even though they dwelled in the underworld of society they are not demonic witches or creepy denizens of a filthy subculture, they are remarkably, Quite the opposite ! the ones I knew did a Yeoman's job in creating AD's for their business at $60+ a pop for the cheaper Ad's

~ Esmeralda,,,even Jenny might be a good comparisons ~ (Women of Hunchback/Notre Dame and Forest Gump fame)

see: Esmeralda= Character
Esmeralda, born Agnès, is a fictional character in Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. She is a French Roma girl. She constantly attracts men with her seductive dances, and is rarely seen without her clever goat Djali. She is around 16 years old and has a kind and generous heart....

originally posted by: chrismarco
a reply to: xuenchen

Freaking A...listened to an NPR interview prior to Trump regarding child prostitution...she urged congress/government officials to act to shut it down...they didn't but guess what cooky present administration did..goid news to me along with the adult section on craigslist that also solicited young prostitutes. This I am confident of due to my line of employment.

link

Ryan says Backpage clients can use untraditional payment schemes that hide their identity.

"It could be a prepaid card, where the purchaser does not have to leave any personal information or can leave any information but it's not validated by any third-party source, which is more typical with a credit card," he says.

Dont remember silk road or the other web stuff shut down before Trump?

Good on the Trump admin for continuing this effort against this stuff but dont act like he is the first to start it.

a reply to: xuenchen
I have cared for many patients that were victims of sexual assault as the result of dealings with Backpage and Craigs List, but Tinder is still ranking #1 and Sugar Daddy running a close second. So I am not sorry to hear this news at all.

There is no logical reason that prostitution is illegal. However, I think the Feds should come down hard with no mercy on those involved in trafficking.

i have mixed feelings on this.

Obviously its good to prevent exploitation and trafficking.

However.

Punish the many for the actions of a few?

Reminds me too much of teachers holding the whole class back from recess because of one trouble maker.

There goes all the best phone numbers to prank call late at night.

Since the website CEO was arrested in 2016, they have had almost 2 years to analyze all of the site users and spin off in real prosecutions of traffickers. The seizure is the end game, as it probably produced enough evidence already. Glad to see that scum taking a big hit and who knows how many horrors it had spawned while in existence.

a reply to: tribal

If preventing exploits is the game, now let's go after the pedos in the government and Hollywood...

Wait that won't work...

I'm going to miss the personal's page because it was an odd curiosity at times, like late night when can't sleep, 2 - 5am. Looking at the ads often were very interesting and made me appreciate the life I had/have. I don't ever recall seeing anything about young children and everyone I saw looked to be 18+ and I'm guessing 1/2 weren't even the real pic of the person.

I can say that just like craigslist, I found the same postings for the same person at different cities across the country on the same day. IDK if it was a phishing scam or if it was a government fishing operation to see who would call.

From what I hear there are "dark web" sites that cater to this such thing and are much harder to find, though I don't recall the last time I ever saw backpage on a search result. IDK if taking it down is the best thing as if a site such as this moves to multiple dark web sites, it is going to be MUCH harder to track posters and callers as most use VPN, proxies, TOR, etc to access them. Maybe they used BP to build 2 years worth of data on posters & clients/callers and are moving on from there. I have seen a lot of sex crime related arrests locally in the last few months, especially minor related it seems. IDK if this site has anything to do with helping find these people but it may have.

a reply to: xuenchen

So 2 years they have been sitting on this information, 2 #ing Years!

How many children were screwed up during that time, how many people were #ed up for the rest of their lives due to 2 years of sitting on the information....

I have a hunch it took that long so that anyone needing protection was protected.... By that I don't mean the victims...

originally posted by: Edumakated
There is no logical reason that prostitution is illegal. However, I think the Feds should come down hard with no mercy on those involved in trafficking.

The thought police strikes again.

I agree on trafficking, but the government has no business in the private bedrooms of consenting adults. Making and trying to enforce laws on the lifestyles of what happens in private, is just wrong. It's time the US moved into the 21st century and dropped these oppressive, antiquated, Victorian laws.

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

I am sure that a lot of criminal activity slipped through, but there were also a lot of successful busts made from data retrieved from monitoring of Backpage and some of the other sites.

You are right though. Backpage is just one rock. Turn over a rock and the vermin bury deeper and scurry off to another rock.

We will never be completely rid of all the vermin, we just have to get rid of any many as we can. I also agree with #odzeandennz, we should be working from the top down.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

It's a harsh reality but the top are running the show, it's not like they are going to take themselves down. This is partiality what #s me about the police, they are complicit in allowing this rubbish to go on unchecked.