Dirty Ads Make Craigslist a Bad Citizen

Craigslist ought to be prosecuted for promoting prostitution, writes David Coursey for PC World. By spreading across the country, the uber-popular classifieds site has brought “easy-access, pay-for-play communities where they clearly are not wanted.” Television was once famously called a “vast wasteland.” Well, Coursey says, sites like Craigslist help make the Internet “an even ‘vaster wasteland.’”

Once, “we spoke of the Internet in grand, visionary terms,” writes Coursey. But now we’re faced with “the dark realization that all the bad that happens in the world can come into our homes over the Internet.” Craigslist hides behind “freedom of speech,” but Coursey isn’t buying it. “I believe that Internet companies need to become responsible for the content they inflict on users.” (More Craigslist stories.)