Craigslist 'Adult' Ads Cleaned Up, But No Less Erotic

But it took parents a surprisingly long time to catch on

(NEWSER) - Friends and co-workers warned schoolteacher Melissa Petro that it might not be such a great idea to write about her past as a prostitute, but she did it anyway. Most recently, Melissa Petro wrote about her thoughts on the shutdown of Craigslist's "erotic services" section, which she used for four months, for the Huffington Post . Cue the New York Post's predictably juicy-sounding "exclusive" ("SEXXX ED"), in which outraged parents express their belief that, as one says, "People like that should not be allowed to be anywhere near children." More»

'Adult services' shuttered, they head over to 'casual encounters'

(NEWSER) - Opponents of the world's oldest profession scored a victory Friday when Craigslist replaced its "adult services" section with a black "censored" banner, thereby grinding all prostitution to a screeching halt. For a nanosecond. Then pimps predictably picked up their nefarious ads and trotted right over to Craigslist's "casual encounters" section, reports the Wall Street Journal. More»

Site doubled the price, stopped donating profits to charity

(NEWSER) - For a free site, Craigslist is doing all right: The classified-ad behemoth's profit is projected to climb 22% over last year, reports the New York Times —driven almost entirely by its controversial sex ads, which have been connected to prostitution, human trafficking, and one murder charge. In response to crimes linked to the site last year, Craigslist began manually reviewing sex ads—but it also doubled the price and stopped donating the proceeds to charity. More»

AG hails it as a win for his state

(NEWSER) - Craigslist has filed federal suit against South Carolina’s attorney general to stop him from charging company executives with breaking state prostitution and obscenity laws. AG Henry McMaster called the site’s move a victory, saying “it shows that Craigslist is taking the matter seriously for the first time,” the State reports. “Overnight they have removed the erotic services section.” More»

(NEWSER) - Craigslist is due an apology from South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster, the site’s CEO writes on his company blog, after threatening “unwarranted and unconstitutional charges against us that are clearly barred by federal law.” What’s more, Jim Buckmaster charges, Craigslist isn’t the only outlet running the “adult services” ads McMaster targeted—asking if he’ll go after the CEOs of AT&T, Microsoft, and the South Carolina newspapers he’ll need in his next campaign. More»