Should Craigslist Shutdown its Erotic Services Sections?

April 1, 2008

Last week, Connecticut’s Attorney General sent a letter to Craigslist demanding the site cleanup what he described as “widespread public reports of prostitutes using the site,” according to Thomas Claburn at Infoworld. At issue are the “erotic services” sections that can be readily found in most of the cities that the popular classifieds site supports, which often feature ads promoting sex for pay.

Craigslist’s defense, according to Claburn’s report: “telephone company yellow pages, weekly newspapers, and other offline and online media in Connecticut regularly include paid erotic ads … 100% of our revenue comes from paid job listings and broker apartment rental listings.”

Thus, CEO Jim Buckmaster contends that what Craigslist offers is completely legal. But is it right? As a private company, Craigslist is free to do as it pleases, but is the company ignoring its moral responsibilities as one of the most heavily trafficked sites on the Web?

Mashable.com ran this as their daily poll, the results? Of 411 votes cast on April 1st, 98 voted YES while 383 voted NO. Where do you stand? Does Craigslist have a moral obligation to censor classifieds?

Posted in From Jacob, General, Internet Marketing