Still More About Craigslist

From yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle:

Craigslist finally addressed the biggest question lingering since its controversial adult services category went dark this month when an executive told lawmakers Wednesday that the company doesn't intend to restore the section.
Other questions, however, went unanswered, and it remains unclear whether the popular San Francisco-based classifieds website has or can put to rest a corporate crisis that has muddied its image for years.
The company abruptly removed the adult services category in the United States on Sept. 3 (see story here)amid growing pressure from law enforcement officials and nonprofit groups, who said ads in the section promoted prostitution and child trafficking or led to violence against women.
Critics called the site the "Wal-Mart of online sex trafficking," and attorneys general in 18 states asked
the company to take down the section.
"The sex ads issue has cast a cloud over (Craigslist's) very positive reputation," said Sam Singer, a crisis
communications specialist in San Francisco who has not worked with Craigslist. "It was probably a good thing for them to take the action they did. But it simply took them too long, and they did it in too clumsy a way."
Singer said the list of head-scratching public relations maneuvers includes Craigslist's not shutting down the section overseas, accusing the media of attacking the company because it's a competitor, and consistently declining to publicly discuss the rationale for its decision.
It appears company executives only opened up Wednesday because they were asked to appear before the
House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security for a hearing focused on domestic sex trafficking involving minors.
William Clinton Powell, the company's director of customer service used most of his time to discuss "best practices" the company has implemented to combat ads for illicit services on the site, including requiring posters to provide a working phone number and the manual
filtering of explicit ads. He addressed the removal of the adult section briefly toward the end of his remarks.
"There are no plans to reinstate the category," he said. "Craigslist has always taken pride in (aiding) law enforcement and will continue to do so in the future."
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, pressed Powell about the removal of the adult section, asking whether the company will be tempted to switch it back on after the public heat fades or the promise of profits beckons.
Powell said he wasn't in a position to answer that question directly, but said: "We don't have any intention to bring that category back, and money is not a consideration."
The company didn't charge for the adult ads until it was encouraged to do so by law enforcement to create a record of potentially illegal behavior and encourage compliance with the site's guidelines.
Powell said he could not address the rationale behind the decision to quietly take down the adult section
this month. The move came as a surprise to many observers because the company had long argued that
removing it would make it more difficult to address the underlying problem.
Matt Zimmerman, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said in an interview that he worries that Craigslist's decision to take down the section could prove a strategic blunder.
Every demand it's given into on this issue has only elicited new ones, he said. Indeed, a day after Craiglist acquiesced to the calls to remove the adult section, opponents began saying it had to follow up by filtering all categories on its site.
"It's a little troubling, the notion that you give in to people bullying you," Zimmerman said. "You think it will be the end of it, but it doesn't ever seem to pan out that way."

Editor’s Note: This should be the very last post on this subject.  Maybe not, but I can’t envision any additional news on the subject that would make me want to dredge it up again.

Just to recap:

• The Adult Services section is gone from Craigslist, but only in the USA.
• The Personals section still offers the same or worse with pictures and graphic detail.
• You still can’t sell a puppy on Craigslist, although some free puppies have “re-homing”  fees in excess of $200.

And finally, I was able to put Sheila Jackson Lee’s picture at the top of a story about whores, duplicity and devious (not to mention deviant) practices.  How could it get any better than that?