A Country Awash in Contradictions

I know there is a tension in balancing our freedoms of speech and free trade, but there are times when the glaring contradictions in our culture tempt me to despair. We sexualize everything and then send out urgent Amber Alerts when our children are preyed upon. We protect pornography as free speech and then pin the Scarlet A on child sexual molesters--putting their identities on the Internet--without ever seeming to connect how one leads to the other. And we allow companies to profit off the abuse of women and minors by saying there's no way they should be responsible for the content of their business.

Most recent case in point: Craigslist. Now, I'm not picking on Craigslist in particular. They are simply the latest entity in a long list of corporations that have chosen legal expediency over the public good. Historically the only way change comes about is through the prayers and public pressure of individuals who see that profits (which are good) must be balanced against other values (which may be even better). I am speaking of Craigslist continuing to allow ads for legal "erotic services," which some groups say facilitate trafficking that federal laws clearly prohibit. And this is what caught my eye, since I have written about the issues of juvenile trafficking before and how federal and state laws are at odds with each other with regard to minor victims of trafficking. 

Here's an article from MediaPost's Online Media Daily column that presents the issues swirling around Craigslist:

Arguing that Craigslist facilitates rights abuses, an anti-prostitution group has joined Chicago Sheriff Thomas Dart's legal campaign against the site.

"By providing an anonymous forum for johns to contact pimps, and pimps to contact each other, Craigslist is facilitating brutal abuses of human rights that deprive women and children of dignity and humanity, mocking the clear prohibitions against sex trafficking of United States and international law, profiting from a contemporary form of slavery," the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women wrote in a friend-of-the-court brief filed Thursday.

The group is backing Dart's effort to convince federal judge John Grady to order Craigslist to stop running adult ads. In March, Dart sued Craigslist for allegedly facilitating prostitution with its "erotic services" listings. Dart requested an injunction against the site and monetary damages.

Craigslist subsequently replaced the erotic services ads with a monitored "adult" section, but Dart said in court papers filed last month that many of the new adult ads still obviously relate to prostitution. Craigslist has said it created the erotic services category (now the adult section) as a forum for ads for phone sex, erotic dancing, and other racy but lawful activity. The company also says on its site that ads "suggesting or implying an exchange of sexual favors for money" are strictly prohibited.

Craigslist has been under intense scrutiny for its ads this year, much of it triggered by the murder in April of masseuse Julissa Brisman. She was allegedly killed by a Boston University student who answered Brisman's ad on Craigslist's "erotic services" section.

In court papers that are long on rhetoric, but nearly silent on legal issues, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women argues that Craigslist should shutter its adult ads out of a sense of corporate citizenship. "Craigslist is powerful. With that power comes responsibility. Beyond the obligations of domestic and international law, Craigslist has a corporate social responsibility to stop the sex trafficking and prostitution that occurs every day by way of its site."

But many Internet attorneys say that as a legal matter Craigslist is clearly protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which immunizes sites from liability when users post illegal ads. "The Coalition is free to make those kinds of policy arguments, but is making those policy arguments in support of an unsupportable legal position," says Matt Zimmerman, a lawyer with the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation.

In fact, in a pervious lawsuit against Craigslist, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Chicago), ruled that the site could not be sued for illegal housing ads placed by users.

Digital rights lawyers also say that without laws like the Communications Decency Act, Web companies would not be able to provide the types of forums for users that now exist. Craigslist today is considered the biggest classifieds site in the world, with more than 20 billion page views a month.

"Craigslist is a good example of the kinds of online services that can thrive because of the protections of Section 230," Zimmerman says. "If you say that, despite the law, we should make the middleman responsible, that would have collateral impact."

Chicago isn't the only place where Craigslist is battling in court. The company is also embroiled in litigation in South Carolina, where Attorney General Henry McMaster threatened to prosecute company executives for aiding and abetting prostitution. The site obtained a temporary restraining order against McMaster in May, but he recently filed papers arguing that he should be able to investigate and potentially prosecute company officials.

I am aware that when you provide services like Craigslist or Twitter or a domain hosting company, anyone with nefarious purposes could use it and it unfairly puts shackles on the service company to be responsible for how their services are used. So I'm glad for the protections of Section 230. However, when we have entire other federal agencies and laws aimed at combating what some of these services are promoting, aren't we simply awash in contradictions? Therefore, I agree with the argument that the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women is making. Yes, Craiglist's position is technically legal, but is it responsible? We currently hold corporations responsible for how they steward ecological resources. Why not something more important? Shouldn't corporate responsibility weigh even more heavily here?

If you agree, please study this issue and add your voice. More importantly, fellow radical women, pray boldly for change. So many of the young girls (and boys) ensnared in trafficking are the orphans of James 1:27--bereft of family ties, runaways who were abused in so many situations that the streets seemed like a good option, and are now enslaved to savvy pimps. Scripture calls us to look after them and this is one way we can do so. So pray for change: pray that these groups who are standing up for responsibility win favor; pray that Craigslist feels the pressure to be a responsible corporate citizen; pray that our churches will become active in reaching out to these victims; and pray that evil will be subdued and broken as the good news of the gospel reaches both victim and abuser. 

Comments

[Terry]

When I saw your post, I said, "Finally, someone else is pointing out what Craigslist has been doing!" Thank you!!!

[Tamara]

I agree that is time to call corporations to be responsible. It's also time for the women of the church to act. I am not sure what to do but I'm looking. I have been made aware of the issues of sex trafficking recently and was shocked. I was told that withing 9 hours of a runaway being on the streets they are contacted by a pimp and or taken into slavery.

[David]

"Yes, Craiglist's position is technically legal, but is it responsible? We currently hold corporations responsible for how they steward ecological resources. Why not something more important? Shouldn't corporate responsibility weigh even more heavily here?"

Well said, Carolyn.

[Lindsey]

Thank you for talking about this. I appreciate Christian women paying attention to this wide-spread issue.

[Tara]

Interesting subject that I know you have carried on your heart for years. It is very disheartening to realize that I can't list 2 strollers at the same time b/c they want to protect their users from fraudulent posts, but they don't protect their users from dangerous ones. This has made me think twice using the site, very thought provoking ~