Backpage USA: Adult ads gone

[Warl0ck]

CENSORED
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[tdhmale]

Was just reading this on MSN News. I read somewhere the US govt was having problems in their goals because Backpage is based in the Netherlands, so have no idea.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/othe...ion-in-face-of-government-pressure/ar-BBy61cf

 

[Warl0ck]

though personally I think it can only enhance the escort gene pool.

Not so sure it'll help the sex trade at all. To start, this type of shit makes data mining really difficult for criminologists & researchers looking for trafficking & other evil shit. Data mining and forensics guys can find a wealth of information on Backpage with respect to missing women, "trends" that point toward trafficking, etc. By nuking it they only push the shit underground. It's WAY fucking easier to get data off BP or CL than it is some .onion site buried in the Tor network.

Secondly, the legit, above the board sex workers now have one less place to advertise so they get pushed into the shadows. That simply enables predators & it makes women more strict with their screening process. In the long run that simply increases prices as women will either say fuck it or prices go up. The pimps and thugs don't give a shit about the safety of marginalized workers and often pooners have no idea.

More moralistic dribble from a country that bans ads for sex talk lines but allows rampant racists and hate to flourish on social media.

 

[Booblover123]

Just like craigslist in 2010,they will never stop the ads,new sites will just start up.Leolist will be busy if it happens here.

 

[tdhmale]

It really is a catch 22 situation for the justice system to focus on the traffickers without affecting the entire industry. It's like going after the automotive retailers to get rid of the drunk drivers.
Personally, I think the LE and BP should of just been working more together, but not sure if either side was interested in that. All it's ever going to amount to right now is taking one step
forward and two steps back. One site will go down, another will go up, like you say. And I'm sure for every trafficker they take off the street another one or more surfaces.

 

[Warl0ck]

It really is a catch 22 situation for the justice system to focus on the traffickers without affecting the entire industry. It's like going after the automotive retailers to get rid of the drunk drivers.
Personally, I think the LE and BP should of just been working more together, but not sure if either side was interested in that. All it's ever going to amount to right now is taking one step
forward and two steps back. One site will go down, another will go up, like you say. And I'm sure for every trafficker they take off the street another one or more surfaces.

It's hard to say what the motivations of BP or LE in the USA were. Down in the USA there seems to be a moralistic streak in government, etc which believes if you just crush something you'll fix the problem and it will go away (think DEA, etc). It's as if they close BP and that's going to stop child prostitution. It's a naive & stupid mentality which ends up putting everyone at risk in the business. Johns, especially those picking up streetwalkers, could play a very important part in finding trafficked woman if they were encouraged to report things. In the current situation they just end up getting arrested. Johns are a benefit to the industry not a detriment. We need to quit viewing them as criminals.

 

[clu]

Yup and just like this will put an end trafficking, all you have to do to stop ISIS is shut down their Twitter accounts, right?

 

[Warl0ck]

Yup and just like this will put an end trafficking, all you have to do to stop ISIS is shut down their Twitter accounts, right?

Well the push to shut down ISIS sites, whether it was governmental or from #Anonymous was more about limiting their recruiting. ISIS played heavily on social media to recruit angry young men & hot young women to service those angry young men. Regardless, it's an ideology so you won't stop it that way.

Johns are a huge source of information, especially those out cruising. The most likely place to pick up a trafficked woman is on the street. She's likely to be moved around city to city so that it stops her from building trust with certain pooners. And she won't have a phone so she can't call for help or have pooners contact her. Well if we stopped arresting john's and started to educate them, how many trafficked women would they find?. Society views them as these dirty, creepy males, when it should see them as valuable assets. They are the eyes and the ears of the industry & one way to clean the shit up.

 

[Warl0ck]

According to what I just saw moments ago on Nightline, the site was not shut down by the government, it was shut down by BP moments before the senate hearing. A family with an under-age daughter who ran away from home was picked up by pimps and advertised on BP. They are suing BP for assisting in the trafficking of under-age children into prostitution. They're basically saying the advertising company (BP) is responsible for the content of their advertisers; which is a pretty tough thing to push through. Like saying if you buy a car off Craigslist and it turned out to be stolen, CL is responsible.

But then again, the government doesn't have to prove anything, they just have to scare the shit out of the you and you're done. I was doing some work for a money processing company this summer. The US government decided they're helping scam artists move money so they moved in and froze their bank accounts while they "investigate". Without cash flow, the company is as good as dead. Talk about being the judge and executioner all in one breathe... with a more conservative Republican government, BP has a lot to worry about.

On the flip side, I'll share this as an example of how BP can be good. Not so long ago a friend of mine contacted me asking me for help. Her daughter's behaviour had become very odd and she had fallen off the radar. Mom was extremely upset. Mom knows I have good digital forensic and data mining skills and asked me if I could help find her. So I collected as much information as I could and the first place I went too was BP. And guess where I found the daughter? I had to confirm with Mom if this was her daughter and it was (there was a long silence followed by her drinking and not sleeping for a few days). They got her out & got her home. She left everything behind & on my advice tossed her cell phone in the wood stove to burn it. She "hooked up" with the wrong guys. All a true story and I can have a certain someone on this site verify it.

Information is power. Knowledge is power. Tiny bits of data can start a trail which a DFI (digital forensics investigator) can follow & make something out of it. It's better to have the filth out in the light than hiding in the darkness.

Edit: The best example of what data & forensics can do is when Kim Rossmo was with the VPD. Rossmo created Rigel, a geographical criminal analysis software. His first claim to fame? Identify there was a serial killer in the DTES in the 90's & then point out to Pickton as the most likely suspect. He left the VPD and now he's the director of Intelligence and Investigation at U of Texas & has used his skills for counter terrorism, etc. Imagine what we could find if we used full analysis on a site like BP? Instead we choose to chase it in the shadows imaging it'll go away.

 

[Caramel]

agreed warlock...its like that incident in Chicago with the black teens torturing the mentally ill white kid and streaming it on facebook, people were talking about should facebook be censored should there be this much freedom to post whatever on the net live? etc etc, and people were saying its a good thing because at least this way its easier to find the perpetrators, the girl literally posted the video live stream with her face and friends faces showing on her facebook with her real name

 

[Warl0ck]

agreed warlock...its like that incident in Chicago with the black teens torturing the mentally ill white kid and streaming it on facebook, people were talking about should facebook be censored should there be this much freedom to post whatever on the net live? etc etc, and people were saying its a good thing because at least this way its easier to find the perpetrators, the girl literally posted the video live stream with her face and friends faces showing on her facebook with her real name

You'd be AMAZED at the stupidity of some people Caramel. I guess about a year ago Toronto Police busted a trafficking ring so I dug up the suspect on social media. There she was "screaming" in all caps how people just don't understand her and how she was helping the young girl and misunderstood. I can only imagine what her lawyer was thinking.

There is a TV show about hackers called Mr Robot. It has an episode where a group of gangsters broadcast their the crimes they commit on social media. The protagonist of the show, Elliot, figures out their "code" of speaking and what it means & then submits an anonymous tip & they're all arrested and imprisoned. It's actually more realistic than one would imagine.