FBI Seizes Backpage.com
The FBI, which at one point seized and operated one of the largest sites for distribution of Child Porn, Playpen (see here), has seized Backpage.com, the classifieds site that purportedly facilitated sex trafficking and pornography. The CEO of Backpage was also recently arrested.
More details are supposed to come shortly, the FBI reports, according to a post on backpage.com which states, “Additional information will be provided at around 6:00pm EST on Friday April 6th by the U.S. Department of Justice.
We would not be surprised that in connection with the seizure of the website, they will be ascertaining users of the site and more arrests will come. Just like they did with Playpen, this is likely another attempt to fish with a huge net and catch guppies.
Last month, US Congress passed legislation that would hold websites responsible for illegal content posted by its users. The new law directly conflicted with the Communications Decency Act, which provides immunity from liability for providers and users of an “interactive computer service” who publish information provided by others. The new law was concerning enough for Craigslist to remove their Personals section.
The one question remaining is; with Craigslist personals and Backpage.com gone, how will Sheriff Grady Judd spend his days?
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This is the most epic definition of irony. The US govt creates a statute and grant program to basically bribe states to create “task forces” to entrap millions of law abiding citizens ON SITES such as Backpage and Craigslist, and now decides to shut it all down. Craigslist on it’s own, has shut down it’s personal ad sections. I think what this is, along with taking first amendment free speech, is that they cannot afford to bribe the states with 70 million a year anymore due to Trump’s tax cuts, and now they have to shut it down…….if only this had happened 6 years ago, then I wouldn’t be an RSO right now! But yes, scary indeed. Wake Up people. Guns, internet commerce….getting shut down. What’s next???
As a side note – I have often told my students that the internet can and will go away. For me it is not a question of if but when – this might be the way it happens. When the folks that run these sites (even the legitimate ones) are under the threat of prosecution they will pull out and slowly the internet will die. It has now become an entity that is fueled by advertisements etc. Once that is gone so will it be. Most of my students are 20 somethings and I tell them to use problem solving skills from time to time and ask how would I do this task without the internet? Older people would have a better chance at that. I have actually considered recently going back to the old way and mailing out my bills etc.
There is a lot of things that are disturbing about this situation to be sure. One thing that screams at me is that the US is acting like the internet belongs to them! The internet belongs to the World. The USA has always operated as though they are the boss of the World (ha). The USA has also for the last 4 or 5 decades made law after law that removed responsibility for a crime from only the person committing a crime – for instance holding a bartender liable for a person that drinks and drives (absurd!) – in FL they have made everyone responsible for reporting suspected child abuse (most people would anyway but now it is a crime if you do not). However, the one that has to be the best is turning prostitution into sex trafficking (now the prostitute is a victim and the john is a sex trafficker – I mean seriously?). So, I guess with that definition Shady Grady can avert his attention to prostitution.
I think crooked shady grady would look beautiful dressed in a skirt trying to arrest johns in what stings he will have to resort to.
I’m sure the good sheriff has a stash of porn from what was confiscated to use for his own amusement,
Take heed America, this is the beginning of the end of free speech. Using the myth of human (read S-E-X) trafficking, and claiming children were being exploited, the US Government will not stop with BP. America’s war on sex continues unabated. They will become emboldened and seize any other websites they find “offensive” by their puritan standards.
This is actually scary if you think about it.
Backpage as well as millions of other websites contain content that is almost entirely user-contributed. It does after all, publish on behalf of it’s users in the form of contact information, among descriptions, et cetera.
While I don’t understand the dynamics and issues that lead up to our government agencies seizing the website, I am lead to believe it’s because the website’s owners have been complacent when dealing with content that was contributed.
There is another twist we must understand: Our government no longer has the authority to seize domain names because ICANN is no longer within the Jurisdiction of our government. ICANN is responsible for the assignment of domain name TLD’s and IP addresses. In theory, the owner(s) of Backpage.com could argue this and the government would ultimately lose. I don’t think our government thought about this or are hoping nobody will notice. (I notice, though)
There are plenty of other websites that could be taken down the same way. This includes websites like YouTube.com, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, et cetera and other domains that have user-contributed content in which users do things that are illegal. This includes organizing riots.
There used to be a time when our government went after the hosting servers and took them offline. Now they can just take the domain names.
This will not end well. Comcast recently lost a DMCA lawsuit because people share copyrighted content on their networks. The Safe Harbor act was ruled not to apply, even to an ISP who is not legally allowed to monitor and block content.
ISP’s are under attack. The hosting providers are not. The visitors are often arrested and the people responsible for sharing are the ones who walk. It is a complete mess that needs to be fixed.
ICANN regulates the assignment they are a regulation board nothing about USA law outside of contractual agreements, the registrar holds the contract. Anyone with a court order for domain ownership that is sent to the registrar that operated in the USA can take control of a domain name, I have done this before in intellectual property disputes.
I have never seen ICANN care about anything on the consumer end of law, its always contractual things between registrars and registries. I dont see an issue here to argue.
From a defendants standpoint trying to suppress evidence does not work because FBI have a “acted in good faith” clause allowing them to use illegally obtained evidence if it was done so in good faith this is how they use illegal blanket warrants.
The real scary part of the lawsuits is they use it to catch pedophiles simply to set presidency of their actions.