Craigslist: This is complicated

Craigslist known as aid and enabler

The recent murder stemming from Craiglist postings has brought to the forefront (and not for the first time, apparently, though I hadn't heard about it before) the content on Craigslist that advertises illegal activity. Payment for sex acts is prostitution, and this is illegal almost everywhere in the United States, and where it is not illegal it is highly regulated--and regulation is definitely not going on with Craigslist postings.

As a libertarian, mostly about civil liberty issues, my first thought on reading is "Well, prostitution shouldn't be illegal, so c'mon, what's the big deal? The evil that men (or women) do is their own responsibility and if it wasn't Craigslist it would be something else."

This article talks about how the 1996 Federal Communications Act relieves companies of responsibility for content posted that the company had no part in creating. And I'm glad of this fact because, if you think about it, many services we take part in today wouldn't be quite as fun if companies had to worry about their user's content. There are too many different standards about which content would be appropriate or not.

But the complicated part is that the company IS enabling illegal activity. Illegal. Not just questionable, but bonafide "I'll blow you for $80," type stuff. I may not agree that it should be illegal, but it IS. Do I think that this illegal activity is the reason people get murdered? Absolutely not, but should a site perhaps police itself better as far as allowing actual illegal trading of services and money to go on?

I did like that Craigslist is active in helping police departments, and I thought it pretty stupid all the quotes going on from officials who say they shouldn't be appreciated for that because of their enabling. The company doesn't have to do that. Their activities fall under the law, and they aren't going to lose much business if they didn't help. In fact, if they didn't help perhaps they would increase their business because criminals would know they aren't being censored AND they aren't being turned in.