Craigslist officials on Thursday stood pat over the issue of “escort service” despite calls from critics and attorney generals all over the United States to immediately remove the erotic service section following an alleged murder incident that reportedly originated from the website.
In a statement, Craigslist officials claimed that the escort or erotic services section of the website was created following popular requests from online users who the company said were “tired of pop-up advertisements for escort service, erotic meetings, and other sensual online site categories”.
The company also claimed that these users wanted such services to be sorted into a “regular personal and service section”.
Meanwhile, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Senior Staff Lawyer Matt Zimmerman echoed Craigslist’s claims, adding that the probe lack substance and that the website company is protected by Federal rule.
In an interview, Zimmerman, citing Section 230 under the Communications Decency Act of the Federal Law, said that Craigslist is immune as provided by law from individual criminal acts committed or posted by third parties.
He explained that while Craiglist is allowed to provide users an interactive computer service, the company will have no state criminal liability to hazards posted by users, saying that such section could not determine the intent of the posts or what it could have done to block it.
Earlier, South Carolina Attorney General Henry MacMaster issued a statement calling for the website to immediately remove the escort service section following reports of Philip Markoff, an alleged murderer, killed his victims that he met in Craigslist.
In his letter to Craigslist, MacMaster has also issued an 8-day ultimatum for the website to remove the erotic section or face sanction.
Craigslist has earlier signed an agreement with the state attorney generals and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to prevent human trafficking and other explicit materials from being circulated in the Internet.
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