Free speech rights are worth fighting for, people.

Um, they censored themselves, Vince. That's hardly the same thing.

They also removed the adult category from "Gigs" where it used to sit just below "Talent". No black censor bar, just removed.

Will I still be able to offer my gardening services?

I'm really good at whacking shrubbery.

Do you imagine that "Adult Service" providers will simply move their posts to "Casual Encounters"?

@2 Under threat from some fourteen AG's.

If the "adult services" were truly being offered by adults only, I could see this as a free speech issue. However, as a social worker who works with teens who've been commercially sexually exploited, I know full well that Craigslist (as well as backpage.com, and the Stranger's own Lustlab) are not only used by adults. I have several youth in my care right now who've been sold on all three of these websites. Until Craigslist comes up with a way to guarantee that no children will be exploited on their site, I fully support this move and the legal pressure that prompted it.

#7: yes, and now that craigslist no longer has the adult services section, exploitation of minors is over with forever, right?

Okay, I'm being snarky. There's been a 10% reduction? 5%? 1%? 0.0001%?

Tell me of the useless feel-good measures of your homeworld, Usul.

@6
My thought as well. Craigslist is more a business than an online publication so I sympathize somewhat. They can't afford to take on the government and extreme right wing Moral Majority, hypocrites though they be. Still, it's not a happy situation; it's just consistent with America's Puritan blue nose traditions.

Now where am I going to find my hookers?

@7 Will someone please think of the anecdotal children!?

You guys clearly don't understand. If we stop prostitution advertising then prostitution will stop. It's common sense.

@12 exactly. if i were to provide a link about international sex trade, most people would still ignore blaming the guilty pimps. it's good business. why would we want "to change the attitudes of the public?"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/2…

@14: But they are doing this because of fear of government prosecution, right? So yes, it's a free speech issue.

@14 - and I think you may be unclear on the difference between free speech and libel. "Cock-sucking, STD-spreading" isn't an opinion, it's either a fact or it isn't. If Vince can prove that he is no such thing, then you don't have the right to write it anywhere. You can say he's a jerk, or that you hate him, because those are your OPINIONS. But freedom of speech doesn't give youthe right to make a statement of fact that's demonstrably untrue. The defense for slander or libel would be that what you were saying was true. If you could prove that
both cock sucking and STD spreading had occurred, then you could write it anywhere you want.

@14 Nice.

Three cheers for our public servants, making the hard choices in order to remove problems from public visibility so we can all go on pretending the biggest issues in our little worlds are weeds in the garden and nothing good on TV. A little intimidation to squelch free speech and enterprise is surely a small price to pay to be able to pretend human trafficking and underage prostitution don't exist, right?

@21 I love all the pious bullshit about prostitution. For starters, forcing women back to the streets gets them assaulted and raped and even murdered. Usually by some "good Christian family man". It is consenting adults that should be able to advertise. And it is a free speech issue.

7/Bohemian Boy: Until Craigslist comes up with a way to guarantee that no children will be exploited on their site, I fully support this move and the legal pressure that prompted it.

People (like me) who are in favor of legalized prostitution don't want children being exploited, in the same way that people who think alcohol should be legal don't want children drinking (or adults driving drunk.) Furthermore, I would also like it if Craigslist had a way to guarantee that no children are exploited on their site.

However, even if Craigslist could guarantee this, that still wouldn't stop the sex cops from wanting to shut down their adult services section. Sex cops think it's wrong for mutually consenting adults to have sex for money. They want to keep prostitution illegal because of their sense of "morality", the same reason that marriage cops want to prevent same-sex marriage.

@5, perhaps all the sporting girls (and sporting gents) should move to the "sporting" section.

@11 FTW: "...Will someone please think of the anecdotal children!?"

Think of the children? SCREW THE CHILDREN!

The good news is you can still get mugged and robbed when you go to buy from furniture from a vendor in Shoreline.

That's Craiglist Quality!

@25: I agree, though I think it should be styled, "Will someone please think of the [anecdotal] children?!"

@26: Wut?

Well that sucks. I guess I will just have to get my hookers from ads in The Stranger now.