R.I.P. Backpage???

[pubic_assistance]

Thanks for this link!

 

Peace,

 

Kipp

Thanks ! Haven't seen this site before.

[Rapaz]

I imagine it's quite difficult to discern between sex trafficking of a minor and a 20-year-old, open-minded, straight college student, buried in debt, and in need of some quick cash. How does a hosting service tell the difference? How is the hosting service supposed to protect itself?

 

It seems to me, "sex trafficking of a minor" is a great smoke and mirror way of eliminating anything that smells of escorting.

I don't think so. Backpage.com is actually in the very center of sex trafficking and looking through the female section made me pretty uncomfertable, especially bacause I know someone who had been kidnapped and trafficked on backpage back in 2013.

 

Sad because the male section had some real gems from time to time, but that female escorts section was pretty much a disaster.

 

There were very few independently operating females on the site. You have to wonder why.

[AdamSmith]

There were very few independently operating females on the site. You have to wonder why.

I don't think that's accurate as a blanket statement. It varied widely from one city to another. Here in RDU, NC, there were very many independently operating female escorts who advertised on backpage. I got to know some well enough to have confidence in that statement. These were empowered young women making a living, and liking what they were doing. They were not victims in any sense. (No Andrea Dworkin diatribes, please.)

 

I feel sorrier for them even than for the men who are all suddenly without income due to the shutdown.

[+ Charlie]

Simultaneously with all this chatter, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from three women who sued Backpage, saying that they had been prostituted through ads there when they were underage, but lower courts said that Backpage was not legally responsible. That doesn't necessarily mean that SCOTUS agrees with Backpage's argument that the medium is not responsible for the message--more than likely, it refused to hear the case because there was a 4-4 tie, so a Trump appointee may very well swing the court against that argument (or maybe not, if he/she is a true conservative and not simply a blue-nose conservative).

[BaronArtz]

 

I feel sorrier for them even than for the men who are all suddenly without income due to the shutdown.

 

Exactly my feelings. They will need to scramble to make a living. Hopefully they have a base of regulars that can keep them in business. Although I am not into it at all, it is devastating for trans escorts - BP was THE site for them. I was always amazed to see how many trans escorts used that site exclusively. And for many transgender people, being an escort is the only viable career that pays for hormone treatments, multiple surgeries etc ...

[TruthBTold]

Of course, it may be that once BP's adult site is down the government will begin to pick other targets. Certainly one hopes that the government monitors sites so that they will not engage in behavior that encourages kidnapping and trafficking. However, no outlets (I believe) only means that people will do other, riskier things in order to make money to live decently.

[+ José Soplanucas]

Thank you @BaronArtz and @AdamSmith for showing some empathy.

[body2body]

In LA many of the male escort listings seem to have moved to the male for male dating section. Pics, text, and all- just no mention of rates. I wonder if that will last.

[BSR]

Here's hoping that http://skipthegames.com/ can pick up where Backpage left off. They're hosted in the Netherlands and don't need to put up with the US anti-prostitution bullshit.

I just checked it out. One promising feature of the site is that they make it very easy for users to check if a photo is an original or stolen from somewhere else on the Internet. Sure, you can do a check through Google image search, but not everybody knows how to do that. Skipthegames.com posts a link at the bottom of every photo that basically does all the image-checking work for you.

 

Skipthegames seems pretty savvy with their image search feature. Hopefully they turn out to be even savvier regarding underage advertisers. It only takes one underage ad to bring a whole system crashing down.

[AdamSmith]

In LA many of the male escort listings seem to have moved to the male for male dating section. Pics, text, and all- just no mention of rates. I wonder if that will last.

AHA! Same is happening here in RDU.

 

Thank you!

[corndog]

Here's hoping that http://skipthegames.com/ can pick up where Backpage left off. They're hosted in the Netherlands and don't need to put up with the US anti-prostitution bullshit.

 

It seems like this site just scraped the content from Backpage. I wonder if they'll be able to keep it going now that their main source is no longer available.

[LivingnLA]

I enjoyed BP's M4M ads as much as anyone, but human trafficking is no joke. The USA likes to ignore the suffering and struggle of those who aren't rich, so we don't hear much about this terrible issue. Like it or not, BP absolutely played a role in recruiting youths to be taken into trafficking and to "sell them" for various services. It wouldn't have been very difficult for BP to create roadblocks for pimps and traffickers but they decided to go after the money those people were spending on ads instead of creating basic protections. As a parent and human being, I have no sympathy for BP's owners or the loss of BP'a adult section. There's simply no way they don't have a pretty good idea of at least the major traffickers just based on ad buys, frequency, etc. They should've done something.

 

http://www.caseact.org/learn/humantrafficking/

[handiacefailure]

It will be interesting to see if they ever take down rentmen...that would really shake up the industry.

 

I don't know how they could shut rentmen down. It's based in the Netherland, not the US and the US government has no control over it AFAIK.

 

Only way I could see it being gone is if the government censors sites that are overseas and doesn't allow ISP's to carry the sites. Seems like it would be too much work and if the government starts prohibiting overseas websites like Rentmen we truly have hit rock bottom in this country

[+ glutes]

and if the government starts prohibiting overseas websites like Rentmen we truly have hit rock bottom in this country

 

Not gonna happen, because America is going to Be Great Again...

[+ quoththeraven]

Simultaneously with all this chatter, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from three women who sued Backpage, saying that they had been prostituted through ads there when they were underage, but lower courts said that Backpage was not legally responsible. That doesn't necessarily mean that SCOTUS agrees with Backpage's argument that the medium is not responsible for the message--more than likely, it refused to hear the case because there was a 4-4 tie, so a Trump appointee may very well swing the court against that argument (or maybe not, if he/she is a true conservative and not simply a blue-nose conservative).

 

A minimum of four yes votes are required to grant certiorari. There are a myriad of other reasons besides ideology why the Court might not grant certiorari.

[rvwnsd]

No politician or attorney will argue with an organization like The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. That said, I do not believe that shutting down the escort ads on Backpage will stop the exploitation of children, sex trafficking, or child prostitution.

 

To argue that the prosecution of Backpage's CEO is harassment is foolish. The New York Times article posted by @azdr0710 states that Backpage's CEO was subpoenaed by a Senate subcommittee to testify about child sex-trafficking ads last year and did not show up. That probably did not bode well for him. This is not quite as stupid as someone who claimed not to be a pimp calling himself "cyberpimp," but it is close. Although we do not prosecute people for stupidity, Carl Ferrer did contribute to his being charged. He could have testified and potentially helped his own cause.

[LivingnLA]

Yes, @rvwnsd! If Ferrer had just been responsive to a degree, this would've been a different outcome.

 

http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2016/09/constitution-check-do-online-publishers-have-a-right-to-gather-news/

 

http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2016/09/backpage-supreme-court-senate-subpoena-228116

[+ sniper]

I enjoyed BP's M4M ads as much as anyone, but human trafficking is no joke. The USA likes to ignore the suffering and struggle of those who aren't rich, so we don't hear much about this terrible issue. Like it or not, BP absolutely played a role in recruiting youths to be taken into trafficking and to "sell them" for various services. It wouldn't have been very difficult for BP to create roadblocks for pimps and traffickers but they decided to go after the money those people were spending on ads instead of creating basic protections. As a parent and human being, I have no sympathy for BP's owners or the loss of BP'a adult section. There's simply no way they don't have a pretty good idea of at least the major traffickers just based on ad buys, frequency, etc. They should've done something.

 

http://www.caseact.org/learn/humantrafficking/

I question how they know precisely how many trafficking victims there are if they have only identified 0.4%. Some of the numbers claimed only make sense if more than half the US are customers, which simply can't be the case.

[+ saminseattle]

To argue that the prosecution of Backpage's CEO is harassment is foolish. The New York Times article posted by @azdr0710 states that Backpage's CEO was subpoenaed by a Senate subcommittee to testify about child sex-trafficking ads last year and did not show up. That probably did not bode well for him. This is not quite as stupid as someone who claimed not to be a pimp calling himself "cyberpimp," but it is close. Although we do not prosecute people for stupidity, Carl Ferrer did contribute to his being charged. He could have testified and potentially helped his own cause.

 

I’m sorry, but I refuse to get on the blame the victim bandwagon that seems so popular here. I know a witch hunt when I see one. Backpage would not have gotten a fair hearing from agreeing to testify any more than an accused communist hauled before McCarthy’s “un-American” affairs committee. These Senators have an agenda, and it’s not about protecting kids, it’s about their own self-aggrandizement. As for the organizations, I don’t know if they truly believe the bogus statistics that they peddle, or if they are just so cynical that they will say anything to get donations. Aside from @siper’s observation, I also point out that at the bottom of the page cited, in large boldface type, they repeat the debunked myth that “The average age of a child first forced into the sex slave trade is 13.” That would be outrageous and heartbreaking of course if it were true, but it’s actually a complete fabrication. https://sexworkclients.org/myths-vs-facts/

 

Don’t fall for their propaganda. As I pointed out in the other thread, this is not really about minors or sex trafficking. These people describe all sex work as sex trafficking regardless of whether it involves consenting adults. In their ideology, sex work is never truly voluntary; it is always exploitative and immoral. Their real goal is to drive all escort ads off the Internet. Just look at the RB prosecution. They found not a single case of a minor advertising on the webpage, but they are still going to send the CEO to prison. With all due respect, I think people need to wake up to what’s really going on and start fighting back, or it will soon be too late. http://www.companyofmen.org/threads/holy-shit-what-hapened-to-backpage.120841/page-2

[Zman]

Well the new president is all for building walls so he might want to build a firewall wall too. He could censor websites like the Chinese do.

[+ bigjoey]

Well the new president is all for building walls so he might want to build a firewall wall too. He could censor websites like the Chinese do.

 

Right now, Obama is still president and this is happening under his administration Yes, with people like Pense in his administration, things could get worse.

 

I am old enough to remember the time of "Stonewall" in the 1960's when it was illegal in a city like NYC to openly serve a drink at a bar to a gay person. As hard as it may be to some of the younger ones here to imagine, gay bars in NYC were quiet, speakeasy type of places. They mostly existed due to the Mafia paying off the police; the Mafia did not do this out of goodness but to protect its customers as the gay bars bought their liquor through the Mafia at inflated prices as the cost of their protection.

[Rapaz]

I don't think that's accurate as a blanket statement. It varied widely from one city to another. Here in RDU, NC, there were very many independently operating female escorts who advertised on backpage. I got to know some well enough to have confidence in that statement. These were empowered young women making a living, and liking what they were doing. They were not victims in any sense. (No Andrea Dworkin diatribes, please.)

 

I feel sorrier for them even than for the men who are all suddenly without income due to the shutdown.

I don't disagree with you, I should've specified that I'm talking most cities on the east coast. I can't speak for any other regions.

 

And I do have empathy for the escorts who were genuinely there as independent operators in escorting, but I really did notice that, at least on the east coast, there was something very seedy (and not in a good way, lol) about female escorts on backpage.

[+ Charlie]

Right now, Obama is still president and this is happening under his administration Yes, with people like Pense in his administration, things could get worse.

 

I am old enough to remember the time of "Stonewall" in the 1960's when it was illegal in a city like NYC to openly serve a drink at a bar to a gay person. As hard as it may be to some of the younger ones here to imagine, gay bars in NYC were quiet, speakeasy type of places. They mostly existed due to the Mafia paying off the police; the Mafia did not do this out of goodness but to protect its customers as the gay bars bought their liquor through the Mafia at inflated prices as the cost of their protection.

One could also legally post a sign saying that the business would not serve gay persons. There was a popular 24 hour diner in Philadelphia where gay men used to congregate after the bars closed at 2am. Some straight customers complained, and the owner put up a sign that they would not serve "faggots." The first gay civil rights protest I participated in was at the diner (in 1964). A few years ago, I happened to see a photo of me (unidentified) speaking to a customer who was about to enter, explaining to her what the protest was about. After a few days, the owner took down the sign and abandoned the policy, only because he found he was losing too much business due to the publicity and the lack of gay customers, not because of legal action.

 

I remember a city I went to in the 1960s (Washington?) where one had to order a drink at the bar and then stay in the same place. If one wanted to move around to speak to others (i.e., cruise), you could not carry your drink with you: the bartender had to carry your drink to the new spot. In Toronto, you had to sit facing the bar and could not turn around from the bar to look around at the other customers.

[Jock123]

I honestly do Believe that Escorting...as we Know it...Will be a thing of the past.

 

I've posted(Along with others) how much I have noticed the Decline over the Years of People who are either serious about Hiring/Following through etc. Basically going through alot of BS Emails before Finding someone who Isnt a Time Waster(I attributed alot of the Lack of Respect of ones time Mostly due to the App's that have now taken over Dating/How one meets a guy)

 

When Rentboy was shut down. I spent over Half a Year just being booked by my Regulars and Craigslist. I was Hesitant to sign up for Rentmen granted they wanted Your I.D ....still bothers me. Seriously Thank GOD for my Regulars. if It wasnt for them I would have been Homeless.

 

 

I can only Imagine how many Escorts will be Scrambling to make ends meet if Rentmen were ever to be shut down. Its Scary...

[Jock123]

Now that I think about it.... The Fact that Rentmen REQUIRES one's ID may help Its site not being labled as Trafficking Children...

 

Im not sure If You needed an ID to sign up for Backpage however.

 

 

ALSO I cant really see how the "Review" Websites like Daddy's and the ones on Men4Rentnow that are Written can last....

 

Most of this Reviews describe sexual relationships. I fully believe we will see an End to the review sites as well.