Greetings from the Backpage
The alternative newspaper chain New Times Media/New Times Media launched Backpage.com, an online classified ads website, as a competitor to Craigslist in 2004.
Backpage is a Craigslist-like online classifieds site that allows users to post ads in a range of categories, including adult services, personal, employment, and rentals. It didn't take long for it to surpass Craigslist as the country's second-most popular online classifieds site.
Craigslist's "adult services" section was forced to close in 2010 as a result of pressure from state attorneys general and other opponents. These people claimed that the website allowed users to partake in illicit activities including prostitution. After the majority of Craigslist's sexual advertising industry was transferred to other websites, Backpage emerged as the clear winner.
Former critics of Craigslist were driven to focus on Backpage, which had resisted attempts to regulate the website until January 2017, when it eventually shut down its adult section in advance of congressional hearings.
The plaintiff is Backpage.com
Plaintiff The online classified advertising operation conducted by Backpage.com is housed on the website known as www.backpage.com. Every month, Backpage.com hosts millions of adverts from around the globe, making it the second-largest online advertising company in the world. The website of Backpage.com is also the second-most-visited website in the entire world. State and city, local area, work and community, trade, purchase-Sales, rent, real estate, musicians, employment, dating, adults, and services are just a few of the categories the classified ads are divided into. Users of Backpage.com create and post the advertising on the website. In contrast to the dating section, where posting an ad simply costs $1, the adult section requires them to spend between $5 and $10. Additionally, users have the option to freely submit advertising. Customers of Backpage.com can use a credit card to pay an ad cost in addition to the other alternative payment options.
Because of the Backpage.com Terms of Use or the nature of the service itself, neither content nor behavior that violates the law is permitted on the Backpage.com service. an earlier. B. In adult sections designated for that purpose, only adults over the age of 18 are allowed to post, and only adult content and explicit material may be posted there. The ID cannot contain any "obscene or obscene and genital or photos that represent obscene imagery, actual or simulated sexual behavior, or nudity." Id., et al ("Posting Rules"). Users are cautioned that any post that in any way takes advantage of a child could result in criminal charges and will be reported to CyberTipline for legal reasons.
By clicking the "Report ad" link included inside the advertisement that they preserve, a user on ID who encounters an advertisement that does not follow these rules has the option of reporting the advertisement to Backpage.com. By doing so, the user is directed to a page where they can report an advertisement and specify if it contains "inappropriate or unlawful content," "uploaded too much spam," or is in the "wrong category." If a user notices an advertising that "seems to contain imagery of threats to a child or child exploitation," they are asked to email it to adsnoty.com.