Backpage.com to Suspend Certain Areas of Personals and Adult Sections While It Implements Solid Defenses against Misuse:

In a not so widely advertised announcement the Village Voice owned backpage.com said it was going to take ‘steps’ in preventing ‘misuse’ of its site. Go ahead and read the whole press release. I’ll wait. If you’ll notice nowhere in that release were human trafficking and prostitution mentioned. For those of you who have short attention spans like me here are the bullet points from the release about the ‘steps’ that Backpage is taking.

* The review of all ads and images in the personals and adult sections of the site.
* The implementation of key word searches to quickly identify banned advertisements and inappropriate discussions.
* The significant increase in staff to quickly identify illegal ads.
* The implementation of roadblocks to prevent minors from accessing mature content.
* The implementation of dedicated tools on the site to educate users regarding online safety and security.
* The empowerment of users to report abuse and an expeditious process to handle user complaints.

So I went to my local section of backpage.com and this is what I find…

So basically, at least in the Charlotte area, they’ve temporarily shut down the w4m personals, the casual encounters section, missed connections, and the adult jobs section for ‘review’. Meanwhile, the sections that do the most damage, escorts, body rubs, etc., are up and running at full speed. No review necessary I guess.

The ever spot-on AIM Group called the announcement by Backpage mealy-mouthed. Can’t find a better description of it if you ask me.

I thought craigslist was the king of paying lip service to bad press but now I see that Village Voice Media takes the cake. There’s a joke in there somewhere about Village Voice Media and bad press but I’ll let you make that.