InternetSafety.com

Attorneys General in South Carolina and other states are getting aggressive with Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster, giving the company a ten-day ultimatum to take down ads for pornography and prostitution.

Jim McMaster, the AG in South Carolina, issued the ultimatum after an agreement reached between Craigslist and 40 attorneys general in November failed to produce steps to combat the controversial practices to the AGs’ satisfaction. McMaster, in a letter to the embattled Craigslist CEO, stated that Buckmaster has “knowingly allowed the site to be used for illegal and unlawful activity” despite the agreement.

Other states are also turning up the heat. Conneticut’s attorney general Richard Blumenthal also told Craigslist to “quickly shut down the online brothel” or face legal action.

The intense legal fire comes on the heels of the arrest of Phillip Markoff, the now infamous Craigslist killer, for the murder of Julissa Brisman. The case has raised the visibility of the common use of Craigslist as an advertising service for prostitution, and states are searching for a legal counter to the practice which skirts many state laws. David Ardia of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society thinks that it is unlikely that criminal or civil liability exists on Craigslist’s part.

The question is, if Craigslist does have to shut down its “Casual Encounters” section, which is the frontdoor of the “online brothel” and accounts for 2 percent of all Craigslist postings, how much would that hurt the site? And how much will the Craigslist murder keep people from meeting others, even to do something as innocuous as buy used furniture?

The next ten days will be interesting to watch, from a legal and Internet Safety standpoint, but it seems clear that unless legal action is taken, Craigslist will remain, at least partially, the world’s largest online brothel.

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