After two years of intense scrutiny from the U.S. Senate and elsewhere, online ad-posting site Backpage.com announced that it is shuttering its adult services section, which was repeatedly accused by critics of facilitating child prostitution and human trafficking. USA TODAY
The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday altering a law that has long helped shield the website Backpage against allegations its classified escort ads enabled sex trafficking.
The sponsors of the bill, which passed the House in February, made no secret that its target was Backpage, the classified advertising website started in Phoenix by the former executives of the weekly tabloid newspaper New Times.
The bill, which cleared the Senate with only two votes against it, makes it illegal for someone to use a website “with the intent to promote or facilitate the prostitution of another person…”
The measure was meant to close a loophole in a 1996 law that protected websites from user-posted content, such as negative reviews, and allowed websites to edit such content without facing liability claims.
Backpage had cited that law, called the Communications Decency Act, to argue that it wasn't responsible for the content of its ads. Backpage has since taken down its "escorts" section.
Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona voted for it.
Sen. John McCain, whose wife, Cindy, has been active in support of measures to fight sex trafficking, was absent from the chamber as he has been since December while battling a rare form of brain cancer.
Cindy McCain, in a phone interview on Wednesday, said she and her husband watched the proceedings live on C-Span and both were glad to see it pass.
"I couldn't be happier," Cindy McCain said. "It makes me cry."
McCain said the bill was narrowly tailored enough to focus on websites that knowingly or intentionally promote sex trafficking.
"Websites like Craigslist and Backpage should not be able to sell children online and hide behind this law," she said.
She said she expected the law would discourage any future websites from mimicking the past practices of those websites.
"This is an awakening," she said. "It's a new beginning for all of this. The communities of America will not take this anymore."
The measure passed the House in February on a vote of 388 to 25. It now heads to the White House and awaits the signature of President Donald Trump, who has endorsed it.
Read it all: Backpage defense against sex trafficking charges wiped out by new law
The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday altering a law that has long helped shield the website Backpage against allegations its classified escort ads enabled sex trafficking.
The sponsors of the bill, which passed the House in February, made no secret that its target was Backpage, the classified advertising website started in Phoenix by the former executives of the weekly tabloid newspaper New Times.
The bill, which cleared the Senate with only two votes against it, makes it illegal for someone to use a website “with the intent to promote or facilitate the prostitution of another person…”
The measure was meant to close a loophole in a 1996 law that protected websites from user-posted content, such as negative reviews, and allowed websites to edit such content without facing liability claims.
Backpage had cited that law, called the Communications Decency Act, to argue that it wasn't responsible for the content of its ads. Backpage has since taken down its "escorts" section.
Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona voted for it.
Sen. John McCain, whose wife, Cindy, has been active in support of measures to fight sex trafficking, was absent from the chamber as he has been since December while battling a rare form of brain cancer.
Cindy McCain, in a phone interview on Wednesday, said she and her husband watched the proceedings live on C-Span and both were glad to see it pass.
"I couldn't be happier," Cindy McCain said. "It makes me cry."
McCain said the bill was narrowly tailored enough to focus on websites that knowingly or intentionally promote sex trafficking.
"Websites like Craigslist and Backpage should not be able to sell children online and hide behind this law," she said.
She said she expected the law would discourage any future websites from mimicking the past practices of those websites.
"This is an awakening," she said. "It's a new beginning for all of this. The communities of America will not take this anymore."
The measure passed the House in February on a vote of 388 to 25. It now heads to the White House and awaits the signature of President Donald Trump, who has endorsed it.
Read it all: Backpage defense against sex trafficking charges wiped out by new law
