Exploitation in the Name of Free Press

By Tanya Smith-Sreen, WIFP Staff

Backpage.com has faced severe backlash in response to the adult services offered on the website. The site is a classified advertising website. It also serves as a platform for prostitution and often times trafficking. It is a go-to resource for pimps and customers.

The Internet-age has revolutionized the way we communicate. The Internet is pervasive and has been integrated into every aspect of life. As such a powerful tool, the Internet also has an insidious underground network.

Backpage.com is an example of this. According to a media and consulting company, called AIM group, Backpage.com makes over $22 million from adult ads annually. It comprises over 70 percent of online prostitution advertisements in the US.

In 2010 Craigslist shut down its adult services and online prostitution advertising plummeted by 50 percent said AIM group. However, Backpage.com continues to pick up floundering business. In doing so it has not only helped these pimps stay afloat but it has also condoned the business.

Backpage.com said it should be protected under the Communications Defense Act as a neutral content provider. The company argued that it cannot be held responsible for the content others post. Yet, Backpage.com has failed in policing the site adequately.

“Backpage.com cannot hide behind protestations of being a neutral content provider and avoid its responsibility for the egregious violations of human rights from which it directly profits”, said The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women

This is not a matter of free press. Backpage.com is participating in and facilitating a much larger network of oppression by knowingly granting pimps access to a market. It is prioritizing company revenue over the lives and safety of girls today.

Prosecutors associated the company with the murders of prostitutes in Detroit, to which Backpage.com responded that the victims were advertised on at least 15 other websites. We are not playing a blame-game. Backpage.com still represents a key player in the system. To point out the failings of other institutions does not wipe the slate clean.

When did the fight to protect human life become less valuable than corporate profit? When did pointing fingers at others become a means of vindication? And when will we stop selling female bodies as a commodity in an industry that only perpetuates this image?

Banning such services on websites like Backpage.com will not target the root of the problem. But it will hamper the efforts of pimps to increase business. It will limit the access consumers have to victims of trafficking. It will incapacitate the main channel of business for prostitution.

Backpage.com is an intermediary. And at the end of the day it is just as responsible for instances of human trafficking as those directly involved. Its refusal to acknowledge liability only sustains a cycle of exploitation.

“You can’t buy a child at Wal-Mart, can you? No, but you can go to Backpage and buy me on Backpage”, said one trafficking survivor.

Backpage.com is hiding behind technicalities in the law. It is committing grave human rights abuses on a daily basis with little retribution. Justifying these violations as a freedom of the press issue represents a fundamental flaw in our system. This justification suggests individual freedom and dignity is subpar to corporate freedom. We need to stop sullying the issue of freedom of the press with gross violations of human dignity. Only then will we be able to demand justice from the companies that exploit these freedoms to rob the freedoms of others.