Craigslist Shuts Down the Fun

Bowing to pressure from several state attorneys general who most likely threatened massive lawsuits, Craigslist has agreed to revamp its erotic services section to make it a lot less fun. Instead of being a haven for random and semi-anonymous invitations to fulfill any number of your sexual desires, it will now be a policed forum for people who pay $10 per ad to politely inquire about what kind of vanilla (and legal) shenanigans you want to engage in. The officials brought pressure on Craigslist after recent killings in Massachusetts and Rhode Island committed by a man who found his victims on Craigslist. But they also muddied the waters a bit by claiming this as a victory in their fight against prostitution and pornography. For one thing, far more killings have been facilitated by print classifieds than those on Craigslist. Plus, as Craiglist rightly points out, their ads are even safer since there's an electronic paper trail to follow in the case of any foul play. And to these jackasses' other points, pornography isn't illegal, so it doesn't need to be fought. And prostitution is illegal for no rational reason at all. More details here.