SEATTLE, Jul 20, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
Today a federal court will review a Washington state law targeting Backpage.com
that requires classifieds advertising sites to check the age of
individuals listed in ads for sexual services, two prominent internet
freedom leaders are criticizing Village Voice Media for its abuse of
free speech and free internet principles to maintain an unethical
business operation in its classifieds site Backpage.com,
where children and teens have been advertised and sold for sex.
Timothy Karr, senior director of Strategy for Free Press, the nation's
largest digital rights and media reform organization, and Sascha
Meinrath, Director of the New America Foundation's "Open Technology
Institute," which works to strengthen communities and communications
through technology development, applied learning, and policy reform, are
denouncing Village Voice Media's attempt to hide behind the First
Amendment and the federal Communications Decency Act, which states that
online service providers are not responsible for the content of ads
placed by third parties.
"We need a free and open internet and we need to abide by the
Communications Decency Act; but it is morally reprehensible when a
company like Village Voice Media hides behind the false pretense of Free
Speech to profit to the tune of $22 million a year, while it knows
children are being bought and sold via advertisements on its site.
Village Voice Media needs to remove human trafficking from its business
model," said Karr.
"Free speech is a foundation for participatory democracy, but it is no
defense for the abuse of children," stated Meinrath. "When corporations
like Village Voice Media claim that free speech allows them to abrogate
the fundamental human rights of minors, they undermine the very
underpinnings of civil society."
Wendi Adelson, an attorney, author and clinical professor at Florida
State University College of Law, also addressed the free speech issue in
a column
last week on Huffington Post, writing: "Free speech matters critically
to a free society, but free speech has never been thought critical to
encompass facilitating criminal attacks on children."
The criticism against Backpage has come from many different directions
and has been mounting since August 2011 when 51 of the nation's
attorneys general wrote a letter to Backpage.com,
demanding the adult services section of the site close. Since then, 700
multi-faith religious leaders, 53 leading anti-trafficking experts and
organizations, 19 U.S. Senators, state and city lawmakers around the
country, over a dozen prominent musicians, more than a quarter of a
million citizens, and others have called on Village Voice Media to exit
the adult ad business.
Last week, FAIR Girls, a social service organization dedicated to
preventing the exploitation of girls worldwide with empowerment and
education, launched an online
and television ad that portrays the true story of a 13-year old girl
who was repeatedly advertised for sex by her pimp on Backpage.com.
The ad calls on the public to sign a petition
on SignOn.org,
demanding Village Voice Media shut down the adult section of its
website. The ad also calls on the public to contact
26 major advertisers in Village Voice Media's 13 flagship
publications, and ask them to discontinue their advertisements in
Village Voice Media newspapers until the company permanently closes the
adult section of Backpage.com.
As Malika Saada Saar, Executive Director of Human Rights Project for
Girls, has stated, "Backpage is a rogue entity that has unapologetically
made the exploitation of children its business model, and as such has
disregarded the tech industry standard for protecting children that
leaders like Google and Microsoft have set."
Human Rights Project for Girls is a human rights organization dedicated
to protecting vulnerable young women and girls in the U.S.
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