Craigslist gives in; McMaster still wants more content control (updated)

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Update May 15: The State writes that Attorney General McMaster is still not satisfied and is threatening to press action if Craigslist has not completely shut down the sections by 5 p.m.

Here's the article.


First reporting:

Craigslist is changing its service after South Carolina's Attorney General told the classifieds giant they had until May 15 to remove areas of the site related to "pornographic" and "prostitution" information.

Read more stories on this subject in our Craigslist topic page.But Attorney General Henry McMaster says the changes aren't enough and he may still press criminal action.

Here are the changes Craigslist has said it will make, in part:

As of today for all US craigslist sites, postings to the “erotic services” category will no longer be accepted, and in 7 days the category will be removed.

Also effective today for all US sites, a new category entitled “adult services” will be opened for postings by legal adult service providers. Each posting to this new category will be manually reviewed before appearing on the site, to ensure compliance with craigslist posting guidelines and terms of use. New postings will cost $10, but once approved, will be eligible for reposting at $5.

Unsurprisingly, but completely contrary to some of the sensationalistic journalism we’ve seen these past few weeks, the record is clear that use of craigslist classifieds is associated with far lower rates of violent crime than print classifieds, let alone rates of violent crime pertaining to American society as a whole.

To me that seems to be more than enough change, giving plenty of traceable information to those that do illegal activities -- which is just who McMaster should be going after, the lawbreakers who abuse the tool and not the folks who have created a very useful tool.

The State has a little bit on why McMaster is still not happy.