Craigslist no longer contains a personal ads section due to the passing of a recent bill.
The new bill that was passed is H.R.1865, or the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017. Here’s what Craigslist has to say about its passing and how it affects personal ads.
“US Congress just passed HR 1865, “FOSTA”, seeking to subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully.
Any tool or service can be misused. We can’t take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, so we are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline. Hopefully we can bring them back some day.
To the millions of spouses, partners, and couples who met through craigslist, we wish you every happiness!”
Craigslist isn’t the only company that has been making changes due to the passing of the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017. Reddit also took steps to protect itself by removing several subreddits from its service. It also posted new rules that don’t allow for the trade of “Paid services involving physical sexual contact,” as well as several other items.
While the changes at Reddit are designed to stop users from paying for sex on its website, it doesn’t stop all sexual content from being sold. Users will still be able to sell pornographic images and videos through Reddit, which seems strange considering the other bans put into place, reports Gizmodo.
For those more interested in the bill affecting sites like Craigslist and Reddit, you can read it for yourself at this link.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
