Backpage.com, the popular classified ads website, appeared to be offline Friday, posting a message that it had been seized and disabled by the federal government.
Visitors to backpage.com and backpage.ca — known for personal adult ads — were met with a message that stated, "backpage.com and affiliated websites have been seized as part of an enforcement action by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division."
The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Backpage.com.
Meanwhile, people who said they had placed ads on Backpage complained that they were not issued refunds or notified of a shutdown.
Backpage has been under increasing scrutiny over its personal ads. In 2015, major credit card companies stopped processing payments for the site amid allegations from authorities that it was facility sex trafficking and prostitution.
Craiglist took down its personal ads section last week in response to the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act, known as SESTA.
LINK: Craigslist Just Took Personal Ads Offline Because Of A New Anti-Sex Trafficking Law
from BuzzFeed - USNews https://ift.tt/2GDT4Hd
No comments:
Post a Comment