The "services" section of the Toronto Craigslist page, now without the "erotic" link
According to a report published over the weekend by the Globe and Mail, the governments of Canada and Ontario are both reporting that online classifieds giant Craigslist appears to have pulled prostitution ads from its Canadian websites, after months of government requests.
The move may illustrate, on a big stage, the Canadian government’s desire to influence website content in the country, its preferred methods and the potential for that desire and those methods to bear fruit.
News of the government pressing the website to remove the “erotic” services content has been coming steadily since the site acceded to similar pressure and removed the section from certain of its US websites.
Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley subsequently sent a letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster, asking him to pull the ads in Canada as well. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the federal government also sent letters, says the Globe.
As of the weekend, the “erotic services” section was absent from the majority of its Canadian homepages, says the Globe report, although some determined digging was able to locate ads on a couple of the sites (Halifax and Toronto).
There is no official indication, at this point, that the section’s disappearance is the direct result of the requests from government entities in Canada.
In a statement sent to the Canadian Press, Canadian Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson expressed his pleasure that the erotic services content seems to be gone, saying the government’s position was that the advertisements could “facilitate serious criminal offences, such as living on the avails of child prostitution and trafficking in persons.”
In the case of the site removing the content from the US sites, and in the subsequent requests from Canadian government organizations, the reasoning seems to have been the potential illegality of the ads, or of the activity they might lead to, though there are few specifics about whether the ads are technically illegal. Prostitution laws in most areas are a complicated, often-contested subject.
In Canada, specifically, the concern seems to have been focused on the potential for the ads to support underage prostitution and human trafficking. The federal government has said there is not enough control in place at Craigslist to prevent that kind of ad from making it through.
Bentley, the Ontario attorney general, told the Canadian Press his office was working to get confirmation from Craigslist that it had removed the section from the Canadian sites.
For web hosts, the impact of the news is around the government’s determination to see certain kinds of content stricken from the web.
In this case, the process involved appeals directly to the website operator itself, and nothing resembling official legal action. However it isn’t an enormous stretch to imagine that – in a situation where they felt the content needed to come down, and the site was unresponsive – the next steps might include contacting web hosts.
About Liam Eagle
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle
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