Goldman Sachs linked to sex trafficking of underaged girls

[Jeff]

By Muriel Kane
Sunday, April 1, 2012 19:01 EDT

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has uncovered some unusual information on one of Goldman Sachs’ investments that has the private equity firm furiously attempting to control the damage.

Kristof revealed on Saturday that a website called Backpage.com, which he describes as “the biggest forum for sex trafficking of under-age girls in the United States,” was until this week partially owned by Goldman Sachs.

“This emporium for girls and women — some under age or forced into prostitution — is in turn owned by an opaque private company called Village Voice Media,” Kristof explained. “Until now it has been unclear who the ultimate owners are. That mystery is solved. The owners turn out to include private equity financiers, including Goldman Sachs with a 16 percent stake.”

According to Kristof, Goldman Sachs began “frantically” unloading its shares after he started making inquiries and called him on Friday to say it had just agreed to sell its stake in the business to management. A Goldman Sachs spokesperson insisted, “We had no influence over operations.”

Kristof emphasizes that Backpage “has 70 percent of the market for prostitution ads” and that although “many escort ads on Backpage are placed by consenting adults,” the site also plays a major role in coercive sex trafficking. He cites the recent case of a fifteen year old girl who was drugged, tied up, raped, and sold to johns through Backpage and other sites.

...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/01/g ... age-girls/

[Nordic]

Probably just a pesky flea on the back of the werewolf.

[Marie Laveau]

I find it more than a little amusing that the mouthpiece of empire is "outing" itself, as it were.

Since when did the NYT give a shit about investigative journalism?

Long may the revealing (for that is what Apocalypse means) flourish. I hope they fucking eat one another.

[JackRiddler]

Kristof?

Careful there, he's a clear exponent of agenda-driven journalism, especially on behalf of humanitarian imperialism. Even if he sometimes tells the truth. His usual MO is to explain why the US needs to bomb yet another country, to save women. I've yet to notice him outraged about anything to do with Goldman until now, though maybe I just missed that.

Never heard of Backpage.com, but I just went there. It is a near-100 percent ripoff of Craig's List, which has been subject to similar accusations. As has the Village Voice, for many years (for taking ads from escort services). I don't know what I think, because these classified ad services may be profiting from their use for criminal purposes by paying customers, but that doesn't mean they're in on it, any more than a phone company is responsible for a criminal conspiracy planned on the phone. (See also: Megaupload and all the other file-swapping sites the feds would like to shut down.) It's also a strange detail to describe Village Voice Media simply as "structurally opaque." I have no idea about its structure, or the Times's for that matter, but the Village Voice is not that far behind the NY Times for being a household name. So it's a weird way to identify it. Why do I have the feeling that Kristof's target here may not be Goldman at all, but that this is an attempt to recruit them in a crusade against Backpage?

PS - There's also the fact that the print media has a special hatred reserved for Craig's List and presumably also Backpage, because the most important single factor by dollar-mass in the death of the newspapers is the existence of free classified services on the Internet. These have eliminated - not stolen, but simply eliminated - about half the ad revenue the papers once had. I think this is the reason that when a murderer places a classified ad that brings him his next victim, the papers dub him a "Craig's List Killer."

I'm prepared to be corrected and schooled on any of this first reaction.

.

[jcivil]

100,000 kids are cycled through D.C. alone every year to satisfy the sick plans of PTB and wannabe sickos. Some are sold on, most are probably eaten or chummed in the river. Some grow into the Jeff Gannon types. Fun. There was press and even Hillary said something as first Lady. Still, Lawrence King sings on, lamb in lard of boy with three year old girl brain steamed and with hollandaise. In skull. Limited hangout lardscape indeed. "Yeah, it is bad. And you are small. Call the police."

The idea that Lincoln freed the slaves is insane.

That point of view went over in school!

There are oppressed and degraded beings of light.

This is both the oppressors and oppressed caught in a cycle of circumstance the meta-conditions of which none control.

The degrade people do the best with what they have, and create narratives explaining their situation.

Yet the language oppresses. Freed the slaves.
Not
Never were slaves.
Just
You are free slaves now, like the white indentured servants, and the wage slaves. Slaves to a notional capital. We have it, you work forever chasing the key.

Though if you are not actively starving or running from artillery you do have much easier than any of our ancestors.I sure would have loved a lighter and a flashlight back in the cave, and a good sleeping bag, awesome! I do miss the caves though, I just visit now.

[The Consul]

Payback. New Times Media made a lot of enemies. As their scumbaggery caught up with them, guys like K think it's safe to fire on them since they're too up to their necks for return volleys. As far as Goldy goes, shows the hilt of their class. Blood sucking leeches with five homes who throw bodies into a funnel that come out diamonds and rubies. Payback. Goldy is scared it's coming to them. It is.

It's coming to us all.

[semper occultus]

...thought that was going to be a massively bad-taste april fool story but apparently not...

[Jeff]

Appreciate the caution flags, Jack.

[Wombaticus Rex]

I figured this was going to be about the escort services their executives made use of. Backpage was, as Jack said, basically craigslist for Manhattan. I've used it to get short term gigs when I was in the city before. Didn't realize there was a whole hooker wing, but then again I wasn't looking for it either.

Kristof has been exceptionally hysterical lately. Must be something in the water...oh wait, it is.

[MinM]

The Case For Backpage.com
Friday, November 04, 2011

Village Voice Media says it needs revenues from Backpage.com because classified advertising makes up nearly one third of its business. Bob speaks with New York Times media and culture columnist David Carr, who says Village Voice Media has a legitimate case for keeping Backpage.com running.

http://www.onthemedia.org/2011/nov/04/case-backpagecom/

http://audio.wnyc.org/otm/otm110411e.mp3

The Case Against Backpage.com
Friday, November 04, 2011

The classified site Backpage.com—which is owned by Village Voice Media—is under fire for ads in its "adult" section that are sometimes used for trafficking minors. Last week, a group of interdenominational clergy took out an ad in The New York Times asking Village Voice Media to shut down the adult section of the site. Bob speaks with one of the letter's signers, Reverend Katharine Henderson, who says even one case of child sex trafficking on Backpage.com is one too many.

http://www.onthemedia.org/2011/nov/04/c ... ckpagecom/

http://audio.wnyc.org/otm/otm110411d.mp3

[Wombaticus Rex]

One of the letter's signers, Reverend Katharine Henderson, who says even one case of child sex trafficking in the Roman Catholic clergy is one too many.

You know, the substitution game might be simple, but hot damn if it ain't illuminating.

[Project Willow]

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Backpagecom-sues-over-Wash-sex-trafficking-law-157090075.html

Backpage.com sues over Wash. sex-trafficking law
By Associated Press Published: Jun 4, 2012 at 5:43 PM PDT Last Updated: Jun 4, 2012 at 6:53 PM PDT

SEATTLE (AP) - The website Backpage.com sued the state of Washington on Monday, saying a new law that would require classified advertising companies to verify the ages of people in sex-related advertisements is invalid, even if it has a laudable goal.

Gov. Chris Gregoire signed the bill into law this year in an effort to cut down on child sex trafficking. It allows for the criminal prosecution of classified advertising company representatives who publish or cause publication of sex-related ads peddling children. Proof of a good-faith attempt to verify the age of the advertised person is considered a defense under the law.

Backpage operates a robust online clearinghouse for escorts, and it's a primary target of the law, which is due to take effect Thursday. The company, which is owned by Village Voice Media, has come under scrutiny from authorities for allegations that it's used to promote child prostitution.

The company sued in U.S. District Court in Seattle to block the law from being enforced pending a judge's decision on whether it should be struck down. The law is written so expansively that it would apply not just to classified advertising companies, but to dating sites, blogs, chat rooms and social networking sites, the company argues.

"This means that every service provider - no matter where headquartered or operated - must review each and every piece of third-party content posted on or through its service to determine whether it is an 'implicit' ad for a commercial sex act in Washington, and whether it includes a depiction of a person, and, if so, must obtain and maintain a record of the person's ID," the complaint says. "These obligations would bring the practice of hosting third-party content to a grinding halt."

Backpage argues that the law is trumped by the federal Communications Decency Act, which says online service providers are not responsible for the content of ads placed by third parties. Backpage also says Washington's law is unconstitutionally vague, infringes on First Amendment rights and attempts to regulate activity outside of Washington state.

The company has been under heavy pressure to change the way it operates. Last month, the mayors of nearly 50 cities across the U.S. - including New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Philadelphia and Austin, Texas - signed a letter urging Village Voice Media to require identification for people posting escort ads on Backpage.com.

"There is an urgent need to act quickly, as cities continue to find advertisements on your site that reflect underage sex trafficking," the letter said. "We are making every effort to stop the ongoing trafficking of underage individuals, but these efforts are made more difficult by the inadequate safeguards of your website, Backpage.com, to prevent underage sex trafficking."

Other states are following Washington's lead: A similar law soon to take effect in Tennessee, and lawmakers in New York and New Jersey are considering similar bills, according to the federal complaint filed by Backpage.com.

Company lawyer Liz McDougall said that Backpage is "an online industry leader in working cooperatively with law enforcement to identify, arrest and prosecute human traffickers," and that Washington's law would force criminal conduct back underground, where it's harder to track.

"The trafficking of children for sex is an abomination," she said in a written statement. "I believe aggressive improvements in technology and close collaboration between the online service community, law enforcement and (nongovernmental organizations) is the best approach to fighting human trafficking."

Village Voice Media owns 13 alternative weekly newspapers around the country, including Seattle Weekly, which already requires ID from those depicted in sex-related ads in its pages.

[seemslikeadream]

Backpage.com has been seized.

As the notice says we will know more in 2-3 hours when DoJ releases a statement but given the history of backpage it seems likely that this latest enforcement might be coming under SESTA.



Sarah Jamie Lewis

https://twitter.com/SarahJamieLewis

[seemslikeadream]

Grant Stern
‏
Everything you need to know about Backpage in this link.

Current law should protect Backpage from this kind of seizure, Congress changed the law, but Trump has not yet signed it.

Still, First Amendment anyone?

The Battle Over Backpage.com Rages, Threatening Free Speech and the Internet as We Know It
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/the-b ... it-9073358