Unemployment Expected To Spike After U.S. Government Shuts Down Sex Workers From Selling Their ‘Services’ On Backpage


Are you familiar with the website “Backpage.com?” Yeah, me either, I totally didn’t know that it was a classified website where young ladies offered to sell their “companionship” to desperate, yet generous gentlemen. That site, which is totally not in my bookmarks, has shut down their adult ad section for U.S. users on Monday.

The Texas-based website markets themselves as a place that offers “free classified ads with photos to find houses and apts for rent, personals, jobs, cats and dogs for sale.

RIIIIIIGHT. I go on there to find a cat. Technically, not completely untruthful.

However, a damning bipartisan Senate Investigations Subcommittee report accused Backpage of selling more than apartments and used Jordans. The report stated that the site hosted criminal activity including child sex trafficking and prostitution. The report said Backpage has “knowingly concealed evidence of criminality by systematically editing its adult ads” for up to a decade. “Backpage knows that it facilitates prostitution and child sex trafficking,” the report said.

Backpage responded on their Twitter to the shutdown.

Backpage released a statement that blamed the U.S. government’s tactics “including pressuring credit card companies to cease doing business with Backpage,” and left it with “no other choice but to remove the content in the United States.”

“This will not end the fight for online freedom of speech. Backpage.com will continue to pursue its efforts in court to vindicate its First Amendment rights and those of other online platforms for third party expression,” the statement read.

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Now all of your favorite categories such as “escorts,” “body rubs,” “dom & fetish,” and “male escorts” have all been taken down and have the word “censored” over them.

For strictly investigative journalism reasons, I attempted to venture onto the adult sections and was greeted with a message that said:

CENSORED
The government has unconstitutionally censored this content.
Use your social media to support #FREESPEECH #BACKPAGE

Many individuals have voiced their concerns over the censorship on Backpage and how it will only hurt, not help sex workers.

Meanwhile, others have offered alternatives for selling their services.

What are poor johns supposed to do now? Use Craigslist like a heathen from 2002? Don’t answer that question, I already know that it’s on to Eros now.

[NBCNews]