04-11-2018, 08:36 PM
In the climax of a fight that pitted foes of sex trafficking against advocates of free internet speech, the Justice Department on Friday seized the Backpage.com website and raided the home of its cofounder.
The site, long a haven for sex ads, began shutting down Friday morning, as FBI agents began taking down a network of web pages all over the world . A notice on the site said it had been seized as part of an enforcement action by the FBI, the IRS and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Agents raided the Sedona, Ariz., home of Michael Lacey, the site's cofounder, according to local media reports, but federal authorities would not comment on criminal charges.
Backpage.com has long been under fire from state attorneys general, organizations that fight child sex trafficking and victims of the prostitution business who have tried to sue the company for damages. California prosecutors filed state criminal charges against Backpage last year, but that case and others foundered because of protections in the federal Communications Decency Act, written to protect free speech on the internet.
Source: Los Angeles Times
![[Image: NWF66FLP6BAJPLCB4ONOII5ZHM.jpg]](http://www.latimes.com/resizer/QHjiU2ep-JMO-FKgISN0ytFn4Oo=/1400x0/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-tronc.s3.amazonaws.com/public/NWF66FLP6BAJPLCB4ONOII5ZHM.jpg)
The site, long a haven for sex ads, began shutting down Friday morning, as FBI agents began taking down a network of web pages all over the world . A notice on the site said it had been seized as part of an enforcement action by the FBI, the IRS and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Agents raided the Sedona, Ariz., home of Michael Lacey, the site's cofounder, according to local media reports, but federal authorities would not comment on criminal charges.
Backpage.com has long been under fire from state attorneys general, organizations that fight child sex trafficking and victims of the prostitution business who have tried to sue the company for damages. California prosecutors filed state criminal charges against Backpage last year, but that case and others foundered because of protections in the federal Communications Decency Act, written to protect free speech on the internet.
Source: Los Angeles Times
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.