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Illinois County Sheriff Sues Craigslist for Prostitution
The Sheriff for Cook County, Illinois, has filed a lawsuit against Craigslist alleging that the "Erotic Services" section of its classified advertising website facilitates the solicitation of prostitution and has created the largest source of prostitution in America. Although Craigslist warns users that the solicitation of prostitution is prohibited and removes postings for which it receives specific complaints, nothing is done by Craigslist to proactively remove offending classified ads, some of which had been intentionally posted on the website by the Sheriff's department.
The Sheriff argues that while other websites simply allow ads to be posted, this case is different because the purpose of the Erotic Services section of the website is to facilitate prostitution, which means that Craigslist is not passive but is actively involved in the activity.
Craigslist has already taken measures to curb use of the website for prostitution and other illegal activities in response to similar complaints from the Attorneys General of various other states, although the effectiveness of those measures is being evaluated.
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http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_11845954