First, the attorneys general went after prostitution ads on Craigslist. Now, they are going after Backpage.com.
Backpage, like Craigslist, is a Web site with ads for different things and services. It's the adult services that prompted a joint letter from 21 states, including Connecticut.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who is a candidate for U.S. Senate, estimates that Backpage makes $17.5 million from prostitution ads.
A message the Associated Press left with a spokesman for Village Voice Media, which owns Backpage, was not immediately returned Tuesday.
Connecticut's attorney general says he and colleagues in 20 states are calling on another classified ads website to its drop adult services section.
“Adult services sections are little more than online brothels, enabling human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and children,” he said in a news release. “Because backpage cannot properly police adult services, the section should be shut down immediately.”
The letter, sent jointly, also asks the site to develop better safeguards to prevent illegal prostitution and child trafficking ads from migrating to the site's other sections.
Craigslist closed its adult services section earlier this month after the attorneys general and others raised concerns it could not effectively screen out illegal ads.
