Sex ads website Backpage shut down by U.S. authorities
https:// www.yahoo.com/news/sex-ads-website-backpage-shut-down-u-authorities-003228741.html
"Today, Backpage was shutdown. It's a huge step. Now no child will be sold for sex through this website," tweeted Senator Heidi Heitkamp.
Heitkamp helped draft legislation passed by the Senate last month that makes it easier for state prosecutors and sex-trafficking victims to sue social media networks, advertisers and others that fail to keep sex trafficking and exploitative materials off their platforms..
President Donald Trump will sign the bill into law next week, said Heitkamp. The legislation, featured prominently in the popular Netflix documentary "I am Jane Doe," amends the Communications Decency Act, which has shielded website operators from state criminal charges or civil liability if they facilitate sex ads or prostitution.
"Shutting down the largest online U.S. marketplace for sex trafficking will dramatically reduce the profitability of forcing people into the commercial sex trade, at least in the short term," said Bradley Myles, chief executive of Polaris, an international anti-slavery group that runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
There would be "a dramatic shift in the marketplace starting tonight," he added.