CARNAL NATION

Craigslist has gotten a lot of attention lately, and most of it hasn't been good. The online classified ads site has been under siege by law enforcement for a long time because they became so well-known as the go-to site for sex work advertisements. You would think that with their recent decision to eliminate the erotic services ads and replace them with closely-monitored "adult services" ads, they had bent over backwards as far as they could go to satisfy the whims of the various law enforcement officials across the country who have accused them of responsibility for almost every ill under the sun. Of course, that's not true. While most of the state attorneys general who had been criticizing Craigslist were quite happy with the removal of the erotic services ads, South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster has continued to relentlessly attack Craigslist, threatening prosecution despite their concessions.Well, this week, Craigslist finally got fed up and decided to turn and fight. On Wednesday they filed suit against McMaster, claiming that his threats of prosecution violate their constitutional rights. Craigslist is asking the court for declaratory relief and a restraining order against criminal charges. 

In the papers filed with the lawsuit, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster wrote that "As a practical matter, the only way for Craigslist to assure compliance with Mr. McMaster's demands would be to shut down completely all portions of its Web site dedicated to the state of South Carolina." For his part, McMaster seems to view the Craigslist lawsuit as a victory for his team. According to a statement on the attorney general's website:

The defensive legal action craigslist has taken against the solicitors and my office is good news. It shows that craigslist is taking the matter seriously for the first time.

More importantly, overnight they have removed the erotic services section from their website, as we asked them to do. And they are now taking responsibility for the content of their future advertisements. If they keep their word, this is a victory for law enforcement and for the people of South Carolina.

Unfortunately, we had to inform them of possible state criminal violations concerning their past practices to produce a serious response. We trust they will now adhere to the higher standards they have promised. This office and the law enforcement agencies of South Carolina will continue to monitor the site to make certain that our laws are respected.

Somehow, it seems that McMaster is taking sole credit for Craigslist's removal of the erotic services section, which he only recently decried as an inadequate measure. Techdirt is extremely blunt about the fraudulent nature of McMaster's statement:

That's just blatant outright lying now. Craigslist made those changes last week, and at the time McMaster's response was: "That response doesn't work" and claimed it was proceeding with plans to punish Craigslist management with jail time. Since then, Craigslist has made no other change, other than to sue McMaster. To suddenly claim that it's made a new change and is taking the matter seriously, when the only change is suing McMaster, is quite the delusional response. I have no idea how likely it is that McMaster will win his current race for the Governor's spot in South Carolina—but so far the man has been an embarrassment to the state. 

We wish that Craigslist had been more willing to fight back before, but it's good to see that there is still some fight in them, even if it might be too little, too late.