By Juliette Tang
They say you have until next Tuesday to hire a hooker on Craigslist, but everyone knows that probably won’t be the case. Craigslist is shutting down its "Erotic $ervices" section after increasing pressure from law enforcement following the arrest of Philip Markoff, the “Craigslist Killer,” but because state officials and law enforcement want a scapegoat instead of a solution, the only people who end up benefiting from this situation are... the people at Craigslist? What?
Craigslist is shutting down erotic services to start the new “adult services” listing, which their blog states: “will be opened for postings by legal adult service providers," whatever that means. Craigslist will review each posting before it goes on the site to ensure compliance with Craigslist guidelines, whatever those are. [Where do I apply!?! -- Ed.] The murky details of Craigslist’s new adult services category are confusing, vague, and actually head-scratchingly bizarre.
The Web site will now be charging people a $10 to post on adult services. As it stands currently, Craigslist charges a $5 fee for phone verification to advertise on erotic services, but the company donates those proceeds to charity. But since erotic services is now adult services, Craigslist notes, “Our announced intention to contribute 100% of net revenues for the 'erotic services' category to charity has been fulfilled... However, in light of today’s changes, and to avoid any future misunderstanding, we are making no representation regarding how revenue from the 'adult services' category will be used." Meaning: Craigslist will continue offering a forum for sex-for-money exchange, except they will charge more for posting privileges, plus keep the cash.
I guess the take-away message here is that an innocent woman was murdered and prostitutes will probably not be safer, therefore Craigslist will make more money.
This situation makes little sense by any standard and ultimately fails at regulating the sex trade or making sex work safer. But while sites like Craigslist have their problems, without them, employees of the World’s Oldest Profession would be put at even higher risk. By closing their laptops and hitting the streets, where far more dangerous crimes occur that are virtually untraceable, sex workers won’t be privy to the kinds of safeguards an online community can afford. Craigslist is a highly public forum with community moderation, phone verification, credit card screening, and email exchange. Markoff was caught for his crimes because there was an electronic trail that lead the police straight to his computer. On the street, the situation is entirely different. The sex worker’s blog Bound, Not Gagged, writes: “hundreds of thousands of erotic service providers will become more vulnerable to dangerous predators. Eliminating erotic listings... will only drive us further underground.”
Whether prostitutes will boycott the new 'adult services' because of the price hike is to-be-seen. But one thing is for sure: this will be the last time you will see titles like "xxx black porn star xxx let's make a movie together - outcall 200 hr" or descriptions like like "I am respectful BUT if u [sic] want 2 [sic] be treated like a dirty bitch thats [sic] fine with me". What you will see are more in line with this ad, minus NSFW naked photo, with euphemisms such as "I'm offering an 80 roses special tonight". Boring. Roses versus dirty bitch? I'd pick dirty bitch any day.
