Greg's Corner

Craigslist founder spends half a million to combat harassment, just not at craigslist

Craigslist founder and namesake, Craig Newmark, has recently donated $500,000 of his own money in order to combat the “trolling, harassment and cyber-bullying” of users of a certain website. Of course that website is craigslist right? Um not exactly.

Newmark recently spent the half million to fight the trolling on the oft-vandlaized Wikipedia.

Wikimedia says the money will be used to launch a program to help editors “more quickly identify potentially harassing behavior.”

While Wikipedia is a highly resourceful and valuable website, it can’t possibly contain the amount of trolling, harassment and cyber-bullying that craigslist does. In the past, ads on craigslist have been flagged and pulled because the business posting the ad said that they spoke Spanish. Go to any of the rants and raves sections and it won’t take you long to find some racist hate-filled diatribe. Convicted mass murderer Dylann Roof even placed a craigslist ad looking for a travel buddy that said “No Jews, queers, or (racial slurs)” prior to his killing spree. That’s not even counting the number of revenge or prank ads on craigslist that end up sending potentially dangerous people to the houses of unsuspecting victims.

When you’re own home is in a state of extreme disrepair, you normally don’t spend money to help fix the nicer house down the street.