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  Geebo 10:01 am on January 29, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Backpage ( 69 ), Cyber Patrol, Human trafficking, San Diego ( 5 )   

  Citizens group takes on human trafficking at the source 

  

  San Diego, California, has unfortunately long been known as a hot spot for human trafficking for several reasons. Due to its proximity to both Los Angeles and Mexico, and the fact that it has a large military population contributes to the amount of trafficking that takes place there. That’s not to disparage either location or our military, but unfortunately that’s the reality of the situation. However, a group of volunteers has taken the fight against human trafficking to its roots, the men who would buy trafficked women and girls from Backpage.

  The Bunch of Guys Cyber Patrol, or Cyber Patrol for short, have taken it upon themselves to warn those who would respond to Backpage ads are contributing to the human trafficking problem. The Cyber Patrol takes out ads that appear to be one of Backpage’s usual trafficking ads. All they’ll have on the ad is a picture of a woman and a phone number. Once the ad is posted it doesn’t take them long to start receiving phone calls from men looking for a woman, the Cyber Patrol responds with a script that details not only the plight of women and girls who are trafficked but also what could happen to the men who patronize these ads.

  The message goes on to say that many of the women advertising their services are underage, or were coerced into the business as minors, and that their pimps often keep all of the money for themselves.

  They are warned that a conviction for solicitation of a minor could turn them into registered sex offenders.

  While the Cyber Patrol are not law enforcement, they will on occasion turn some more concerning cases over to the Human Trafficking Task Force.

  While they may be just chipping away at a much larger problem, taking on the johns of the world is a tactic we need to see more of. It comes down to simple economics really. If you take away the demand, then there’s no need for the supply. By making the johns aware of the problem they’re contributing to, maybe fewer of them will turn to Backpage or other avenues of human trafficking.

   

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  Geebo 10:31 am on January 24, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Backpage ( 69 ), Houston ( 9 ), Human trafficking, lawsuit ( 47 ), texas ( 22 )   

  Backpage facing yet another trafficking lawsuit 

  

  In the past year or so, a number of lawsuits have been filed against Backpage, the site that tries to disguise itself as a classifieds site but makes most of its money off of sex trafficking ads. Some of these lawsuits have come from families whose daughters were killed in the sex trafficking trade. Others have come from women who were trafficked while underage on Backpage. The one thing that all these lawsuits have in common is that Backpage took money for these ads while knowing exactly what they were for.

  Most recently, Backpage is being sued by an 18-year-old woman from Houston, Texas. She says that she was 15 when she was advertised on Backpage. Her lawsuit alleges that Backpage knowingly edited ads to hide evidence of child sex trafficking. This is the basis of most of the recent lawsuits against Backpage as a Congressional investigative committee found evidence that Backpage was allegedly actively editing their ads in this manner. Due to the findings of that investigation, Backpage has settled at least one lawsuit filed against them by trafficking victims.

  Since Congress has been dragging their feet on providing any kind of real legislative protection for Backpage’s trafficking victims, maybe hitting them in their pockets for millions of dollars in settlements will finally make Backpage realize that it’s not worth it being in the business of selling people.

   
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  Geebo 10:19 am on January 15, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Citizens Against Sex Trafficking, Human trafficking, Minnesota ( 8 ), twin cities   

  Twin Cities suburbs fight against human trafficking 

  

  Last week, we discussed how January is Human Trafficking Awareness month and how the problem is not just confined to big cities and urban areas. At that time we talked about how the issue was affecting Idaho Falls, Idaho. Not exactly a monolithic metropolis. Now another location in Middle America is taking the fight to the plague of human trafficking and it’s in suburban, Minnesota.

  A group called Citizens Against Sex Trafficking, or CAST for short, is working in cooperation with the police of Washington County, Minnesota, which contains communities considered the suburbs of the St. Paul-Minneapolis area. Once again, a citizens group is showing that human trafficking is happening everywhere in our country, including small towns and suburbs.

  CAST is already showing results with the rescuing of a 13-year-old girl. And where is CAST finding these victims? Backpage of course. An investigator with Washington County police said that she has reviewed close to a 100,000 ads for trafficking in their county alone last year. This is after Backpage supposedly closed down their adult section, although in reality the trafficking ads just moved to the personals section where paying to have the ads promoted still exists. In essence Backpage, is still making money from ads where woman and children are being trafficked against their will, and as we’ve pointed out, this is happening everywhere probably including where you live.

  Until we as a nation start to recognize human trafficking as an ‘everywhere’ problem, Backpage and the traffickers that keep them in business will continue to make what is essentially blood money.

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  Geebo 10:02 am on January 8, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Human trafficking, Human Trafficking Awareness Month, Safety ( 45 )   

  January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month 

  

  For those of you who may bot have heard, the President has declared January National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. In that vein, Local News 8 in Idaho Falls, Idaho, published a story about Human Trafficking Awareness Month with a local outreach program known as Operation Shield.

  The article goes on to detail about how you can protect your children from human traffickers, and we’ll get to that in a moment, but we should also look at one of the misconceptions about human trafficking that many people have. Human trafficking is not just a big city, or inner city issue. It affects every ethnicity and financial designation. Victims can be from the biggest cities in the nation to the smallest towns in Middle America. Due to the influence of social media and sites like Backpage and craigslist human trafficking has become an issue that we all need to be aware of, and yes, it’s even happening near where you live.

  Now, getting back to the tips on keeping your children safe, the article linked to has some great tips such as keeping track of your children’s online activity and making sure they don’t have any social media friends they’ve never met in real life. One tip that wasn’t mentioned that is known trick of human traffickers is the modeling or talent scam. Many times traffickers will pose as modeling or talent agents telling teenagers they can make a lot of money modeling or singing. Too many victims have been lured into trafficking with the promises of money and fame only to be turned out on to the streets and Backpage by violent pimps and traffickers. Please educate your children to be aware of anyone who may approach them with promises of money as one of those things that are way too good to be true.

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  Geebo 10:29 am on December 28, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Ashley Benson, Backpage ( 69 ), Human trafficking, lawsuit ( 47 ), Oregon ( 4 )   

  Backpage being sued in the death of trafficked woman 

  

  Recently, it was announced that controversial classifieds site Backpage was being sued again over its alleged role in the sex trafficking trade. Backpage is being sued by the estate of Ashley Benson who was said to have been trafficked on Backpage by an abusive pimp. In 2014, she was strangled to death in a Portland, Oregon, hotel by a john who had been stalking her through Backpage. The lawsuit accuses Backpage of failing to prevent sex trafficking and prostitution on its site and changes user-generated ads in an attempt to downplay the trafficking aspect.

  Historically, Backpage has been successful in court against such lawsuits y hiding behind the antiquated Communications Decency Act of 1996. However, that protection is starting to diminish for Backpage after a Congressional investigative committee found evidence that Backpage was editing the user submitted ads to their legal advantage. After that discovery was made public Backpage settled a major lawsuit in the State of Washington where they were being sued by woman who said they were trafficked on Backpage while being underage.

  With Congress pressing to have the Communications Decency act to be amended to remove protections for websites that traffic women and children, if that legislation is made into law, we could see the floodgates open with lawsuit after lawsuit against Backpage. In the end, that may be the better way to finally put a stop to their hand in sex trafficking as it could potentially take away what Backpage cares about most, the money they make off of the victims of human trafficking.

   
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  Geebo 10:01 am on December 26, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Amazon ( 108 ), Human trafficking, Microsoft ( 20 ), Newsweek, Seattle ( 8 )   

  Do tech companies foster a culture of human trafficking? 

  

  Before being lambasted by Congress for their alleged roles in the Russian ad scandal, many tech giants like Google opposed an amendment to the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that would allow the prosecution of websites that hosted obvious ads for sex trafficking. After their PR disaster in Congress, many tech firms reversed their position and supported the amendment, but why did they oppose it in the first place?

  A number of arguments against the amendment from tech companies was because they felt they might get caught up unfairly in prosecution. Could another reason be that some of these companies foster a culture where sex trafficking is not only tolerated but encouraged? Now, it’s not being said that the heads of these companies have some kind of unspoken rule where they will look the other way if their employees are caught engaging in sec trafficking, however there does seem to be a belief among the male employees of many of these companies that sex trafficking is not only acceptable but they also allegedly get together to compare notes about it.

  Newsweek recently broke a story where they allege that in the Seattle area many employees of both Amazon and Microsoft were caught allegedly engaging in behavior at local illegal brothels where Asian women were being trafficked. Some of these employees were said to have spent anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 a year in these brothels. The employees were even said to have communicated with these brothels while using their company emails.

  While both Amazon and Microsoft condemn these activities, if there is this cavalier attitude towards the trafficking of women in these companies who’s to say there aren’t similar attitudes in other tech companies in other regions of the country? With the slew of accusations of sexual harassment in Silicon Valley recently, could there also be an environment where brothels are frequented where women who can barely speak English are being kept against their wills. If the Seattle allegations are any indication then the answer seems to be yes.

   
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  Geebo 10:00 am on November 27, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: chatbot, Human trafficking, Seattle ( 8 )   

  Using chatbots to fight human trafficking 

  

  Chatbots are computer programs that are designed to converse like humans through messaging apps. They are mostly used by companies as a customer service alternative. However, a Seattle-based advocacy group is using this technology to try to discourage people from soliciting from underage victims of human trafficking.

  Seattle Against Slavery places ads on certain classifieds sites that appear to be for prostitution. When someone responds to the ad, the chatbot engages with them in conversation. The chatbot then tells the responder that it’s a 15-year-old girl. If the response the chatbot receives about being underage is positive, it responds with “buying sex is a crime that harms women the world over.” According to SAS, the chat bot is designed to make someone think twice before engaging in such harmful behavior. While it’s currently not being used for prosecution purposes, SAS says that is a possibility in the future.

  SAS also says that when they post one of their fake ads they get over 250 responses within the first hour. They’ve also said that the chatbot was able to relay the message in at least 1500 instances in the testing phase alone. This, among many other number of data points, shows just how widespread the problem of human trafficking has become. The greatest hurdle with trying to curtail trafficking is the fact that it’s assisted by a few large classifieds sites that do nothing to dissuade this modern-day slavery from persisting.

   
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  Geebo 10:07 am on November 6, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Backpage ( 69 ), Human trafficking, The Internet Association   

  Tech firms reverse position on anti-trafficking bill 

  

  It seems that something good has come out of the lambasting the US Senate gave tech companies last week over the Russian ads debacle. While that particular problem has no resolution, the senate inquiry has seemed to spark a change of heart for tech firms in at least one area, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act.

  This is the bill that would amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that has allowed sites like Backpage to avoid prosecution for their role in the sex trafficking of women and children. Previously, tech giants like Google had opposed the bill fearing it would open them to potential lawsuits even though the amendment to the CDA specifically targets sites that bad-actor websites. Now, The Internet Association, which represents such tech luminaries as Google, Facebook and Twitter, has reversed their opposition to the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act.

  While it may not have been done out of the goodness of their hearts, but more to try to get Congress off their backs, this is still an important step towards the bill becoming law. Without as many allies, Backpage’s support is now crumbling. We are now several steps closer to seeing protections enabled to prevent girls and women from being trafficked on sites like Backpage and hopefully the successful prosecution of those who have profited way too long from their victims’ suffering.

   
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  Geebo 9:01 am on October 4, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Backpage ( 69 ), Human trafficking, lawsuit ( 47 )   

  Backpage settles child sex trafficking lawsuit 

  

  Back in 2012, three women filed a lawsuit against Backpage in the state of Washington. They claimed they were underage when they were forcibly trafficked for sex on the website. Previous lawsuits like this filed against Backpage have failed, however, in 2015, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled the lawsuit could proceed.

  Yesterday, it was reported Backpage settled the lawsuit with these women, although the details of the settlement have remain undisclosed.

  This story has huge implications when it comes to the future of trafficking on Backpage. The first is, you probably shouldn’t think this is some magnanimous move on Backpage’s part. This is more than likely an attempt to try to get into the good graces of Congress, who supposedly has evidence of criminal activity in the way Backpage edits their ‘adult’ ads. Secondly, this could pave the way either for future settlements or for similar lawsuits pending against Backpage to proceed in states like Texas, California and Alabama. This and future settlements could cost Backpage a pretty penny which could turn Backpage into a company that is no longer profitable.

  Could this be the heads of Backpage trying to ‘donate’ their way out of criminal prosecution? That remains to be seen.

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  Geebo 9:02 am on September 28, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Ann Kirkpatrick, Arizona ( 11 ), Backpage ( 69 ), Human trafficking   

  When it comes to Backpage money AZ pols focus on wrong issue 

  

  Back in April, we posted about how Backpage donated money to several Arizona politicians in seemingly underhanded ways. According to reports, donations were made not by Backpage as a corporate entity, but by individual employees of Backpage and their spouses. When it was discovered the money had come from Backpage many of the politicians who received the donations denounced the donations and in turn gave the money to charity.

  More recently, U.S. Representative Ann Kirkpatrick came under fire for not getting rid of Backpage money she received until now. As is usually the norm in politics, the opposing party took this as an opportunity to admonish Kirkpatrick for taking the money and waiting so long to donate it. That’s putting it mildly by the way, the opposition basically accused her of willingly taking money from a company tied to a child sex trafficking scandal. Kirkpatrick has said she is donating the money to the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence.

  Unfortunately, the political climate in our country has devolved into little more than personal attacks, name calling and assigning blame. This didn’t just happen recently, as it’s been getting worse for years if not decades. Instead of worrying about where the money is going, Congress should be taking a serious look how it got there in the first place. Backpage allegedly took steps to obfuscate that the money was coming from them in order to try to buy political influence. Considering Backpage has been under intense Congressional scrutiny for the past year or so, that should not come as a coincidence. While Rep. Kirkpatrick may have dragged her heels on donating the money, it’s still going to a worthy cause that helps fight the sex trafficking blight that Backpage has unleashed on this country. I see no better justice than taking the money that Backpage gave to politicians and donating it to worthwhile causes that oppose Backpage’s objectives.