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Craigslist CEO Sues South Carolina Attorney General

Henry McMaster's threats violated federal law and the Constitution, suit argues

By Truman Lewis
ConsumerAffairs.com

May 21, 2009

McMaster and other state Attorneys General have been hounding Craiglist because of postings by men and women that solicit sex, entertain invitations to amorous encounters and otherwise enable citizens to communicate with each other.

Buckmaster's suit argues that his site's activities are protected by the First Amendment and, more specifically, by the Communications Decency Act, enacted by Congress in 1996 to protect Web sites, telecommunications providers and other interactive communications media from being held responsible for the content of messages posted by their users.

McMaster's threats are "unwarranted by the facts" and "represent an unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech," Buckmaster wrote in his blog.

Last week, Craiglist agreed to shut down its "erotic services" section and open a new "adult services" section, which will be reviewed by human editors. Explicit prostitution advertisements and pornographic material will not be allowed, Craigslist said. That didn't stop McMaster, though. He continued to threaten legal action if ads implicated in prostitution continued to appear on the site.

The Wall Street Journal quoted a University of South Carolina law professor, Ann Bartow, as saying McMaster, who is running for re-election, was either "grandstanding" or simply did not understand the Communications Decent Act.

In New York, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday indicted seven people accused of promoting a prostitution ring in New York City via Craigslist but did not name the site as an accessory.

Press reports in major cities said the number of obvious prostitution ads on Craiglist had dropped since the site changed its policy.

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