One of the blogs that I post at is craigscrimelist. That blog deals with, as you can guess, crimes that are related to the popular online classified site craigslist At that blog the other day I received an e-mail from a woman who was being harassed on craigslist. For several months someone was posting ads in the personal ads sections requesting things like no strings attached sex and lesbian affairs. The ads would contain her pictures and personal information. She is very busy in her profession and didn’t have the time to flag every ad that popped up. Both her local police and craigslist were not exactly helpful. She came to me asking for assistance.
I thought about trying what little media contacts I have but even then craigslist doesn’t always respond. So I did some research and I found out that if you’re being harassed on craigslist like this there is someplace you can file a complaint. My research took me to The Internet Crime Complaint Center. The site itself talks mostly about fraud but I e-mailed them directly and they assured me that IC3 is the place to file complaints about craigslist harassment of this type. They also recommended filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.
So even if craigslist is no help there are places you can turn to.
Shortly after that I received another e-mail from an organization called Love 146. They’re an organization dedicated to stop human trafficking. Go over to their site and you’ll see how they got their name.
They contacted me because we have a similar goal in mind. The complete eradication of human trafficking and child prostitution on craigslist erotic services section.
In that aim Love 146 has started their craigslist Call to Action Campaign.
Their hope is that through speaking engagements, press conferences, and petitions craigslist will follow in the footsteps of MySpace and Facebook to make their site safer for children and it doesn’t get any more dangerous for children than human trafficking.
To this effort they have requested that their members, sponsors, and anybody else to boycott craigslist until they implement safeguards and monitoring procedures that will eradicate the sale of human beings on the erotic services section of the website.
For further information please click the links that I’ve provided.
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8 users commented in " Harassment and human trafficking on craigslist "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackMy posts in the forum “Men seeking Men” in the State of Rhode Island are, inevitably, and summarily flagged, one by one, over and over again, on a daily basis, and consequently deleted time and time again.
Compared with most other Ads. on the same page, my Ads. Are to say the very least, mild. You can see the most vile, crass, and revolting Ads. In those pages however, if yours is not part of an “elite” group of individuals that has high jacket that section of Craig’s List, you are out of luck.
I’ve written to Craig’s List; I’ve even written to the CEO of Craig’s List, all, I am afraid to say, have failed to answer me, or made any effort to contact me. I am sure that as Craig’s List Management, most here, could care less if the rights of an ‘old queer’ are being violated. This “queer” however, is a war veteran, who has fought honorably and courageously to defend the Rights, and protect the Freedoms we Americans have so prized, and are the foundation of our laws, and Constitution.
Graig’s List does a good job of protecting its immunity against that of each and every one of us publishes in their Site, by making it clear that what we put down, in black and white, is our sole responsibility. If that is indeed the case, why do they feel it is necessary to allow the Flag System to remain as it is, without any sort of punishment for those who day in and day out, use and abuse this very system to impunity go on breaking the rules, harassing, and being in fact critics, monitors, to decide what does and does not gets viewed under certain pages?
We are all 18 years old, we assume. Thus capable of deciding what is right and prudent, bad and illegal. Craig’s List has felt it necessary however, to place that “Authority” at the hands of people with less than good character, good morals, and good reasons. There are in fact those in that very Page of Craig’s List that openly admit to “Flag” other people’s posts, only as to “Eliminate the Competition”. How can you excuse such an attitude? Craig’s List challenges us all, by requesting from us, “complainers” to come up with a better system. In other words… “This is the best we can do. Shut up, and stop complaining!” Your best however, is not good enough. I myself submitted suggestions, and you not only ignored my complaints, but also my suggestions.
So now! I will ask the Question to you, Craig’s List! If you have any suggestions to what someone in my position should do, please, don’t hesitate to contact me, and tell me. I am dying to read it. Because other than contacting you, or visiting your offices personally, I am not sure anything would help. You surely don’t seem to care, much less help me. So perhaps we are back to the point I begun to make at the beginning of this “complaint” form. I am just a gay guy. An old queer, a fag. Who cares?
Perhaps people would care if they thought that they might be the next group to be under attack. But does that really motivate anyone? I am not sure it does. It didn’t seem to motivate the entire world when the Nazis were exterminating the Jews and the gays also, during WWII. So who cares?
Well… I will tell you who does. Perhaps a group of Lawyers would, but the truth is, I don’t have the money to go after you. A lawsuit of that nature takes more than one lawyer. It takes an entire Firm. You should be suited for allowing this sort of discrimination. You should be suited, by impiding my access to information, after all, other’s under that same section are being flagged indiscriminantly, and the information they post, just might interest me; but under your current system, I have no means of knowing, do I? You should be suited if for nothing else, for the fact that you allow this system to be used without supervision, and depend only on your belief that people will be fair, just and even when applying their judgment. You must live on another planet.
So I will go back now, and post my most recent post back up again. It’s just been deleted, again. But it is early, only the third time so far. I am sure by the end of the night, I will post it a few more times, until they get too tired, or being probably too old, those flagging, will be going to bed.
I hope that someone will enough money will come along and go after you, Craig’s List. Maybe a Class Action Law Suit. Where all of us, who feel alienated, and disinfranchased could join in, and perhaps get some sort of satisfaction, out of your innaction.
I don’t know about you; but I am keeping a record of all my “Flagged” posts, hate mail, and even Posts these same individuals make, only to taunt us, and to let us know that they in fact are in control, and no one really cares.
Thank you.
The following is one incident among numerous others now in the public complaint domain, which reflecs the social irresponsibility of the operators and operation of Craigslist (www.craigslist.com). I forwarded my complaint to the following as well so that it may be of contribution in persecuting Craigslist’s actions: No Flag Nuts (www.noflagnuts.com); Stop Abusive Craigslist Flaggers (www.stopabusivecraigslistflaggers.com); Love146 (www.love146.org); Internet Crime Complaint Center (www.ic3.gov); Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov).
Peace to you all!_______________________________________________
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2008
Subject: Cont’d: Complaint of Biased Treatment of Advertisers by Craigslist Staff
To: abuse@craigslist.org
Note: forwarded message attached.
Attention Craigslist Staff,
Below is an e-mail I sent you a few days ago. It comes as no surprise to me that I do not receive a response from you for my concerns, in confirmation of my conclusion of your unprofessionalism, inconsideration, irresponsibility, immaturity, and flat out rudeness apparent in your Help pages of your
website and through the way you run this Craigslist operation
(http://www.eskimo.com/~newowl/Flagged_FAQ.htm).
I failed to mention in my last e-mail to you that your practices are grounds for a lawsuit, practices that encourage and protect acts of harassment and abuse from readers against advertisers and trashiness of the site overall, in particular its personals classifieds. You do so by providing advertisers no recourse to stop the harassment and abuse and by supporting and protecting free license for the readers to engage in their acts of harassment, abuse, and trashiness. Your website is the first ever among the few I frequented for personals postings through which I was subjected
to so much licensed and unaccounted for harassment, abuse, and trashiness.
Please awaken to the the irresponsible practices you are engaging in in society!
Peace to you all!
_______________________________________________
Forwarded Message
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008
Subject: Complaint of Biased Treatment of Advertisers by Craigslist Staff
To: Abuse@craigslist.org
Attention Craigslist Staff,
Please review a copy of my Craigslist Women Seeking Men personals posting attached below (herein ommitted from this online Blogger News Network’s posting for privacy). As my posting speaks of, many women like myself are subjected to much harassment and abuse from discriminating readers frequenting your website, in addition to the spiteful
flagging of postings they engage in. You the
entrusted staff of Craisgslist, however, provide no recourse for advertisers against such unfair treatment, but rather have in place measures to protect these harassers and abusers. I will be more than happy to forward copies of harassing and abusive e-mails to support my statements, let alone the records of how many instances my posting was subjected
to unilateral spiteful flagging.
After much frustration, I took matters in my own hands as stated in my posting, only to once again find you working in the interest of the harassers and abusers. As I warned in my posting, I began to post the harassers and abusers and their contact information on
the Men Seeking Men personals so that they get a taste equivalent to their harassment and abuse, only for me to find you once again the staff of Craigslist blocking me from doing so after a few attempts and after what I am concluding to have been a report of abuse you received from the same harasser(s) and abuser(s) I was faced with. Close review of the
language of your Unofficial Flag FAQ help which you post on your website only led me to find you to be a staff that is inconsiderate, irresponsible, immature, and flat out rude running this operation (http://www.eskimo.com/~newowl/Flagged_FAQ.htm).
It is your ethical responsibility to give equal
treatment, privileges and protection to both
advertisers and readers as you choose and offer to hold the role of social contributor through the operation of your Craigslist online service to the community. As the state of the matter stands at present, you protect the readers solely, in total disregard of the welfare of the advertisers. Please reexamine the fairness of your practices instead of
justifying them inconsiderately, irresponsibly,
immaturely, and flat out rudely. An unbiased staff, and only the staff, should have ultimate review of what is appropriate versus what is not appropriate to post. Biased readers should be allowed to report questionable postings only, but never have a
unilateral say on their fate. Both readers and
advertisers should be bound to equal remedial measures by the service provider, such as through account sign-ups that will be canceled upon breach of conduct.
I hope you will consider elevating your standards of operation to serve both advertiser and reader equally and fairly!
Peace to you all!
I AM BEINGT CYBER BASHED AND STALKED CAN YOU GIVE ME ANY INFO
It’s not only the “personal columns” that have abusive readers flagging and telling people what they may post. The “Pets Community” has been taken over by some people who don’t want the general readership to know about their Dirty Tricks including Emotional Blackmail for running some of their Fostering scams on the public. I posted about my experience with one group and with their President who herself was convicted of animal abuse in 2005.
My website has apparently become a threat to those unethical rescue groups in the NYC area and the friends/enablers of that woman Convicted of Animal Abuse. My posted messages encouraging people to ask questions before fostering/adopting a pet and giving out links for people to research these rescue groups generated hatemail, flagging and being repeatedly blocked on Craigslist.
Surprisingly, the many posted taunts to me never were flagged and it escalated to where a false “adoption event” was plastered on Craigslist with my name, address, phone number and a date for the “event”. Craigslist let me know who the person was that posted that “event”, yet that person continues to post and to flag freely. I reported these people to the police and the abuse was reduced to their posting my initials. Eventually, I sent all my reports and documentation to craigslist and the Police Department and filed a police report and that stopped too.
Such a disappointment with the all too easy flagging and censoring (post stalking and flagging) that take place on Craigslist. I’ve been repeatedly flagged/reposted/blocked and reinstated on Craigslist since 2007 and no direct word from CL management until I posted “Craigslist has S.A.M.” (self appointed moderator)you can google it. Signed by “craig” himself I was told not to post that stuff up. Does Craig really write directly to people?
The concept of the message board is a good one but the management of the site needs more Management and less Policing by biased readers. I agree with Anonymous who posted:
“An unbiased staff, and only the staff, should have ultimate review of what is appropriate versus what is not appropriate to post. Biased readers should be allowed to report questionable postings only, but never have a
unilateral say on their fate . . .”
I know that the pets community does not seem as important as some other groups but the harassment, hate mail and abuse is the same in whatever group it appears and needs to be addressed across the board.
thanks for your site.
Brooklynjo
Hello i am constantly being pointed out and harrassed on craigslist rant and raves section by someone who also claims they kill neighborhood cats. This person sits and waits for my to make one single harmless post in response to someone elses and then for days bashes me and wishes me dead multiple times. i have posted where i lived before, but not my address, and this person is now constantly spamming my actual address. i have asked to meet them in person but they refuse. this is all because i am on food assistance and trying to find work while struggling with socialphobia. at first it was easy to avoid but now its getting too hectic, i am 21 years old…and undergoing therapy for anxiety this guy is making my health worse from all the stress. is there anything i can do to get him to stop? he spreads slander and lies and harrasses me, its tiring!
O sorry u can see the harrassment at:
http://elmira.craigslist.org/rnr/
Hello,
The flaggers and harassers need to be stopped. It is out of control. People are allowed to put their two sense in and decide what is right or wrong…..who people are and who they aren’t.
I placed a very specific ad about RE-HOMING a dog…..I am not a breeder and instantly get accused for being one, for charging $150 for the fee. This dog has medical issues and it was expensive for me to take her and her sister from the situation they were in. People don’t understand or care that they are preventing animals from getting good homes that they deserve.
People have accused me of animal abandonment and “having to pick one like a child”……I rescued these dog from near death….I am just looking for a home for one that I do not have the room for. I never planned on keeping both of them…..But how can anyone just turn their head when they see a puppies with their spine and ribs sticking out.
I have people that have emailed me horrible emails. No one from craigslist has contacted me back …..
My ad for this pup is continuously destroyed, and posted on CL flag forums, telling people I am a breeder and to remove my ad….
People are allowed to sell reptiles ….hamsters and rabbits….no problem… I’ve bought them….. Adoption Agencies are allowed to charge well over $150 and ask you ALL of your personal info…..
I feel like this whole thing is a lost cause.
Im to a point where I think there is something far more insidious going on at CraigsList, than just a COMPLETELY DISCRIMINATORY flagging system, which is bad enough, in itself. I mean seriously, your posts or ads can be removed, simply because a handful of people dont like you, your ad, or your opinions, for WHATEVER reasons. So if you are posting on CL in Klu Klux Clan County, & happen to mention you are BLACK, its AOK for CL KKK users to flag you right off the site?? I know they think they have legal immunity and all that, and so far the courts seem to be backing them up, but arent they really ENCOURAGING discrimination, with this arbitrary flagging policy of theirs. There’s GOTTA be a legal loophole to this somewhere…
All that aside, some of my posts have been allegedly “flagged” so quickly, I know darn well there wasnt even time for a handful of CL users to read them and flag them. Not only that, there have been numerous incidents where my posts are shown as having been posted, but when I look for them on the site, they are simply not there. I think Craigslist STAFF are doing some censoring of their own..
Its fairly clear to many, CL is serving as a “honey pot site”, with certain fake ads being posted to lure in potential lawbreakers. Ads which blatantly invite the user to engage in various illegal activities, like prostitution, drug use, child pornography, etc. While ironically, mainstream media portrays Craigslist as grossly lacking in adequate censorship, TOO MUCH CENSORSHIP may actually be the most sinister thing going on there…
What if our posts ARENT being flagged and censored by CL users, as is claimed, but this censorship is ACTUALLY being carried out by CL EMPLOYEES (or others working with them, like law enforcement, Homeland Security agents, etc) with some rather obvious agendas?? Like promoting racism, or particular political or social agendas, with deliberate intentions to violate the free speech rights of their users, by censoring certain individuals or certain types of opinions, as part of a hidden agenda to act as a “propaganda organ” in support of specific causes?? What would the “law” have to say about that, I wonder?
Isnt it illegal for radio stations to give inequal airtime to one specific political party, for instance? But if CL is “flagging” all those who post in favor of a certain political agenda, arent they also using public media to promote a specific political agenda, in a similar way?
And what about “entrapment” laws? Are they using posts on their site to illegally entrap unsuspecting users?
And I really dont see how it is “right”, even if it is just their users, using the flagging system to DISCRIMINATE against other users, for myriad reasons. They shouldnt be ENABLING their users to discriminate, in such a way that it impedes other users from having equal access to the site, on the basis of discriminatory factors.
This site really needs to be SERIOUSLY INVESTIGATED!
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