A controversial website called Backpage.com is accused of trying to help sex traffickers hide from police.
A report says Backpage.com altered up to 80 percent of its ads to remove words and images that could tip off law enforcement to crimes like child sex trafficking.
In a Senate hearing Tuesday, one of the executives of Backpage.com took the Fifth Amendment.
The adult section of the site is now shut down. Instead, the section says the the government “has unconstitutionally censored this content.”
Backpage.com calls it a violation of its online freedom of speech.
Rethreaded, a Jacksonville organization that helps trafficking survivors, calls the move a big step in stopping sex trafficking, but experts say Backpage is still part of a larger problem.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says 73 percent of the child trafficking tips they get comes from Backpage.com.
The website released a statement about the controversy. It reads, in part:
“It undermines efforts by Backpage.com to cooperate with law enforcement and provide information to identify, arrest and prosecute those who engage in human trafficking.”
Court documents allege “Backpage altered up to 80 percent of their ads before posting them online “by deleting words, phrases, and images indicative of criminality, including child sex trafficking.”
Action News Jax Crime and Safety Exppert Ken Jefferson says a critical tool used by law enforcement … is now gone.
“ Now, they’re going to have to come up with other ways other means to track these people,” Jefferson said.
Cox Media Group
