Chicago Area Sheriff Who Wasted Taxpayer Money Suing Craigslist, Now Strong-Arms Payment Companies To Avoid Backpage

Legal Issues

from the that's-not-what-government-is-supposed-to-do dept

Remember Thomas Dart? He’s the sheriff of Cook County, Illinois (the county that covers Chicago and many of its suburbs). For reasons that make no sense at all, he’s somewhat obsessed with the fact that some prostitutes have figured out how to use the internet. But, rather than using this information to actually find and arrest those who are breaking the law, he’s decided a much better move is to ignore the law and attack the internet tools those prostitutes use. Back in 2009 he sued Craigslist, wasting a ton of taxpayer money, until the court inevitably threw out the case, explaining (in detail) to Dart that the law (in particular, Section 230 of the CDA) says he can’t do that. As we noted at the time, the really, really bizarre part was that in Dart’s initial announcement, he even noted how his staff used Craigslist to find and arrest those engaged in prostitution. In other words, his lawsuit appeared to be an attempt to shut down a tool that had been useful to his staff in stopping crime. Indeed, in the court ruling throwing out his bogus lawsuit, the Court pointed out the obvious:

Sheriff Dart may continue to use Craigslist’s website to identify and pursue individuals who post allegedly unlawful content… But he cannot sue Craigslist for their conduct.

Sheriff Dart may not be suing again, but it appears he has not learned his lesson yet. Of course, after being hassled by a number of law enforcement officials with no legal authority, like Dart, Craigslist eventually shut down any section of its site that might have been used for prostitution. And, just as we predicted, the prostitution just moved onward to another site, Backpage.com. And, of course, the same law enforcement officials suddenly freaked out over Backpage — even though, yet again, the law is pretty clear that Backpage is not liable.

So, now, Thomas Dart is back again, this time without a lawsuit, but using his position as a law enforcement official to strong-arm payment companies into no longer working with Backpage:

MasterCard said on Tuesday that its credit cards can no longer be used to pay for ads on the Backpage.com website, following a request from a Chicago law enforcement official who said the site is used by sex traffickers.

Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart said that so-called “escort” ads on Backpage.com and similar sites make up the foundation of the sex trafficking industry, which preys on the young and vulnerable. He has asked both Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc to cut off any association with the Backpage.com “adult” section.

“Backpage has significantly lowered the barrier to entry for would-be traffickers,” said Dart, adding he will reveal details of a larger initiative against Backpage at a news conference on Wednesday.

The “news conference” on Wednesday was just a chance to say that Visa was in on the ban as well:

Visa Inc said on Wednesday it is joining MasterCard Inc and American Express Co in barring its credit cards from being used to pay for ads on Backpage.com following a request from a Chicago sheriff who said the site is used by sex traffickers.

Once again, Backpage has tons of legitimate uses as a classifieds service, and whatever prostitution that is done on the site should make Dart’s life easier by allowing him and his staff to find those engaged in prostitution. I’m curious, did Dart similarly recommend that streetlights be turned off at night so that street walking prostitutes can no longer walk the streets? Why not target the actual prostitutes, rather than the tool that helps you find them?

In the meantime, while this move will get stupid headlines for Dart, it won’t change much. Backpage is already accepting Bitcoin, and I can’t wait to see Dart’s office try to figure out how to pressure “Bitcoin” into no longer working with Backpage.

Ridiculously, Dart now claims this will make traffickers easier to catch. Though he doesn’t explain how:

“We have no naive notion that we’ll end prostitution, end trafficking, end exploitation of children,” Dart said. “What we’ve wanted all along is to make it more difficult and make (traffickers) easier to catch.”

So the way you make them “easier” to catch is to cut off their ability to use tools that make it ridiculously easy for you to track down, and instead push them to using tools and systems where you can’t track them down? Want to try that one again?

Either way, doesn’t it seem highly questionable for a law enforcement official to interfere in the private business agreements of two companies, neither of whom are breaking the law?

Filed Under: classifieds, cook county, escort services, government pressure, payment systems, prostitution, thomas dart
Companies: backpage, mastercard, visa