'Adult Services' Shuttered For Good

Craigslist's red-light section has been put out. In testimony during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on sex trafficking of minors, Craigslist's director of customer relations and law-enforcement relations William Clinton Powell said that the site has permanently closed its controversial but longstanding "Adult Services" section. The site had inexplicably put a black label with the word "censored" over the section on Labor Day and failed to elaborate on the decision. The highly lucrative ads were projected to mean revenue of $44 million this year alone. During the hearing, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) said, "Speech in the form of postings that incite violence against children is not protected speech,” addressing the concerns of free-speech advocates who have come out against the decision. “Taking down an adult-services section it could not effectively police was the responsible thing to do for the sake of the children in the community." Anti-sex-trafficking crusaders also questioned the decision, saying that the site was a helpful resource for lawmakers in hunting down criminals.