We all knew it was coming. With California Attorney General Kamala Harris filing a second set of multiple charges of pimping and money laundering last month against Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer and shareholders Michael Lacey and James Larkin, and with Ferrer and his shareholders’ Senate hearing coming up last Tuesday before the Permanent Subcommittee on… Continue reading WTF, Backpage?
Tag: advertising
We Deserve Better: Reflections On The War On Backpage
It’s happening again. I remember the drop in my stomach as my browser opened on the homepage of MyRedBook in 2014 and I saw the emblems of the FBI, DOJ, and the IRS occupying a page which used to host an escort ad, review, and forum website used by thousands of providers across the West… Continue reading We Deserve Better: Reflections On The War On Backpage
What The Rentboy Raid Tells Us About The Gendered Rhetoric Of Trafficking
Tuesday morning, Homeland Security and Brooklyn police raided the offices of Rentboy.com, arresting its CEO and several current and former workers, seizing six bank accounts, and freezing the website in what the U.S. Department of Justice’s press release bragged was a raid on the “largest online male escort service.” Coming right on the heels of… Continue reading What The Rentboy Raid Tells Us About The Gendered Rhetoric Of Trafficking
The Week In Links—March 20th
HIPS is seeking donations for their new stationary space! HIPS’ mobile outreach program, now over 20 years old, is expanding into a brick-and-mortar location which will offer medical, mental health, and drug treatment services as well as their usual harm reduction, advocacy, and community services. A new take on a tired trend: in this… Continue reading The Week In Links—March 20th
On Hobbyists and Reviews: Providers Sound Off
Review boards aren’t for us. They’re for sad, sad clients to commiserate with each other and get back some of the power they feel they’ve lost by having to pay for sex in the first place. But I didn’t always know that. Once upon a time, I was a review board junkie. That only lasted… Continue reading On Hobbyists and Reviews: Providers Sound Off