When the news of the so-called "Craigslist Killer" broke, I speculated that we'd see renewed efforts by state officials to regulate online classifieds. Here's the first significant example: the Illinois attorney general sent a letter to Craigslist earlier this week demanding that the site shut down all erotic services ads (HT: Radley Balko).
So is this a serious attempt to confront this criminal issue, or just a quick and easy to scapegoat the problem?
Well, over at Techdirt, they make a convincing argument about why it's odd to single out Craigslist for these crimes, or even the Internet at all.
Crimes of this nature have gone on for ages. In fact, the details sound quite similar to the famous Jack the Ripper story. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Jack didn't use Craigslist, did he? Nor did anyone think to blame the street corners where Jack the Ripper found the prostitutes he murdered. So why are we suddenly blaming the digital equivalent?
Muser of NM @ Apr 30, 2009 10:54:46 AM