Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer is facing extradition to California on charges his company earned millions of dollars by promoting adult and child prostitution through escort advertisements run on the site. Ferrer’s arrest took place in Houston upon his return from the Netherlands to the headquarters of his Dallas-based company, perhaps the largest advertiser of adult escort services in the U.S. “Backpage.com seems to have knowingly and willingly allowed women and children to be expoited in return for its own financial gain,” said Texas AG Ken Paxton.
I thought it was settled case law that publishers of paid advertising were NOT responsible for the content or accuracy of the material their advertisers promote.
If the New York Times prints a job classified and the advertiser is serial rapist who assaults job seekers, is the NYT liable for his actions? Not as the law now stands.
If an advertisement presented for publication promotes a product that is illegal in some (or all) jurisdictions (for example, medical marijuana) is the publisher criminally liable for suborning criminal activity by printing it? That has certainly not been the case previously.
Looks to me like publicity for a budding politician.
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Backpage CEO Arrested for Pimping, Child Prostitution
Posted by: David Jones October 7, 2016 02:45 PMBackpage CEO Carl Ferrer is facing extradition to California on charges his company earned millions of dollars by promoting adult and child prostitution through escort advertisements run on the site. Ferrer’s arrest took place in Houston upon his return from the Netherlands to the headquarters of his Dallas-based company, perhaps the largest advertiser of adult escort services in the U.S. “Backpage.com seems to have knowingly and willingly allowed women and children to be expoited in return for its own financial gain,” said Texas AG Ken Paxton.
If the New York Times prints a job classified and the advertiser is serial rapist who assaults job seekers, is the NYT liable for his actions? Not as the law now stands.
If an advertisement presented for publication promotes a product that is illegal in some (or all) jurisdictions (for example, medical marijuana) is the publisher criminally liable for suborning criminal activity by printing it? That has certainly not been the case previously.
Looks to me like publicity for a budding politician.