Craigslist chief executive Jim Buckmaster demanded an apology from South Carolina attorney general Henry McMaster Monday after McMaster announced plans to move forward with a lawsuit against the online classifieds Web site.
Craigslist announced last week that it would dump its "erotic services" section in favor of a monitored "adult services" section. The move came a week after McMaster threatened to sue Craigslist within 10 days if it did not remove "erotic services" from the South Carolina portion of its site.
"As of 5:00 p.m. this afternoon, the Craigslist South Carolina site continues to display advertisements for prostitution and graphic pornographic material," McMaster wrote in a Saturday statement posted to his Web site. "This content was not removed as we requested. We have no alternative but to move forward with criminal investigation and potential prosecution."
Craigslist stopped accepting new "erotic services" posts last Wednesday, but said current posts would remain on the site until they expired after 7 days.
"Have you fully considered the implications of your accusations against Craigslist?" Buckmaster wrote in a Monday blog post to McMaster. "What's a crime for Craigslist is clearly a crime for any company. Are you really prepared to condemn the executives of each of the mainstream companies linked above, and all the others that feature such ads, as criminals?"
Buckmaster pointed to the "adult entertainment" sections of the Greenville classifieds Web site, the Charleston Post and Courier, Microsoft's Live.com, and yellowpages.com--all of which, he said, currently contain more adult advertisements targeting South Carolina residents than Craigslist does.
The South Carolina adult services and erotic services section had a total of 40 posts as of Monday morning, Buckmaster said.
"Do you really intend to launch a criminal investigation against the phone company? What about potential new jobs connected to big data center build outs in SC by Internet companies? Are you *sure* you want prosecute all of their CEOs as criminals???" Buckmaster wrote.
Get the rest of this story at pcmag.com.
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