The more I thought about this, the more bothering it potentially seems. Their Twitter feed chats with a religious group, which may appear biased. Does the company press for reform laws?
How would such a company be treated if it was looking for drug buyers and sellers? Especially if such a company didn't encourage legalization but appeared to stand with Christian groups? What steps are they taking to ensure innocent people are not being prosecuted with their tools? Going by current laws is no moral compass.
Finally, if they or the anti trafficking groups want to be taken seriously, provide real stats. This is from their Twitter account:
"39,000 escort ads were posted on the #Louisiana Backpage since July. How many are sex trafficking victims?"
Well, I don't know, why don't you tell us? They've got big data and LE, but they post leading questions like that with apparently no followup.
It's like saying X number of people OD on heroin. For any X we should figure out A: if current legislation is helping or hurting that number, B: is infringing on the rights and potentially destroying people's lives worth the cost? I'm sure it feels great to save 100 people from OD'ing. Does that mean it's OK to imprison millions?
I know this probably comes off making me look terrible. And I don't know anything except this article and reading the company's Twitter account. But it feels slightly off, as if I'm being convinced of a problem without seeing all the numbers. Where're the calls for legalization and regulation? Maybe I'm just too cynical.
How would such a company be treated if it was looking for drug buyers and sellers? Especially if such a company didn't encourage legalization but appeared to stand with Christian groups? What steps are they taking to ensure innocent people are not being prosecuted with their tools? Going by current laws is no moral compass.
Finally, if they or the anti trafficking groups want to be taken seriously, provide real stats. This is from their Twitter account:
"39,000 escort ads were posted on the #Louisiana Backpage since July. How many are sex trafficking victims?"
Well, I don't know, why don't you tell us? They've got big data and LE, but they post leading questions like that with apparently no followup.
It's like saying X number of people OD on heroin. For any X we should figure out A: if current legislation is helping or hurting that number, B: is infringing on the rights and potentially destroying people's lives worth the cost? I'm sure it feels great to save 100 people from OD'ing. Does that mean it's OK to imprison millions?
I know this probably comes off making me look terrible. And I don't know anything except this article and reading the company's Twitter account. But it feels slightly off, as if I'm being convinced of a problem without seeing all the numbers. Where're the calls for legalization and regulation? Maybe I'm just too cynical.