[Lnc-business] P.S. – Re: Government censors Backpage.com - Request for LP press release

[Starchild]

	After sending this, I noticed I forgot to put a close-quotation mark in my statement, after the word "industries", and to specify that the Rentboy raid took place in August 2015 (fixed below). I also clarified DHS's participatory role in the raid, changed "more crime, more violence" to more succinctly read, "more violent crime", added a couple paragraph breaks in the statement, and removed the quote marks surrounding the entire statement to make it easier to read and clearer as to which part of the statement is an actual direct quote.

	If anyone has questions or would like further clarification or elaboration on the material here, please feel free to get in touch with me.

Love & Liberty,
                                   ((( starchild )))
At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee
                                (415) 625-FREE
                                  @StarchildSF


On Jan 9, 2017, at 10:27 PM, Starchild wrote:

> 	Today, classified ads site Backpage.com followed in the footsteps of Craigslist and reluctantly bowed to government pressure by closing the erotic services section of its website in the United States (see http://www.backpage.com/classifieds/Media ).
> 
> 	Previously in 2016, the site had won a legal victory in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, against an Illinois county sheriff who successfully pressured credit card companies Visa and Mastercard to stop doing business with Backpage by sending them threatening letters.
> 
> 	The libertarian Institute for Justice weighed in on the importance of that victory here:
> 
> http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2015/12/14/posner-backpage-chicago-sheriff-decision/
> 
> 	Ironically, even many in law enforcement have commended Backpage for its cooperation in going after coercive human trafficking and child prostitution:
> 
> http://www.backpage.com/statements/Support-from-the-Law-Enforcement-Community.pdf
> 
> 	Some in Congress however, have a different agenda. The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, part of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, has been hounding the site, culminating in a hearing today at which representatives of the site were compelled to appear, and which precipitated the site's decision to self-censor in accord with the government's demands. As Backpage's legal counselors wrote to members of the subcommittee in a letter today:
> 
> "Since mid-2015, the Subcommittee has, for reasons unrelated to the legislative responsibilities of the Congress, sought to compel Backpage, an online publisher of third party-created advertisements, to provide a virtually unlimited amount of information regarding the company's core editorial decisions: what material it would publish and what material it would not publish. Backpage strongly believes that this core activity lies at the very heart of the protection against government interference afforded to publishers of both print and on-line speech by the First Amendment. Backpage believes that the Subcommittee's quest for this information is not for the purpose of informing the legislative work of the Senate, but rather is part of a coordinated effort to drive Backpage out of business. As Judge Richard Posner has described efforts by others in government with whom the Subcommittee has coordinated, the goal is either to 'suffocate' Backpage out of existence or to use the awesome powers of the government to force Backpage to follow in the footsteps of Craigslist and to abandon its Adult advertising section."
> 
> 	The letter from Backpage's counsel went on to effectively surrender, under protest:
> 
> "...This Subcommittee and those with whom it has coordinated to subvert Backpage's constitutional rights have now achieved their objective. Today, throughout the United States, the entire Adult Section of the Backpage on-line classified advertising website has been censored and shut down." 
> 
> 	The counselors pointed out that in using its powers to compel five witnesses from the company to appear at its hearing, the Subcommittee "force(d) individual Americans to choose between acceding to your demand that they attend this hearing or attending an already-set court proceeding in an effort to promptly have – for the second time – the unconstitutional charges filed against them thrown out." 
> 
> http://www.backpage.com/statements/Backpage-Letter-to-Committee-20170117.pdf
> 
> 	The letter concluded that the Backpage witnesses would comply by attending the hearing (audio of which can be found here – http://www.capitolhearings.org/Hearing/SSGA00201701101000/dirksen342.aspx ), but would not be testifying, and would not be waiving their "objections to the forced appearance and questioning".
> 
> 	I believe this matter is highly deserving of a Libertarian Party press release, and urge the chair and/or staff to issue one (ASAP, since this is obviously very time-senstitive). Here is a statement from me which you are welcome and encouraged to include: 
> 
> Libertarian National Committee At-Large Representative Starchild, an erotic service provider who has advertised on the now-censored Adult Services section of Backpage, called the Subcommittee's actions hounding the media platform an unjustified abuse of power in the service of an intolerant, puritanical moral agenda that has nothing to do with national security.
> 
> "Once again, as with the Department of Homeland Security's participation in the August 2015 raid on the offices of adult website Rentboy.com, we see a government body that's supposed to be concerned with things like terrorism and threats from overseas using its powers to go after American adults guilty of nothing more than providing an online forum for consenting sex workers and their clients to connect. The consequences of driving such activity underground or out of the country will be more violent crime, less ability for law enforcement to go after the real bad actors, and a loss of American jobs in the media and tech industries."
> 
> Starchild and other Libertarians participated in protests against the Rentboy raids, and have supported other efforts to end the government's crusade against consensual sex work, such as backing a lawsuit in federal court to overturn California's anti-prostitution statute as unconstitutional on privacy and First Amendment grounds (see http://decriminalizesexwork.com/).
> 
> Love & Liberty,
>                                     ((( starchild )))
> At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee
>                                  (415) 625-FREE
>                                     @StarchildSF
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