BP and the prostitution law that could take down Twitter, YouTube, and Wikipedia

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

Interesting. I'm pretty sure that [bP] became as popular and successful as it is because [CL] was forced to drop escort ads. Though it seemed rather dodgy in its early days, [bP] has become a fairly reasonable and inexpensive place to advertise.

 

That aside, if the issue is the exploitation of underage workers or women who have been forced into the industry, I cannot understand why anyone thinks for a moment that making it even more difficult to advertise will reduce the number of minors or trafficked women. Driving them further underground only makes everything more dangerous, it doesn't eliminate the problem.

[Phaedrus 209521]

This is just a specific example of a far more general problem; the Internet transcends borders and jurisdictions, and any law passed in any particular jurisdiction will simply be ignored by the rest of the world (except for the sections of it which notice it and mock). If someone in Canada sees an online ad for someone that they think is underage in Australia (hosted by a Japanese company, on a server in France, posted by a Russian currently resident in Brazil), should Washington State be policing that?

 

Of course not. They can't. It's just silly.

[nntsci 11076]

Unfortunately, the US pushes around a lot of weight and its polices have far reaching consequences.