John and Cindy McCain celebrate victory against sex-trafficking website

John and Cindy McCain celebrate victory against sex-trafficking website
April 10, 2018
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John and Cindy McCain celebrate victory against sex-trafficking website
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John and Cindy McCain praised the FBI’s seizure of Backpage.com, the classified ads website accused of facilitating human trafficking, and the indictments against its founders.

The government moved to shut the site down Friday over accusations of facilitating human trafficking of women and children. Several founders of the site have been indicted on charges of money laundering and facilitating sex trafficking. In an official statement, John McCain (R-AZ.) championed a bill passed by Congress last month that would make it easier to prosecute sites that knowingly facilitate human trafficking.

Cindy McCain praises Backpage seizure
Cindy McCain called the seizure of Backpage and the indictments against a number of its founders “a good day.” Mrs. McCain, an advocate against human trafficking, said she and other advocates failed to persuade the site’s operators to drive human traffickers off the site.

“I’m sorry that it came to this,” she said. “We had tried to work with Backpage for many years in an attempt to help them see that what they were doing was harming children and harming young women and young men. And we could never get through to them.”

She was glad to hear the news that federal agents raided the home of Michael Lacey, the site’s founder, as well as all Backpage offices around the globe. She said the seizure indicates “the federal government means business now.” “I think that’s a clear message to other entities around the country that do the same thing that this is no longer going to be tolerated,” Mrs. McCain said.

“They knew what they were doing”
Lacey was charged Friday, according to his attorney. Lacey and a number of the site’s operators have been accused of knowingly facilitating human trafficking and helping traffickers disguise the true nature of their operations in their advertisements.

“They absolutely knew what they were doing,” she said. “That’s very disheartening to me and always has been that they did know what they were doing and yet still pretended that somehow it’s OK.”

Indictments for facilitating prostitution and money laundering against seven of the site’s founders were unsealed Monday. The 93-count indictment named 17 victims, including minors. The Justice Department said that Backpage made a fortune, $500 million, off of prostitution ads and money laundering since its founding in 2004. It is the second biggest classified ads site on the Internet after Craigslist.

Prosecutors accuse the site’s operators of editing ads and instructing traffickers on how to code their advertisements. The indictments follow a 14-month grand jury investigation that heard evidence that included internal emails in which the operators discussed helping traffickers hide the true nature of their operations.

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John McCain champions legal reform
John McCain joined his wife in lauding the authorities for shutting the site down in an official statement, championing legislation to fix loopholes that protect sites like Backpage from liability for content that enables sex trafficking.

The seizure of the malicious sex marketplace Backpage.com marks an important step forward in the fight against human trafficking. This builds on the historic effort in Congress to reform the law that for too long has protected websites like Backpage from being held liable for enabling the sale of young women and children. Today’s action sends a strong message to Backpage and any other company facilitating online sex trafficking that they will be held accountable for these horrific crimes.

Backpage has cited the Communications Decency Act to defend itself in civil as well as criminal lawsuits. Congress, however, passed a bill in March, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), to amend the law to make an exception for sites that knowingly enable human traffickers.

SESTA would make it easier for state prosecutors and sex trafficking victims to sue sites that facilitate sex trafficking. Cindy McCain said the law is needed now more than ever. She expects President Trump to sign the bill into law Wednesday and plans to be in attendance.

Finally, something is being done to shut down this disgusting operation. These sick people need to be locked up.