No Credit Cards allowed for Backpage adult ads

[davephx]

7/1/2015 - Visa became the second major credit card company this week to stop allowing its card to be used to purchase adult ads on Backpage.com.

The decision came after a request from Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who wrote to both Visa and MasterCard earlier this week about his concerns that the ads are fueling the sex trade -- including the trafficking of minors.

MasterCard agreed to remove its card earlier this week. American Express took such action early this year.

At a news conference announcing Visa’s decision, Dart lashed out at Backpage.com and its refusal to acknowledge how pimps and traffickers use the ads in its adult section.

Dart did not approach the digital currency bitcoin because it is a significantly riskier and less reputable form of finance, and therefore not as likely to be fueling the trade.

In April, Backpage published 1.4 million adult services ads across the country, with the company bringing in at least $9 million, the sheriff's office said.

Meanwhile, since 2009, Cook County sheriff's officers have made more than 800 arrests by using information supplied in the ads. Those include more than 50 arrests for sex trafficking, involuntary servitude or prostitution promotion. (Dave notes 50 out of 800 and how many of them were consenting adult trafficking like helping adult women meet customers, drivers or phone helpers that are classified as pimps?)

[davephx]

MC and VISA action upsets legal Australian sex workers

Western Australian sex workers have condemned the sudden and unexpected decision of MasterCard and Visa to cut payment facilities to two of the largest sex work advertising sites in Australia, Backpage and Cracker, pointing out that it is not only discriminatory but will have catastrophic impacts in the short term for the livelihoods of Western Australian workers left stranded.

“Both sex work itself and the advertising of sexual services are legal in Western Australia, and yet MasterCard and Visa made a decision that places at risk the livelihoods of Western Australian workers who rely on their services to pay for advertising,” Sarah from peer sex worker group People For Sex Worker Rights in Western Australia said today.

“This decision effectively blocks workers from paying for their advertising on the sites that hold a near-monopoly on the low-to-mid-end rage of the market, leaving them completely stranded. We are concerned that workers may lose homes and go hungry before alternative, affordable replacements for those sites emerge.”

“The decision of MasterCard and Visa appears to be an overreaction to a grandstanding local politician in Chicago in the United States, and yet workers in Western Australia, working in a completely different legal and social environment, face going to the wall and potentially losing everything as a result.”

“MasterCard Australia and Visa Australia should distance themselves from the actions of their US parent company and resume services to Australian sex workers as a matter of urgency before it further marginalises already marginalised workers.”

http://sexworkerrightswa.org/2015/07...iscrimination/

[Chica Chaser]

What site do you think is going to emerge as the "new" BP for advertising?
I also wonder how many millions of dollars MC just pissed away and now lost revenue for BP/VillageVoice with that decision?

The Sheriff's $9M claim is dubious at best

In 2012 at the time of the spinoff it was $2.3M

Backpage.com, which accounted for 78.8 percent of the August total, saw an 11.8 percent year-over-year increase in revenue from online escort and body-rub ads in 23 U.S. cities to $2.3 million, according to estimates by the AIM Group. Compared to July, the Backpage revenue was up just 0.6 percent.

http://aimgroup.com/2012/09/20/augus...-year-to-year/

[davephx]

Looks like plenty of new ads on BP.

BP has a free promo code (FREESPEECH) until they can solve the cc issue, it works in all the world except the U.S. and Canada. Prostitution is legal in most of the world and BP is just about everywhere.

Another option reported: Use your cards, including your AMEX at their sister site, http://www.postfastr.com/…it funds your BP account, then sign in and post your ads as usual!

Recent comments:
The last several years have been good to anti-sex work interests, who have successfully reframed their crusade from being against prostitution to being against “sexual slavery.” The political climate has shifted from the now unpopular War on Drugs to the War on Sex Trafficking, with harsh laws such as C-36 in Canada and the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act in the United States funding increased policing in the name of “protecting children” and “ending exploitation.” These laws and their advocates conflate consensual sex work with human trafficking, and in practice mainly target adult sex workers and their clients, making it harder for them to do business and stay safe. Nor do these policies actually aid survivors of trafficking in the sex industry. Instead they often lead to survivors deported, detained, or struggling with open criminal records.

Like many ostensible anti-trafficking efforts, this will do very little to actually affect human trafficking. It will, however, impact free speech, and serve to make many sex workers’ lives more difficult.

Preventing these workers from being able to advertise makes it more likely for them to be driven onto the streets, into the hands of pimps or managers, or simply into more desperate poverty.

In fact, their actions went far beyond the reach of law. Backpage is used in over 80 countries; because credit card companies’ reach is global, their cutting off service to the site affects sex workers worldwide, including those whose work is legal in their jurisdictions.

Politicians may not see this as an issue, but all of us should. As conservative Canadian senator Donald Plett put it in reference to End Demand bill C-36, “Of course, we don’t want to make life safe for prostitutes; we want to do away with prostitution. That’s the intent.
Source
http://titsandsass.com/what-the-hell...with-backpage/