Study Calls Craigslist 'a Cesspool of Crime' 316
Bala4361 writes "Classifieds site Craigslist has been linked with 330 crimes, 12 murders and 105 robberies or assaults in the United States last year due to anonymous interactions on the site, says a new study. The report calls Craigslist 'a cesspool of crime,' citing murders, rapes, robberies, assault and rental rip-offs as some of the examples." Among the many Reefer Madness-style quotable stretchers from the originating consultancy: "The unfortunate fact is that Craigslist has become almost synonymous with crime." Update: 02/25 17:05 GMT by S : Craigslist has posted a response.
Re:Anonymous Report Sponsor (Score:2, Interesting)
It's not anonymous. It's Oodle, a Craigslist competitor.
Re:misunderstandings (Score:5, Interesting)
They might as well have declared that the internet is a cesspool of crime, or that populated areas are cesspools of crime.
But they didn't. I'm starting to think that there's a semi-concerted effort going to put Craigslist out of business. First, there was the brouhaha over Craigslist's adult section, which came about because people complained that the personals section was basically a front for adult services. This resulted in much gnashing of teeth, big proclamations by various government and non-government entities that Craigslist was knowingly profiting from the sexual trafficking of minors. Now we get this hyperbolic hackjob of an article that essentially says that Craigslist is a front for criminal gangs.
Really? I'm guessing that there are two groups of people who won't stop before Craigslist just shuts down: corporations whose business model has been completely shot to pieces by Craigslist (any classified ad network), and people who think that it's satanic when two people communicate with each other without either the government or a large corporation listening in.