Hasta La Creative!

Secretly, did America realize that there was a seedy underbelly flowing just below the surface of craigslist? Certainly, in major metropolitan areas, some of the advertising was suspect, especially in the “Erotic Services” section. Plus, there were the third-page stories of good folk getting ripped off by advertisers. But there was no real cause for major safety concern. That’s changed in the last couple of weeks as the online classified service has fallen under both public and judicial scrutiny.

Is this a case of karma finally catching up to the site, or is craigslist simply having a bad couple of weeks?

Not including the “first” craigslist killer, Philip Markoff, craigslist has been rocked by scandal, and the list is as diverse as it is unsettling:

Granted, blame cannot be attributed to the online classified service for these occurrences. (There is no implicit danger in searching for baby clothes.) However, be assured that the company’s ethical standards are under scrutiny as both a corporate and community citizen. Following the negative press and public concern, it is quite possible that craigslist will no longer be the hip, “freeconomy” advertising site it is today. On the other hand, it may take more than a couple of harmful stories to topple the internet classified giant; according to Alexa.com, craigslist.org ranks 24th globally, and falls into 8th place in the United States, behind Google, Yahoo, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, MSN, and Windows Live.

craigslist Founder, Craig Newmark

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you, so leave a comment or follow the links: linkedin.com or twitter.com.

Craigslist may face criminal action in South Carolina unless the online classifieds service stops running ads the state says promote prostitution and pornography, the state attorney general’s office said Thursday.

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster probably never guessed that his name would be involved with murder, a sociopath, and angry Americans. After all, he simply ran a classified ad website…what kind of trouble could he get into?

Well, he may spend time in the big house if he is not careful…although it is highly doubtful. However, he has taken his share of legal and  public flogging, so much so that he has responded via the Craigslist blog: 

“When critics rush to tar craigslist as especially dangerous, it’s important to put things in perspective,” he writes. “Craigslist users have posted more than 1.15 billion classified ads to date, easily 1000x the combined total ever posted to the print publications involved in all of these ‘print ad murders.’”

In its “terms of use” section, Craigslist says it is not responsible for ads on its sites. Which is basically the same as the disclaimer that smoking can kill you on the outside of the cigarette box.

Sex on Craigslist is not hard to locate: Just go to the “personals” and look for the link that says “misc. romance and casual encounters.” Now it is true that Craigslist is not the first public “portal” that has been used for people trying to hook up for sexual activity…MySpace, Chat Rooms, AOL…they have all been exploited for sexual purposes. With any service that is used to put two people together that have never met, there is a good chance that the person you meet may not be the person that was portrayed. It’s one of the pitfalls of personal “online” branding: we have the ability to be who we want to be.  

Mr. Buckmaster does have a valid point in that predators have found prey via other methods, and not just Craigslist. However, when newspapers used to run classified advertising, there were no pictures of naked women, no promises of sexual gratification-and if there were, they were veiled as something else entirely.

It’s really nobody’s fault anymore. Craigslist is just another company that is not responsible for the indirect damage they’ve enabled. The CEOs of banks, automakers, mortgage lenders…it’s not their fault, either. Let the public beware! After all, they were just trying to make a little money. So some people died. Other’s lost their life savings. It’s not our fault.

However, as the world becomes interconnected, some sort of responsibility must be taken by those that provide the means. We assume that others are as ethical (for better or worse) as we are, and it is not too much to ask for a little corporate responsibilty, as well. If someone was hurt on your property although being warned prior to the fact that danger existed, there would still be culpability inolved for having something of danger exposed to the public.  

It’s not that I think Craigslist is guilty; rather, I feel that they should take some of the responsibility. Yet, the fact that Craigslist has entirely blamed everyone but themselves, and has even researched other murders that have happened via classified ads seems a bit caustic and a little too casual. Luckily, the killer was caught quickly…maybe at the beginning of a serial killing spree. What would Craigslist have done if there were ten murders?  
 

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you: linkedin.com/in/jefflouis or twitter.com/jlo0312.