Ad website used by local cops for prostition arrests alters site in wake of US Senate report

Staff report

A classified advertising website that law-enforcement agencies have used to crack down on prostitution has removed its adult advertising section following the release of a U.S. Senate panel report.

Backpage.com on Monday removed adult advertisements from its site, while decrying that the federal government had “unconstitutionally censored” its content, according to national media reports.

The removal of those ads followed the release of a report alleging that “Backpage concealed criminal activity by removing words from ads that would have exposed child sex trafficking and prostitution,” according to The Washington Post Tuesday.

Also Tuesday, a Senate subcommittee was scheduled to have a hearing on the report.

Backpage is sometimes used by local law-enforcement agencies in their investigations of prostitution. Austintown police, for example, have made numerous prostitution-related arrests within the last few months after conducting sting operations after ads were posted on the site.

Read more about the matter in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.