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Craigslist has finally addressed the biggest question lingering since its controversial adult services category went dark earlier this month by telling lawmakers last week that the company doesn't intend to restore the section.
Other questions, however, went unanswered, and it remains unclear whether the popular free classifieds website has or can successfully put to rest a corporate crisis that has muddied its image for years.
The company abruptly removed the adult services category in the United States Sept. 3, amid growing pressure from law enforcement officials and nonprofit groups, who claim that the paid ads in the section promoted prostitution and child trafficking or led to violence against women.
Critics had dubbed the site the "Wal-Mart of online sex trafficking," and attorneys general in more than a dozen states had called for the company to take down the section.
"The sex ads issue has cast a cloud over [Craigslist] ..." said Sam Singer, a crisis communications specialist in San Francisco who has not worked with Craigslist. "It was probably a good thing for them to take the action they did. But it simply took them too long, and they did it in too clumsy a way."
He said the list of head-scratching PR maneuvers includes Craigslist's not shutting down the section overseas, accusing the traditional media of attacking the company because it is a competitor, and consistently declining to publicly discuss the rationale for its decision.
It appears company executives only opened up last Wednesday because they were asked to appear before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security for a hearing focused on domestic sex trafficking involving minors.
William Clinton Powell, the company's director of customer service and law enforcement relations, used most of his time to discuss "best practices" the company has implemented to combat ads for illicit services on the site, including requiring posters to provide a working phone number and the manual filtering of explicit ads. He also defended the company's efforts to fight sex trafficking, addressing the removal of the adult section only briefly toward the end of his remarks.
"There are no plans to reinstate the category," he said.
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas, pressed Powell, asking whether the company would be tempted to switch it back on after the public "heat" fades or the promise of profits beckons. Powell said he wasn't in a position to answer that question directly, but said: "We don't have any intention to bring that category back, and money is not a consideration."
The sex ads cost $10 and were on track to bring in $44 million in revenue this year, according to the AIM Group, a consulting firm that closely monitors the company. Craigs- list also charges for some real estate and job ads, but most listings are free and it relies on its adult services section for much of its income.
Craiglist's Powell said he could not address the rationale behind the decision to quietly take down the adult section earlier this month. The move came as a surprise to many observers because the company had long argued that removing it would make it more difficult to address the underlying problem.
Elizabeth McDougall, a partner at the law firm Perkins Coie LLP representing Craigslist, echoed that sentiment. In her testimony, she suggested it was idealistic to believe that removing the venue is the best way to remove the crime.
The ads will simply migrate "to less socially responsible" sites that won't cooperate with law enforcement, she said, highlighting a chart that suggested this was already happening. Witness Ernie Allen, CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said in earlier testimony that such movement is a good thing.
"We recognize that if we crack down in one area, some of this problem will migrate to other areas, but, frankly, that's progress," he said. "We follow the money. The goal is to destroy the business model of those who sell children on the Internet for sex."
Free speech advocates and some people who work to help victims of sex crimes have questioned the removal of the sex-ad section. They said that blocking the ads threatened free speech and that the site helped law enforcement track criminals.
But state attorneys general and other groups fighting sex crimes are demanding that Craigslist also block the ads from other areas of the website where they have been popping up, such as casual encounters and therapeutic services, and from international Craigslist sites.