Hours ago, the Department of Justice seized the website of Backpage.
Backpage has often been accused of directly and/or indirectly promoting prostitution and sex trafficking.
Back in March, Congress passed the “Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act”, which controversially amended U.S. law to also hold online services responsible for the illegal activity of their users—as opposed to only punishing the pimps and the johns.
Apparently, after passing this new Sex Traffickers Act, Backpage was number one on the government’s hit list.
According to CNBC, the government issued indictments against 7 people, who founded the website, which included 93 counts of several different crimes, ranging from money laundering to facilitating prostitution.
Backpage originally launched in 2004, and by 2014, brought in an annual revenue of $135 million.
As of right now, if you try to go to Backpage, you’ll be prompted to a banner that reads “Backpage.com and affiliated websites have been seized.”
Flip the pages to see how Backpage looks now.