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State Officials Crack Down on Craigslist

Via a letter to the company, South Carolina’s Attorney General gave popular classifieds Web site, Craigslist.com, until May 15 to remove posts promoting illegal sex services or face being prosecuted.

Back in November, the site made an agreement with 43 attorneys general and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to require “erotic services” posters to include a valid phone number and pay a charge with a credit card, reports MSNBC.

The company would hand over the info to authorities if subpoenaed, but the company isn’t living up to their end of the bargain, the letter said.

“Recent national events, along with ongoing law enforcement efforts in South Carolina, indicate that Craigslist has not installed sufficient safeguards since November to prohibit the Internet site from being used as a vehicle to advertise or solicit prostitution.”

South Carolina is not the only state concerned with sex crimes associated with Craigslist. Attorneys general from Missouri, Connecticut and Illinois met with lawyers from the site to request they close down the erotic services board.

Craigslist, though, maintained through a statement that the state would have “no legal basis whatsoever for filing a lawsuit against Craigslist or its principals,” reports MSNBC.

After meeting with the other attorney generals, the company released another statement saying that the concerns could be addressed “without compromising the quintessentially American values of free speech embodied in our Constitution.”

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