Ah the wonderful American news media....

Always so busy on a crusade that they couldn't find the truth if it gave them a lapdance.

LE is using backpages in some states to lure and arrest people; so they are letting it slide for now would be my guess.

Aren't escort ads legal? Craigslist gave in to pressure and took it down, but that doesn't mean it was taken down due to being illegal. Plus Craigslist has a much bigger consumer base, so they could do without that section and the controversy I guess.

I guess Backpage is less mainstream than Craigslist, so they don't mind having that section, plus I'd guess it's their most popular section. Plus there are a bunch of similar other sites out there too.

Here's a random tidbit from an article on that Craigslist shutdown.

"A federal law protects Craigslist and sites like Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo and Wired.com from legal liability for content created by users. That law, known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, was enacted in 1998 and has withstood numerous court challenges."

CL was shut down because of that murder in Boston by the CL Killer, and the ensuing media and political frenzy that followed.  That BP would fill the void that CL once held was utterly predictable, and LE most probably uses this site now as a major target for setting up it's sting operations as they used to with CL.  Why shut down BP when you can use it to make your arrest quota, and get lots of good publicity from the media as a result?  It will take another serial killer before the politicians and media demands a similar crackdown on BP...until then, the void is filled, and LE will pick off the low lying fruit at their leisure...