U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa acquitted three former Backpage executives of myriad counts against them last week—more evidence of how empty so much of the federal case against them is. Humetewa ruled that there was insufficient evidence to uphold 50 of the counts* against journalist and Backpage co-founder Michael Lacey, 10 of the counts against former Executive Vice President Scott Spear, and 18 of the counts against former Chief Financial Officer Jed Brunst.

From the beginning, this prosecution has been premised on a bogus rationale (authorities yammer on about sex trafficking though none of the defendants are charged with sex trafficking), overreaching in its scope (attempting to hold a web platform accountable for user-generated speech, in contradiction to Section 230), offensive to the First Amendment, and relentless in its attempts to handicap the defense. So it's a treat to see a judge slap prosecutors down a notch, even if it comes very late in the game (after two trials and after one defendant taking his own life) and even though it may not make much of a practical difference for Lacey, Brunst, and Spear (who face imprisonment for the rest of their lives even with the acquittals).

Humetewa's order showcases how this case has turned normal content moderation into criminal activity—in what should serve as a warning to tech companies of all sorts. The government's demands are simply impossible.

In this case, Backpage banned explicit offers of sex for money (which is illegal in most of the U.S.) but allowed adults ads more generally, since plenty of forms of sex work are legal. Providing a platform for protected speech should itself be protected, of course. But in a truly Orwellian fashion, the government argues that the very act of forbidding explicit prostitution ads was a way of encouraging prostitution ads, thereby facilitating prostitution in violation of the federal Travel Act.

The alleged "conspiracy" here is that defendants agreed "to work together toward the goal of making money by helping prostitution posters make their ads look less obviously like prostitution ads," as Humetawa puts it. To this end, they allegedly banned not only direct offers of sex for money but certain "code words" that politicians and activists construed to connote prostitution offers.