The Senate recently pushed a legal action to force classified advertising website Backpage.com to turn over records of how it filters ads for possible sex trafficking.
According to Star Tribune, a lawsuit was filed against Backpage.com for their questionable filtering of sex ads. The lawsuit is against a classified advertising website wherein the latter will be forced to turn over documents they have to prove that their screening for ads doesn't miss a single thing regarding sex trafficking.
Senators Rob Portman from Ohio and Claire McCaskill of Missouri announced on Tuesday that they will proceed with the lawsuit against the website as reported by Yahoo. Both politicians have stated that the Senate legal action committee and counsel have filed a motion for a civil action in federal district courts. Their main points highlight that the website failed to comply with the congressional subpoena over its screening practices. It is notably known that Portman is the Republican chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and McCaskill is the top democrat whom they've joined force with to eradicate such threats to website pages.
The Virginian Pilot specified that the Senate voted earlier this March to hold the website in contempt. The move was the first time in 20 years that the chamber has done anything of its kind. A lawyer from the website, Backpage.com, did say that the Congress cannot do such thing. They've added that according to the First Amendment, the Congress shall not compel with an online publisher of third party advertisements to produce the documents.
The two senators believe that the website is a market leader in the online exploitation of children. Moreover, they are concerned on the reports that the site is getting $8 out of the $10 spent on its advertising since 2013.
