Tuesday, June 18, 2019

The Story Behind Backpage.com And How It Might Change Silicon Valley

What's the story behind Dallas-based Backpage.com, the now offline purveyor of sex ads, and its long battle with law enforcement? Wired has the inside story behind Backpage, and founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin--and how the decision in their criminal cases might affet Silicon Valley in years to come. The now defunct website--seized by the Feds in April of 2018--had originally looked much like Craigslist, as a place for classified ads for everything from a plumber to other local services--but ended up as a "virtual red light district" whose main income and clientele was ads from sex workers.