U.S. Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) announced civil action on Tuesday in response to questions about how Backpage.com screens for warning signs of sex trafficking.
Backpage, a web-based business with $150 million in annual revenues, is a market leader in commercial sex advertising. The company faces accusations that its platform enables sex trafficking, including trafficking of children.
A bipartisan staff report cited evidence that Backpage employees edit advertisements before they’re posted to eliminate keywords and phrases that could indicate illegal activity.
In response, Portman, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and McCaskill, the ranking member of the subcommittee, issued a subpoena for the release of documents pertaining to the investigation into Backpage’s business practices.
Backpage refused to comply with the subpoena, leading the Senate Legal Counsel to file in federal district court in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to enforce the subpoena.
“We have given Backpage.com every opportunity to comply with a lawful subpoena, but they have continued to stonewall our bipartisan investigation,” Portman and McCaskill said in a joint statement. “The Senate’s decision to bring civil action against Backpage will help us better understand how lawmakers, law enforcement and even private business can more effectively combat the serious and heart-breaking crime of sex trafficking that thrives on an online black market.”
The Senate voted on March 17 to authorize the Senate Legal Counsel to pursue civil contempt proceedings against Backpage, marking the first time in 20 years that it has done so.
“We have long been alarmed about Backpage’s business practices that fail to prevent children from being sold for sex on its website,” John Clark, the president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said. “The work of (Portman and McCaskill’s) subcommittee to investigate these practices and to demand answers is to be widely commended…. We are grateful for (the senators’) dedication to the safety of our nation’s children and look forward to continuing to work with you and others who are working tireless to half the terrible tragedy of online child sex trafficking.”