Backpage Exposed: Bragging With Your Head In The Sand

Tony Ortega

We’ve learned a lot so far over the course of our examination into the continued duplicity Backpage was engaged in as Tony Ortega took to the pages of the Village Voice in a vain attempt to spin public sentiment in favor of his sex trafficking bosses.

One of the things we’ve been noticing in the official court documents however, is exactly how brazen the Backpage conspiracists were in all this.

For example on July 27, 2011, Carl Ferrer sent an email to Dan Hyer and Andrew Padilla, and a nearly-identical email to the top bosses James Larkin and Michael Lacey, concerning the possibility of using age- verification software. In this email, Carl Ferrer acknowledged the software might be beneficial (saying: “This might be our solution”) but recommended against its wholesale adoption because it would cost “79 to 99 cents per query” and would thus cut into Backpage’s profits.

And doesn’t that just say it all as to what Backpage and its defenders were most concerned about! It was never about moderation policy for these corporate fat cats, it was always about the profits.

What is more, proof of Backpage’s shameless hypocrisy as it was undermining its own moderation is everywhere. On July 28, 2011, Michael Lacey sent James Larkin a draft editorial entitled “BackPage understood.” In this document, Lacey bragged about Backpage’s contributions to the prostitution industry, saying:

“Backpage is part of the solution. Eliminating our adult advertising will in no way eliminate or even reduce the incidence of prostitution in this country…. For the very first time, the oldest profession in the world has transparency, record keeping and safeguards.”

Lacey also acknowledged that Backpage used an automatic filter to remove particular phrases from ads that were indicative of prostitution but still published the ads after editing them. In other words they were doing as little as they could to address the ‘problems’ with their service while trumpeting their self-described ‘groundbreaking’ commitment to oversight.

Soon afterward, Larkin forwarded the editorial to Carl Ferrer with a cover note cautioning against some of Lacey’s statements “being made public” because “we need to stay away from the very idea of ‘editing’ the posts, as you know.”

Carl Ferrer in turn, revised the editorial to take out the paragraph lauding Backpage’s contributions to the prostitution industry. It is worth noting in all this, that what motivated Ferrer to remove Backpage’s self-congratulating back-slapping wasn’t shame for its stark hypocrisy. In his own words it was because they were trying to avoid drawing attention to the issue at all.

At long last the crime syndicate behind Backpage had finally found their response to the problems they created — and it was to brag about it with their heads in the sand.