Shattering Ortega’s Conspiracy of Silence

One day in and the new year is already starting off with a bang. Here at the blog we’ve long been sounding the alarm bells over the conduct of sex trafficking apologists like Tony Ortega. One of the major concerns we had about the way Tony conducted himself with such brazen hypocrisy during his tenure at the Village Voice was the degree to which he was actively working to destroy the lives of the countless children being exploited by his Backpage owners.

Now the victims are fighting back.

Just before the close of the year a young woman in Washington state who was a victim of online sex trafficking at the age of 14 filed suit against Backpage and Salesforce, a greedy company which aided Backpage in finding legal loopholes via a devious  marketing strategy.

The young woman’s lawsuit pulls no punches, declaring:

“ _Backpage was assisted in their marketing endeavors by the corporation, Salesforce, and the minor Plaintiff was advertised and sold to be raped in Pierce County and Kitsap County_….”

Just like Tony Ortega, Salesforce is taking the coward’s way out of the situation, stubbornly refusing to address the charges or answer any questions. Do these people honestly believe if they just close their eyes all the damage they’ve caused over the years will magically disappear?

Tony Ortega, at least, seems to be operating under this assumption. How many stories have we heard now of girls being sold in order to be raped, and still Tony refuses to admit the part in played in trying to legitimize Backpage’s actions!

In our last piece we suggested that Tony Ortega had to have known what was going on with Backpage sex trafficking. As Editor-At-Large, Ortega was intimately involved with its operators. It simply strains credulity to imagine someone in his oversight position was completely in the dark as to the shady marketing strategies (explicitly developed on his watch!) designed from the beginning to do an end run around law enforcement.

It boggles the mind that even someone as daft as Tony Ortega would believe anyone would be stupid enough to believe that!

On its corporate website Chairman and Co-CEO Marc Benioff states:

“We know that technology is not inherently good or bad; it ’ s what we do with it that matters. And that ’ s why we ’ re making the ethical and humane use of technology a strategic focus at Salesforce.”

It’s what we do with the knowledge we have that matters. If this is true, then Tony Ortega has a lot to answer for because of course Tony Ortega knew!

He knew and he did nothing. How many child rapes is he responsible for? How many deaths?

We will be watching this case with particular attention if only to hear these questions finally put to the men responsible. Ortega and Salesforce may have been trying for years to close their ears to the Backpage victims but now the women and children they exploited are finding their voices.

Tony Ortega’s era of strident denialism will come to a crashing end only when the Backpage conspiracy of silence is shattered!