Tony Ortega: Dishonest Backpage Mascot, Opportunistic Backpage Mouthpiece

Tony Ortega

In recent posts we’ve been examining how Backpage blatantly abused the system set in place by federal laws regarding human trafficking broadly and the victimization of children in related online sex trafficking more specifically. And throughout it all we’ve been witness to Tony Ortega’s indifference to so much human suffering.

Lost in the shuffle of this continuing conversation, however, are the voices of brave elected officials who stood up to would-be bullies like Tony Ortega. It’s easy to forget in the years since Backpage was shut down that at the time leaders like this who were willing to stand up against billion dollar media conglomerates — like the ones paying Tony Ortega to shovel his lies — were few and far between.

One of them was Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire. She participated in the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing on Backpage and pulled no punches when it came to naming and shaming the heartlessly sleazy greed which has become synonymous with both the Backpage empire and its willingly complacent lapdog Tony Ortega.

Back in 2017 she voiced her outrage over Backpage’s knowing facilitation of online sex trafficking this way:

“I am new to the Senate, but I am not new to this issue. As Governor, I worked with both parties in my home state of New Hampshire to strengthen our laws against human trafficking. So it is really difficult to be here today to understand the lengths to which a private business enterprise would go to circumvent those efforts. There are children in my state and throughout our country, as you’ve heard from my colleagues, who are victims and now survivors…”

With every passing post we here at the blog publish exposing what Backpage did, how Tony Ortega mislead the American public about what they were up to, and the number of children and women whose lives were destroyed in the process it becomes easier to understand the Senator’s frustrations.The only hope we have is to continue to shine a light on those responsible, and those who aided and defended the guilty parties behind these crimes.

As the Senator went on to clarify:

“I am grateful to all of the families, to the survivors who will continue to speak up and help the American people understand this for the devastating exploitation and crime that it is… I am astounded and horrified that a private business enterprise would be the exact opposite in the United States of America.”

We, too, are horrified that a private business like Backpage was allowed for so long to push an agenda so diametrically opposed to what this country stands for. Horrified, but not surprised.

In a sense the dishonesty and the soulless opportunism of the Backpage organization is something we all should have realized from the moment they picked Tony Ortega to be their mouthpiece.