We wrote previously as Editor-At-Large Tony Ortega from 2007 to 2012 oversaw the sleazy Backpage’s “posting rules” and “content requirements.” But Ortega went further by publicly attacking anyone in the press who raised questions about the Backpage’s roll as the country’s leading sex trafficking platform, referring to reports of rising rates of underage prostitution as “bogus information”.
“The actual data behind this ‘epidemic’ is wanting in the extreme,” Ortega wrote, following an “investigative” article, paid by revenues directly acquired by Backpage’s advertising sex for money scheme.
In our last piece we introduced you to Tony Ortega’s boss Carl Ferrer, the longtime CEO of the infamous Backpage under-age sex ring operation.
We’ve explained how helping sex traffickers and prostitutes avoid detection by law enforcement through their phony “posting rules” and “content requirements.” What is now being revealed in the various court cases in multiple dates underway currently is that the Backpage began “moderating” sex ads, which is the term they used for reviewing and editing sex ads on www.
Defendant Carl Ferrer, who has been the CEO of Backpage for many years, personally helped one sex trafficker ensure that his sex trafficking ads would be posted on the website after the Backpage locked his account for posting an ad for sex.
As previously reported this sex trafficker went by the username “Urban Pimp.” When his ads were temporarily blocked, he complained to the Ferrer that his sex ads were blocked and noted that he was trying to post sex ads in more than 50 cities in the United States.
Carl Ferrer, Michael Lacey, James Larkin
Anthony “Tony” Ortega
After Backpage.com created the marketplace, Tony Ortega helped sex traffickers create and develop the content of their ads on the site so they could profit from each ad.
When law enforcement began to scrutinize the illegal activity occurring on Backpage, Ortega’s bosses took steps to help sex traffickers create ads that would avoid detection by law enforcement so that they could continue to profit from those ads.
We read yesterday about the story of K.R. and how at the hands of a longtime Backpage user known as ‘Alonso’ she was trafficked and sold repeatedly for sex. In her suit in Alabama K.R. alleged she was consistently threatened, physically abused and forced her to take intoxicating agents including illegal drugs and alcohol.
From May 28, 2013, until approximately August 8, 2013, Alonso reserved rooms on thirty-seven (37) different nights in various hotels to carry out the sex trafficking venture Backpage had made possible.
