“Backpage exists solely so that people can freely express themselves—sometimes in ways that make other people uncomfortable. We’re First Amendment extremists that way. Always have been.”
So begins one of Tony Ortega’s many ardent defenses for his sex peddling bosses at the Backpage. “First Amendment extremist”, what is that phrase even meant to convey if not a brotherhood of narrow-minded, radicalism he shares with his fellow ‘extremists’ everywhere.
It might be tempting for some to think that the deluge of justifiable outrage over the Backpage underage sex trafficking scandal is somehow a recent phenomenon. It is not.
For years voices of everyday citizens have clamored against the infamous crime syndicate and its lapdog, Tony Ortega. Even close to a decade ago, we knew and understood the seriousness of the crimes these scumbags were engaged in profiting from.
When Tony Ortega was dismissed from The Village Voice in September 2012, The New York Observer disclosed that he lost his job as Editor-in-Chief for neglecting his duties in favor of his personal daily rants against Scientology. It got so bad that one staffer at the Voice complained, “He was increasingly obsessed with Scientology and had neglected almost all of his editorial duties at the paper. Sometimes he wouldn’t even edit features.
Maybe it’s not so hard to believe that it’s already been 6 years since Tony Ortega was let go as the editor of The Village Voice. Since that time it’s been an on-going saga of continuous unemployment, desperate boot-licking in Hollywood, and a lackluster (to say the least) foray into the narcissistic world of self-publishing.
Suffice it to say, Tony Ortega will most likely be out of the running for the ‘Most Industrious Man of the Decade’ award this time around.
This last month was designated by the White House as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, dedicating the month to raising national awareness of the issue of human trafficking and highlighting efforts to combat this violent crime and those who would enable and endorse such practices.
There’s no mistake that last year saw a decided series of devastating blows to human trafficking in general and Tony Ortega’s former employer, backpage.
People have been talking a lot lately about Tony Ortega and his infamous defense of the Backpage, since the story is once again making headlines as the federal government moves ahead with its case against the people behind it.
Tony Ortega asserts that the classified section was never a platform for selling sex, but a new report from law enforcement is clearly demonstrating this to be yet another of his lies.
Repercussions from the recent pressure being put on Backpage and its conspiratorial enablers like Tony Ortega continue to be felt across the country.
Just this week in Florida, a woman was sentenced to life in prison for prostituting a 14-year-old female runaway by setting the girl up in a motel room and creating a profile for the child on backpage.com.
The woman in question, 35 year old Katilia Brekeysha Seymour, was convicted of human trafficking following her arrest more than two years ago in Pinellas County.
The role Tony Ortega played (and continues to play by remaining silent) supporting the notorious Backpage website is no secret to frequent readers of this blog, but the seismic ripple effect in the wake of the Federal raid which seized more than 12 million dollars from those associated with the underage sex-for-hire platform is something few could have predicted.
This week it was announced that human trafficking has become such a danger in California that it will be now be part of the curriculum at seven local school districts when then San Diego County District Attorney’s Office made public it will spend $3 million to fund The San Diego Trafficking Prevention Collective to provide education about human trafficking to more than 237,000 students.
Previously on this blog, we covered the massive bombshell story detailing how Tony Ortega’s former bosses just had their bank accounts seized to the tune of more than 10 million dollars.
Today another intriguing development in the story.
The sentencing of the former CEO of Backpage.com, the infamous website knowingly used for the purposes of underage prostitution, has been pushed to July 18 from its original January date. The move to delay formally throwing the book at Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer, who originally pitched the executives of the New Times tabloid chain (which employed Tony Ortega at the time) on the idea of an online prostitution advertising website, came at the request of the federal government.
It’s no secret these past few years have been a terrible run for the Tony Ortega brand (such as it is) what with entering into his umpteenth consecutive year of deadbeat unemployment, the blow Twitter’s new algorithm struck against his army of fake sock puppet supporters presumably purchased from shady off-shore bot farms, and the chorus of criticism he has been receiving from his very own blog posters calling him out for mistreating his so-called ‘sources’.
The staff at the Village Voice, working under Tony Ortega, had a reputation in New York City for ruthless retaliation on people that poked their nose into its classifieds section, Backpage. Readers of this blog will recognize Backpage as the human trafficking site which tried to cloak itself under the First Amendment’s “Freedom of Speech” clause. In the twisted logic of the Backpage the “Freedom of the Press” guaranteed in the Constitution means one can call “classifieds” part of the “press” and sell human beings in the classifieds section.
Way back when Tony Ortega’s bosses in Phoenix were dreaming about shredding and burning all the evidence implicating them in the global sex-for-profit scandal that was starting to spiral so out of control they were once again at risk of going to prison, a deal was struck.
Tony Ortega was promised that as long as he toed the party line and played nice, he’d be rewarded with an executive assignment as chief editor at a far “more lucrative and prestigious” rag than the “lowly” _Village_Voice.
All the sit-ins and sign-waving on the news lately in the wake of the Senate’s confirmation of the Court’s newest Justice, Brett Kavanaugh, have gotten us thinking about the power of protest.
Sometimes even the littlest gestures can have big impacts. Take for instance the time 15 protesters stood outside the Golleher Alumni House at California State University, Fullerton, chanting “No sex trafficking” in light of a speaker who was invited by two Cal State Fullerton alumni chapters.
The vast majority of women who are raped or sexually assaulted do not report the crime to police, as surveys in light of allegations facing Supreme Court hopeful Brett Kavanaugh suggests. Tragically, this is so because in many cases because the victims have little confidence that their attacker will ever be brought to justice.
Once recent poll found that 1 out of 6 women have experienced some form of harassment, while 35 percent have been sexually assaulted.
We know from past reporting that Backpage refused to impose meaningful requirements before sex ads were posted on their site because they believed the Communications Decency Act would give them immunity from suit for child sex trafficking. They also believed requiring photo identification would substantially reduce their profits, and harm their bottom line.
Rather than take any reasonable steps to prevent children from being advertised for sex on their website, the Backpage intentionally underreported the number of child sex ads on their website.
Yet another bombshell case against Tony Ortega’s former employer, the infamous sex trafficking website Backpage comes to light this week.
This case involves an unnamed plaintiff known only as ‘K.R.’ She claims that Backpage directly violated the Code of Alabama §13A-6-151, and makes claims for violation of Alabama’s human trafficking statute, outrage, negligence and wantonness, and unjust enrichment against Backpage.
In early 2013, K.R. turned seventeen (17) years old. Around that time, she ran away from her home in Meridian, Lauderdale County, Mississippi with very little money.
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.
We’ve been discussing the lawsuits, the sex-trafficking, the selling of children for sex Tony Ortega supported and condoned during his time as Editor in Chief of the Village Voice owned and controlled by the owners of Backpage.com.
Behind all the salacious sex abuses Tony Ortega is responsible for there remain more dark charges that have been leveled at his previous pet-project for which he bears similar responsibility – one of these is the murder of Ashley Benson, which was the direct result of Ortega’s insidious marketing scheme to cheat the system.
On August 17, 2018,Dan Hyer, Sales and Marketing Director of Backpage.com pleaded guilty to conspiring to facilitate prostitution, Hyer participated in a scheme to give free ads to prostitutes in a bid to drive business to Backpage. Hyer is yet another Backpage employee to plead guilty. He will be sentenced in November 2018.
Michael Lacey and James Larkin, who owned the Backpage trademark attached “Backpage” online sex trafficking site to the Village Voice.
Florida Abolitionist, Inc. is a non-profit organization in Orlando, Florida with a mission to combat and end human trafficking and other forms of modern day human slavery. It provides direct services to trafficked adults and children.
In a new lawsuit, Florida Abolitionist has filed against the men behind Backpage, it alleges Backpage knowingly participated in, and facilitated, sex trafficking. By doing so Backpage has increased the number of trafficked adults and children that Florida Abolitionist treats.
