Craigslist censors U.S. access to adult services feature

San Francisco - The San Francisco-based online community website, Craigslist, has banned United States access to its adult services and, instead, replaced it with "censored." The move comes as the company receives constant criticism of facilitating prostitution.

Craigslist receives 30 percent of its revenue, or $36.6 million, from its adult services section. The company has repeatedly revised its adult services page to accommodate critics who say Craigslist facilitates prostitution. Some changes include changing erotic services to adult services and apply certain rules for different types of ads. On Saturday, after growing pressure from 18 state attorneys, Craigslist blocked U.S. access to its adult services page and replaced the tab with a black label reading “censored” in bold letters, according to Agence-France Presse. The latest move did not affect non-U.S. websites, which still has the adult services link. In August, the state attorneys wrote a letter to Cragislist CEO, Jim Buckmaster, and founder, Craig Newmark, to remove the adult services section: “The increasingly sharp public criticism of Craigslist's adult services section reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution -- including ads trafficking children -- are rampant on it,” the letter said. “In our view, the company should take immediate action to end the misery for the women and children who may be exploited and victimized by these ads.” There has been no official explanation from either the company’s blog or the CEO’s Twitter feed.