The Aftermath of the Backpage Shutdown

Two years ago the Department of Justice seized Backpage.com in an effort to end the illegal online sex industry in this country. 

It was widely seen as a huge victory in the effort to stop sex trafficking, the culmination of years of work by advocates. Two years later we asked some of 3 Generations anti-trafficking allies and what they thought. Turns out the same problems still exist and in some cases it is even harder to find missing and exploited victims since the online industry has fragmented into myriad sites. One former trafficked friend who now works helping other survivors called the shutdown of Backpage “a fucking disaster”. We see the shutdown as a definitional Pyrrhic victory. Please share your opinions about this – we’d like to hear what you think.

Watch here.