Thread by @WIRED

Backpage was called the Google of commercial sex ads. Then the Feds came after it. Now a lawsuit with First Amendment implications is underway.

Here’s why America’s tech behemoths, from Twitter to Facebook, had better hope Backpage wins 1/ wired.trib.al/DFHiVFb

Founded by Michael Lacey and James Larkin, Backpage was a kind of red-light district for the internet. For as little as $2 a day, users could post in “Adult”’ categories like “body rubs” and “dom & fetish” 2/ wired.trib.al/DFHiVFb

For years, Backpage was protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which says platforms can police content as they see fit. As long as they don't *create* it, the gov can’t prosecute them for something illegal that a user does or says 3/ wired.trib.al/DFHiVFb

In the case of Backpage, Senate investigators have claimed that, rather than removing illegal content, the site used clever moderation practices to “sanitize the content.” This included editing ads and alerting customers when they used a banned term 4/ wired.trib.al/DFHiVFb

In the Senate’s eyes, this made Backpage a creator—not a host. Since shuttering the site last spring, the Feds have seized more than $100 million in cash, real estate, and other assets from Lacey and Larkin 5/ wired.trib.al/DFHiVFb

Why should tech giants care about the fate of a sex ad site? A law aimed at stopping platforms like Backpage has implications for them as well. Called Fosta-Sesta, it puts more of the onus on websites for the content they host 6/ wired.trib.al/DFHiVFb

Fosta-Sesta is specific to sex trafficking and sex work, but now that 230 has been modified, groups like the National Association of Attorneys General are calling for Congress to cut it back further 7/ wired.trib.al/DFHiVFb

Further cutbacks to 230 would open a Pandora's box of issues for tech platforms. They could be prosecuted for everything from users selling opioids to uploading deep fake videos 8/ wired.trib.al/DFHiVFb

Even if Fosta-Sesta is ruled unconstitutional, the gov has shown it can subvert 230 in other ways. If Lacey and Larkin lose—if the asset seizures stand—prosecutors will have a new weapon to wield against Silicon Valley 9/ wired.trib.al/DFHiVFb

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