Backpage.com has shut down its online adult-services ads after relentless pressure from authorities, an action viewed as a victory by a lawmaker who has worked to curb human trafficking.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said the announcement was "long overdue" after executives of the website refused to testify before Congress Tuesday following a Senate report accusing the site of facilitating sex trafficking.
"Websites like Backpage.com facilitate sex trafficking across Minnesota and our country," Klobuchar said in a statement. "Backpage.com's announcement that it will be shutting down its adult-services section is long overdue, but another positive step forward in our fight against human trafficking."
Klobuchar, who spoke on human trafficking at the Democratic National Convention, co-sponsored bipartisan legislation that was signed into law in May.
The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act was modeled after Minnesota's Safe Harbor law, which gives incentives for all states to have a safe harbor provision to help ensure minors who are sold for sex aren't prosecuted as defendants but are instead treated as victims.
The Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report Monday charging that Backpage has created a lucrative marketplace that makes child sex trafficking easier, according to the Associated Press.
The report cites internal documents showing that up to 80 percent of the site's ads are edited to conceal the true nature of the underlying transaction.
Backpage has denied the allegations, and the site shuttered its "adult" section in the U.S. Monday night to protest what it calls government censorship.
