On April 6, 2018, the federal government seized and shut down the classified advertising platform Backpage, alleging that a group of current and former executives had used the website to facilitate prostitution. Five years later, two of these executives and a number of former users of Backpage reflect on what the prosecution and the platform's closure have meant.
The seizure of Backpage helped "activate" Kaytlin Bailey toward sex worker advocacy. "To know so many people who used this service to keep themselves safe, to schedule and screen their clients, and to have the government narrative be that these, like, evil sex traffickers are kidnapping and shipping children…has been absolutely bananas," says Bailey, a comedian, former sex worker, and the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Old Pros. "The fact that we have really really smart people who have fallen for this idea that we can end child sexual exploitation by removing websites on the internet—it continues to blow my mind."
