Craigslist is set to break its silence on why it abruptly took down its Adult Services section Aug. 30, as its director of law enforcement relations and an attorney with its outside law firm are scheduled to testify to Congress Wednesday.

William "Clint" Powell, Craigslist's director of customer service and law enforcement relations, will testify before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security in a hearing on domestic-minor sex trafficking. Also listed on the schedule is attorney Elizabeth McDougall, a partner at Perkins Coie in Seattle. Though McDougall isn't listed as representing Craigslist on the witness list, her law firm represents Craigslist. and she has appeared in court cases on Craigslist's behalf.

After years of pressure from state attorneys general and anti–human-trafficking groups, Craigslist removed the Adult Services sections for U.S. cities on the eve of the Labor Day weekend with no public comment, other than to replace the link with the word, "Censored."

Craigslist has rebuffed or ignored requests for comment or explanation, and despite telling Wired.com that it would put up a blog post explaining the decision, the company has gone to ground – not even explaining to the attorneys general if the removal is permanent.

Craigslist created the section to keep escort-service ads from appearing in its personals section, and began charging at the behest of attorneys general. Craigslist was manually screening the ads to keep out pornographic images or ads that seemed to be referring to minors, blocking more than 700,000 such ads in the last year, according to public statements by CEO Jim Buckmaster.

But those concessions did not stop the mounting criticism. A federal law protects Craigslist and sites like Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo and Wired.com from legal liability for content created by users. That law, known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, was enacted in 1998 and has withstood numerous court challenges.

Other witnesses include five present and former members of Congress, along with Francey Hakes, the Justice Department's national coordinator for child-exploitation prevention and interdiction; Ernie Allen, CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; Tina Frundt, executive director of Courtney’s House; Nicholas Sensley, the Truckee, California, chief of police; Suzanna Tiapula, director of the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse; and Deborah Richardson, chief program officer of the Women’s Funding Network.

While Craigslist is one of the web's most popular sites, it is run by a staff of fewer than 50 from an office in a residential neighborhood in San Francisco. Its yearly revenues are unknown, as it's a privately held company, but it's estimated to make more than $100 million a year, mostly from housing- and job-listing ads in major U.S. cities.

The hearing is at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday and is being streamed on the net.

Photo: Craigslist's office in San Francisco.

Blmurch

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