A number of leading anti-human trafficking organizations are applauding a recommendation made by a bipartisan group of U.S. senators that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) conduct a criminal inquiry of Backpage.com over concerns that the website is facilitating acts of human trafficking.
On July 13, U.S. Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH), Tom Carper (D-DE), and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Session stating they believed there was sufficient evidence to warrant a DOJ review of the website.
The request followed a two-year Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations probe which led to the discovery that Backpage’s operators knowingly facilitated criminal sex trafficking of women and young girls and actively covered up evidence in order to not adversely affect its profitability.
In a series of Twitter posts, National Center for Missing Children CEO John F. Clark applauded the move by the senators by stating that the inquiry amplified the voices of survivors [of human trafficking] and strengthened their effort to seek justice against everyone who participated in their suffering.
The sentiment was shared by the Polaris Project, Ending Child Slavery at the Source, Demand Abolition, and Thorn, all of whom released a joint statement in support of the senators’ inquiry.
“We are thankful to Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), and Tom Carper (D-DE) for their leadership in the exhaustive investigation of Backpage.com’s role in facilitating online sex trafficking, and their clarion call for the Department of Justice to proceed with a criminal investigation,” the statement said. “No child or adult deserves to be sold online, on a street corner, in a ‘massage’ brothel, or anywhere else.”
According to a release from Portman, Backpage’s estimated annual revenues were in excess of $150 million and is a market leader in commercial sex advertising with hundreds of reported cases of sex trafficking being linked to the site.