The front page of a newspaper ideally contains the biggest news stories for the country that the paper circulates in (and maybe some from other countries too). It also teases other interesting stories inside. The front page is sometimes referred to as Page One, and it’s usually broken up into other sections such as Local, Sports, Lifestyle, Family etc.
Three Jane Does who were sex trafficked as minors sued Backpage in federal court in 2014 accusing it of facilitating sex trafficking by the way it ran its business and posted ads. The district court ruled against them. On appeal, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Backpage’s actions were “traditional publisher functions” regarding third-party content and should be shielded by CDA Section 230.
This was the third strike against laws attempting to legislate Backpage out of existence. In August 2013, New Jersey passed a law modeled on those in Washington state and Tennessee, which again was struck down by a federal judge who found that it was “hopelessly vague and overbroad” and “impermissibly chills protected speech.” The same court earlier this year struck down two more of the states’ anti-Backpage laws. In April 2016, the founders of Backpage, Michael Lacey and James Larkin, pleaded guilty to human trafficking. They were also ordered to shut down the site and give it to law enforcement.
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