As many folks here now recognize, the story about Backpage was grossly misleading. While the narrative pushed by politicians and the media was that the company was engaged in sex trafficking, the DOJ had actually commended the company for being a strong partner in the fight against sex trafficking. Indeed, the eventual takedown of Backpage days before FOSTA went into effect (which we were told was necessary to shut down Backpage) has been shown to make life more difficult for law enforcement trying to stop sex trafficking.
But I thought politicians told us the truth? /s
Backpage moderated some posts, sure. But what was the role of Salesforce here besides supplying a software package?
when I ran my own business I had a support deal with my main software vendor. Maybe something like that is being held against them?
No way, that would make software providers liable for users missing their software. It’d be like MS being on the hook for terrorism if the Taliban used Windows on a laptop to manage their stuff.
expecting the government to act sensibly and logically is a real easy path to madness
Truth. But, the big problem is setting whacko precedents. Maybe a better contemporary example would be the fed going after Apple because Luigi had an iPhone. All of a sudden, software providers start monitoring their programs’ users for signs they might be subject to a lawsuit.