SAN FRANCISCO -- Craigslist appears to have surrendered in a legal fight over erotic ads posted on its website, shutting down its adult-services section yesterday and replacing it with a black bar that simply says "censored."
The move comes a little more than a week after a group of state attorneys general said there weren't enough protections against blocking potentially illegal ads promoting prostitution. It's not clear if the closing is permanent, and it appears to affect only ads in the United States.
The listings came under new scrutiny after the jailhouse suicide last month of a former medical student who was awaiting trial in the killing of a masseuse he met through Craigslist. Critics have likened the services to virtual pimping, while Craigslist maintained that the site was carrying ads even tamer than those published by some newspapers.
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