Craigslist is a conduit, a petri dish, a gathering place for those bold enough to hawk used mattresses and IKEA wine racks, or willing to search with blind hope for that girl they stood next to on line at Rainbow Grocery for 3.6 milliseconds two Wednesday nights ago. For the huddling masses out there who just want a roof over their sad sacks. What Craigslist is not: Your mom. A priest, guru, or the Buddha. A cop. Big Brother. And most importantly, an editor. Newsflash: It's official— Craigslist is not responsible for the sick, twisted content of your housing listings, people. Especially if said listings indicate, say, certain preferences for, say, green people, or purple people, or people who have a penchant for tiger costumes, AC/DC, and scented bath products (used together, not separately). It is official: The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld an earlier ruling that essentially considers Craigslist an Internet service provider rather than an online publisher, and therefore not in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, which bans the posting of discriminatory housing notices, as the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law first contended two years ago. Funny, some still refuse to believe that Craig Newmark doesn't sit at a Kryptonite-plated command station, wearing a Darth Vader helmet while editing the whole site post-by-post, all day, every day. (That's what we do, remember?)
· Court Backs Craigslist in Discrimination Brouhaha [Wired]
Filed under:
Loading comments...