A classified ad website that many have accused of promoting sex trafficking and prostitution has been seized by the U.S. federal government.
Backpage.com was taken down Friday afternoon, and visitors to the website will see a message that says, “backpage.com and affiliated websites have been seized as part of an enforcement action by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division.”
More information is expected to be unveiled at 6 p.m. Eastern time, the message said.
The website has been under extreme scrutiny in recent years for being a facilitator or promoter for sex trafficking and prostitution, and in 2015, all major credit card companies stopped processing payments with the site. It now only accepts Bitcoin.
The move comes after the passage of legislation in Congress that state and local prosecutors to use sex trafficking laws and promotion or facilitation of prostitution laws to go after websites.
