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Craigslist is in trouble again over sex. Last week, Sheriff Thomas J Dart of Cook County, Illinois, sued the site for knowingly promoting and facilitating prostitution, and demanded that it remove its "erotic services" section.
There's history here. Just as most Americans love to use Craigslist to sell their old furniture and golf clubs, so the nation's prostitutes have found it a cheap, convenient and anonymous place to advertise for clients.
When Craigslist started 14 years ago, it served the liberal Bay Area. No one much minded that it carried ads for (perfectly legal) masseurs, escorts and exotic dancers. And few cared if some of those ads crossed the line into the illegitimate.
But the site is now ubiquitous, serving cities and suburbs in far more conservative parts of the nation. At the same time, it has offered sex workers a way to turn up in those cities, find work quickly and then leave before local law enforcement can nab them.
Last year, Craigslist said it was working with 40 US state Attorneys General to stop it "being misused for the facilitation of human trafficking, child exploitation, and other illegal activities".
This week, in response to the sheriff's action, Craigslist chief executive officer Jim Buckmaster released the first results of that effort, showing a 90% drop in ads for erotic services in five major US cities over the past 12 months.
If that proves Craigslist isn't promoting prostitution, what about the charge of facilitation? The site's a success, after all, precisely because it facilitates exchanges of all kinds between consenting adults so well.
Valley sentiment is that if Craigslist disrupts police work (just as it has the business of journalism), that's the price of progress. Besides, US law is clear.
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