WhereIsAtlas · Technology

Craigslist Personals

Craigslist's dating and casual-encounter categories, taken offline on 22 March 2018 — not by a hack or a court order, but by FOSTA/SESTA, the US law that carved sex-trafficking claims out of Section 230

Retired — The Personals section was the dating side of craigslist, a free classifieds site founded in 1995. Its categories — dating, romance and casual encounters — were taken offline in the United States on 22 March 2018, the day after the Senate passed the FOSTA-SESTA package and three weeks before President Donald Trump signed it as Public Law 115-164. Craigslist replaced the section with a short notice blaming the bill, which subjected websites to criminal and civil liability when users misused online personals. The company did not say it had broken a law; it said it could not carry the risk without endangering its other services. The parent site still operates; the Personals section has not returned.

Craigslist began in 1995 as an email list of San Francisco Bay Area events and grew into a classifieds site with sections for jobs, housing, goods and services. Among its categories were the personals boards — dating, romance, "strictly platonic" and "casual encounters" — which were free to post to, and which the coverage of their closure described as one of the most heavily visited sections of the site [7]. Jim Buckmaster, who joined the company as lead programmer in January 2000 and became chief executive that November, worked on the site's personals categories [4].

For most of its life the section was protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, enacted on 8 February 1996 as Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In its core provision, a provider or user of an interactive computer service "shall not be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider" — which is why a platform was generally not liable for what its users posted [6].

That protection had already been narrowed once before, by commercial and political pressure rather than by statute. Craigslist closed its "adult services" section in the United States on 4 September 2010 after state attorneys general argued the ads facilitated prostitution; much of that advertising moved to Backpage, which had launched in 2004 as a rival classifieds site [4][5].

What ended Personals was a statute. FOSTA — the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, H.R. 1865 — was combined with SESTA, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, into a single package. The House passed it 388-25 on 27 February 2018 and the Senate passed it 97-2 on 21 March 2018; senators Ron Wyden and Rand Paul were the only votes against [3]. The President signed it on 11 April 2018 as Public Law 115-164 [2].

The law did two things. It created a new federal offence at 18 U.S.C. 2421A for operating an interactive computer service with the intent to promote or facilitate prostitution — up to 10 years' imprisonment, or up to 25 years for aggravated violations involving five or more people or reckless disregard of the fact that the conduct contributed to sex trafficking, with civil damages and mandatory restitution available — and it amended Section 230(e) to add a paragraph stating that nothing in the section limits civil claims under 18 U.S.C. 1595 for conduct violating the sex-trafficking statute at 1591, or state criminal prosecutions where the conduct would violate 1591 or 2421A. State attorneys general were given a parens patriae right to sue on behalf of residents. The amendment was expressly made applicable to conduct occurring before, on or after enactment [2].

Craigslist's response was immediate. By the evening of 22 March 2018, the day after the Senate vote, visitors to the Personals section found a notice citing H.R. 1865 and saying the categories had been taken offline. The full text, still published on the company's site, reads: "US Congress recently passed HR 1865, 'FOSTA', seeking to subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully. Any tool or service can be misused. We can't take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, so we have regretfully taken craigslist personals offline. Hopefully we can bring them back some day." It closed with an aside to "the millions of spouses, partners, and couples who met through craigslist" [1].

The section never came back.

The sister event ran on the same calendar. On 6 April 2018 the FBI and other federal agencies seized Backpage, the country's second-largest classifieds site and the main beneficiary of the advertising that had left craigslist in 2010. The Department of Justice indictment against the site was unsealed on 9 April 2018 with 93 counts, and chief executive Carl Ferrer agreed to shut the site down and make its data available to law enforcement [5]. On 12 April 2018 the California Attorney General announced that Ferrer had pleaded guilty in Sacramento County Superior Court to one count of conspiracy and three counts of money laundering, and had agreed to close Backpage worldwide, surrender its domains and co-operate in the prosecution of its two controlling shareholders, facing a five-year maximum sentence [9]. The Backpage defendants were ultimately charged under the Travel Act and money-laundering statutes rather than under FOSTA [5].

The dating that had happened on classifieds pages moved to applications. Grindr launched in March 2009 [11], Tinder in 2012 and is owned by Match Group [10], and Bumble in December 2014 [12] — all of them established before Personals closed. A June 2021 report by the US Government Accountability Office, which FOSTA itself had required, found that two events in April 2018 — the Backpage seizure and the enactment of FOSTA — disrupted the online commercial sex market, that many platform operators moved overseas and the market fragmented, and that gathering tips and evidence had become harder for law enforcement. The same report found that criminal restitution had not been sought and civil damages had not been awarded under the section of FOSTA creating the new offence, and that the one civil case seeking damages had been dismissed [3].

Criticism of the law has been sustained. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the ACLU, the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, Engine Advocacy, the Sex Workers Outreach Project and the Wikimedia Foundation argued that weakening the Section 230 safe harbour would chill voluntary moderation and burden smaller services, and sex-worker organisations said platforms used for screening and safety went dark or became more precarious after the law passed [3]. The Department of Justice's own letter to the House Judiciary Committee raised concerns that provisions would make prosecuting traffickers harder and could raise ex post facto problems [3]. The constitutionality of the law was tested and upheld: the EFF's challenge, Woodhull Freedom Foundation v. United States, was filed on 18 June 2018, dismissed for lack of standing that September, revived by the D.C. Circuit on standing in January 2020, dismissed again on 29 March 2022, and finally rejected by the D.C. Circuit on 7 July 2023, which agreed the statute is neither unconstitutionally overbroad nor vague. A separate challenge in Texas was rejected on 5 January 2021 in United States v. Martono, the case arising from the seizure of the site CityxGuide [3].

Timeline

  1. 1995 — Craigslist begins: Craig Newmark starts an email distribution list of San Francisco Bay Area events that becomes craigslist.org. (San Francisco)
  2. 1996 — Section 230 is enacted: The Communications Decency Act takes effect on 8 February 1996; Section 230 shields services from being treated as the publisher of their users' content. (Washington, D.C.)
  3. Jan 2000 — The personals categories take shape: Jim Buckmaster joins as lead programmer and works on the site's personals categories before becoming chief executive that November. (San Francisco)
  4. 4 Sep 2010 — The adult services section closes: After pressure from state attorneys general, craigslist closes its US "adult services" section; much of that advertising moves to Backpage. (United States)
  5. Jan 2017 — Backpage closes its adult section: Ahead of a Senate subcommittee hearing, Backpage removes its adult category and posts a "CENSORED" banner.
  6. 27 Feb 2018 — The House passes FOSTA: H.R. 1865 passes the House of Representatives 388-25. (Washington, D.C.)
  7. 21 Mar 2018 — The Senate passes the package: The FOSTA-SESTA package passes the Senate 97-2, with Ron Wyden and Rand Paul the only votes against. (Washington, D.C.)
  8. 22 Mar 2018 — Personals goes offline: craigslist takes the Personals section offline in the United States and replaces it with a notice citing H.R. 1865. (United States)
  9. 6 Apr 2018 — Backpage is seized: The FBI and other federal agencies seize Backpage; co-founder Michael Lacey is arrested. (Phoenix, Arizona)
  10. 9 Apr 2018 — The Backpage indictment is unsealed: A 93-count indictment is unsealed, and chief executive Carl Ferrer agrees to shut the site and give its data to law enforcement.
  11. 11 Apr 2018 — FOSTA is signed into law: President Donald Trump signs Public Law 115-164, creating 18 U.S.C. 2421A and carving sex-trafficking claims out of Section 230. (Washington, D.C.)
  12. 12 Apr 2018 — Ferrer pleads guilty: The Backpage chief executive pleads guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of money laundering and agrees to shut the site down worldwide. (Sacramento, California)
  13. 24 Aug 2021 — The first FOSTA guilty plea: Wilhan Martono, who had controlled the site CityxGuide, pleads guilty to promotion of prostitution and reckless disregard of sex trafficking.
  14. 29 Mar 2022 — The challenge is dismissed again: A district court rejects the constitutional challenge to FOSTA on the merits, after an earlier dismissal for lack of standing was reversed on appeal. (Washington, D.C.)
  15. 7 Jul 2023 — The D.C. Circuit upholds the law: The Court of Appeals affirms that FOSTA is neither unconstitutionally overbroad nor vague. (Washington, D.C.)
  16. Aug 2024 — The Backpage co-founder is sentenced: Michael Lacey receives five years in federal prison and a $3 million fine, on money-laundering counts rather than under FOSTA. (Phoenix, Arizona)

Quick facts

Closed
22 March 2018, in the United States
Closed by
craigslist itself, in a notice posted in place of the section
Cause cited
H.R. 1865, "FOSTA" — the FOSTA-SESTA package
Statute
Public Law 115-164, signed 11 April 2018
New offence created
18 U.S.C. 2421A, promoting or facilitating prostitution
Maximum penalties
10 years, or 25 years for aggravated violations
Mechanism
a new exception to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
Section 230
enacted 8 February 1996
House vote
388-25, 27 February 2018
Senate vote
97-2, 21 March 2018
Dissent
senators Ron Wyden and Rand Paul
Signed by
President Donald Trump, 11 April 2018
Sister event
Backpage seized by the FBI on 6 April 2018
Backpage outcome
CEO Carl Ferrer pleaded guilty on 12 April 2018; the site shut down permanently
Legal challenge
EFF's Woodhull case, rejected by the D.C. Circuit on 7 July 2023
Successors
app-based dating, including Grindr (2009), Tinder (2012) and Bumble (2014)
Platform today
craigslist still operates, without Personals
Status
retired

Lineage — where the name went

A dating section, the statute that ended it, and the rival seized days later: Section 230's protection, the FOSTA/SESTA exception written into it, craigslist's voluntary closure, and the Backpage prosecution.

  1. Craigslist created Craigslist Personals (the dating categories that ran until March 2018)
  2. 2018 — Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was parent of FOSTA/SESTA (FOSTA amended section 230(e) to add a sex-trafficking exception)
  3. 2018 — FOSTA/SESTA defeated Craigslist Personals (craigslist closed Personals the day after the Senate vote)
  4. Craigslist sibling-of Backpage (two classifieds rivals that split the same ad market)
  5. 2018 — The Backpage seizure defeated Backpage (the site never came back)
  6. Carl Ferrer served under Backpage (chief executive who agreed to shut the site down)
  7. Michael Lacey served under Backpage (co-founder sentenced on money-laundering counts in 2024)
  8. 2018 — FOSTA/SESTA sibling-of The Backpage seizure (the law was signed five days after the seizure)
  9. 2023 — FOSTA/SESTA defeated Woodhull Freedom Foundation v. United States (the D.C. Circuit upheld the law against a constitutional challenge)
  10. Grindr was succeeded by Craigslist Personals (app-based dating already served the same users)
  11. 2012 — Tinder sibling-of Grindr (mainstream app-based dating)
  12. 2014 — Bumble sibling-of Tinder (app-based dating launched before Personals closed)

Entities in this tree: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (event, 1996); Craigslist (company, 1995); Craigslist Personals (product); FOSTA/SESTA (event, 2018); Backpage (company, 2004); The Backpage seizure (event, 2018); Carl Ferrer (person); Michael Lacey (person); Woodhull Freedom Foundation v. United States (event, 2018); Grindr (product, 2009); Tinder (product, 2012); Bumble (product, 2014)

Sources

  1. craigslist notice: "US Congress recently passed HR 1865, FOSTA" — craigslist (2026-09-19) ↩
  2. Public Law 115-164, Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 — U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo) (2026-09-19) ↩
  3. FOSTA-SESTA — Wikipedia (2026-09-19) ↩
  4. Craigslist — Wikipedia (2026-09-19) ↩
  5. Backpage — Wikipedia (2026-09-19) ↩
  6. Section 230 — Wikipedia (2026-09-19) ↩
  7. Craigslist shuts down its Personals ads after Congress passes FOSTA — Abilene Reporter-News (USA TODAY Network) (2026-09-19) ↩
  8. Craigslist drops dating ads after new law — BBC News (2026-09-19)
  9. Attorney General Becerra Announces Guilty Plea by Backpage.com CEO Carl Ferrer and Permanent Shutdown of the Online Sex Trafficking Website — California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General (2026-09-19) ↩
  10. Tinder (app) — Wikipedia (2026-09-19) ↩
  11. Grindr — Wikipedia (2026-09-19) ↩
  12. Bumble — Wikipedia (2026-09-19) ↩

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