Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Craigslist Being Sued

Craigslist is being sued.
Now, first off, IMHO the only people who are responsible for this sort of unfair practice are those actually discriminating.
Second, if Craigslist.org had to check every post (and there are a metric gazillion of them) it would have to shut down.
Third, doesn't the nature of this suit imply that, say, google would be responsible if I sent out a mass email saying the same thing?
The fact of the matter is that the Internet doesn't work the same was as a paper publication. It can't both in terms of technology (i.e. when you post, it automatically appears as opposed to getting 'manually' placed by an edittor of some kind) and in scale (how could you possibly review all of these?).
Is blogspot responsible if I put up a site advertising for a strictly white room-mate?
What if I put up some text saying I had sex with Angelina Jolie (which I haven't)?
Or, if I put up an article about growing up in the south as a young, black man (which I didn't)?
Or, lets be a little closer to the case in point.
I put up a post saying I'm looking for a place to live.
Can someone comment and say "I have a room, but i only want hispanics"?
Is that the responsibility of blogspot?
Of me?

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