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Comment by a483838 | Hacker News Reader

As someone who spent over a decade in the adult industry BackPage was extremely responsible. They had a staff of 70 people dedicated to reporting suspicious ads to police. They were the #1 source of trafficking tips.

Another socially responsible escort ad site was owned by a woman (former sex worker) and was forced to sell to a very shady eastern european gentlemen who is referred to as the trafficking king of europe. She sold because she didn’t want to go to jail.

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> Another socially responsible escort ad site was owned by a woman (former sex worker) and was forced to sell to a very shady eastern european gentlemen who is referred to as the trafficking king of europe. She sold because she didn’t want to go to jail.

Was shutting it down somehow not an option? Better to shut it down than to give it to a gangster.

Parent says she didn't want to go to jail. Do you know her preferences better? ISTM most people don't want to go to jail.

It seems to me that the legal trouble would have come from continuing to operate the site, and by selling the site instead of deleting the database and shutting it down, she sold out those women.

But supposing she was being threatened with imprisonment unless she sold it, biting that bullet would have been the honorable thing to do. She owed that much to the people who trusted her with data of that nature.

A person in the situation described above is dealing with corrupt and capricious police and prosecutors. Honest cops would have just charged her and asked the courts to shut her down, if they really felt she had broken laws.

It is far more likely she got doxxed and the king of Europe was threatening her.

Wrong. The buyer had been interested in the site for years. When the decision to sell was made this person was the first contact.

Only after the sale was complete did she realize who she dealt with. It was done through lawyers.

The site sold for 8 figures.

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