Americans adore a moral panic.
During the Red Scare, we believed that Soviet agents were everywhere, having secretly infiltrated all levels of society. In the 1950s, the U.S. government banned switchblades over unfounded fears that we were in the throes of “West Side Story”-style knife violence. The Satanic Panic convinced Americans of the 1980s that absurd claims of ritual abuse and sacrifice were somehow credible. Around the same time, there was “stranger danger” — which was debunked like other moral panics, but never went away entirely.
At any given time, America is moving in and out of some moral panic or another. Harm to children is a persistent theme. In recent years, however, our national obsession with these moral panics has consumed our politics. We’ve come to believe that sex trafficking rings are all around us. The driving force may come as a surprise: a moral panic about consensual sex workers who advertised legally on the internet.
The far-right’s current obsession with “child sex trafficking” — the animating force behind such conspiracy theories as QAnon and Pizzagate, as well as coded political insults like “groomer” — has roots in this moral panic hyped by powerful Republicans and Democrats alike. The panic reached its crescendo with the 2018 federal indictments related to a sex ad hub called Backpage.com.
The Backpage story may stand as a cautionary tale not only of overzealous prosecutions, but also of the second- and third-order effects of moral panics.
A classifieds site that became known predominantly for “adult” advertising, Backpage was born of a more dispersed industry that used to operate in the back pages of local alternative weekly newspapers like the Village Voice, Chicago Reader, and LA Weekly — known as alt-weeklies. For a time, the sex ad industry had its central platform on Craigslist, the free classifieds website, which spurred large-scale campaigns against the ads. As the campaigns took hold, Craigslist buckled and effectively handed the mantle to Backpage — until eventually it, too, came under a sustained morality attack.
I spent four years reporting on this saga — the rise and fall of alt-weeklies, adult advertising, and Backpage — with fellow journalists Sam Eifling and Michael J. Mooney. The result, a documentary podcast series, now on Audible, titled “Hold Fast: The Unadulterated Story of the World’s Most Scandalous Website,” reveals how cynical politicians can take hold of a moral panic and exploit it for political gain.
One thing that struck me during my reporting was that the Backpage story may stand as a cautionary tale not only of overzealous prosecutions, but also of the second- and third-order effects of moral panics — in this case, conspiracy theories like Pizzagate and QAnon. If you look closely enough, you can trace a line from adult ads in alt-weeklies to escort ads on websites like Craigslist and Backpage, to conspiracy claims that Donald Trump is fighting to break up a global child sex-trafficking cabal run by Hillary Clinton and her malevolent minions.
Conspiracy theories don’t grow in isolation. They wrap themselves around kernels of truth. The truth here is that sex trafficking and sexual exploitation are horrific crimes, and no one should underestimate the harms experienced by survivors. For the last two decades, though, powerful politicians, breathless news media, and a host of ill-informed celebrities have conflated “sex trafficking” with “prostitution” — fanning a national hysteria that underpins the conspiracy theories now wracking American society.
Sex Ad Industry
A quick history: Starting with the Village Voice in the 1950s, alt-weeklies popped up in cities nationwide. These papers prized investigative reporting and magazine-style narrative writing; pioneered attitudinal pop-culture criticism; and published classified ads in their back pages that would make half the country blush.
The “adult” ads on the last pages of the tabloid-style papers promoted sex work. At first, they were written in coded language, which created enough ambiguity that federal judges had upheld the ads’ First Amendment protections. The legal doctrine was simple: The government couldn’t deprive a massage therapist or a dancer of their First Amendment right to advertise on mere suspicion that they might also provide an illegal sexual service behind closed doors.
For decades, wink-and-a-nod adult ads could be found in alt-weeklies nationwide. Publishers knew what was being advertised. Most readers knew. So did police and prosecutors. No one, however, seemed to holler about sex ads in newspapers that could be found at busy bus stops, crowded restaurants, or smoky bars. Society didn’t collapse. The kids were all right.
However, with kids’ lives reportedly at risk, there was little resistance from Americans.
Pressure Campaigns
The FBI, eager to capitalize on any national outcry for federal funding, initiated Operation Cross Country to investigate the alleged issue of sex trafficking. Despite partnering with 400 law enforcement agencies nationwide, the FBI has yet to uncover a large-scale, highly organized trafficking ring as part of Operation Cross Country.
This is because, although cases of sexual exploitation and trafficking do exist, many of them are horrifying in nature, the idea of a widespread threat in the United States is based on distortions and exaggerations.
“If you believe that hundreds of thousands of children are being trafficked, you have to believe that your husband, father, brother, and sons are the ones buying them,” Juliana Piccillo, a sex worker advocate, told me. “It’s not just a few guys buying 300,000 children.”
For comparison, the 300,000 employees of UPS, the brown-uniformed delivery drivers we see every day, are equivalent to the number of children being trafficked, if the myth were true.
While America was buying into myths of widespread sex trafficking, individual stories of sexual exploitation made headlines. However, the more nuanced story of online adult ads went unnoticed. In simple terms, the internet made sex work safer overall by providing consensual sex workers with a marketplace away from the streets and the ability to screen potentially dangerous clients.
These safety improvements for workers benefited a large segment of Americans, as the sex work industry in the U.S. is massive. The National Institutes of Health estimates that sex work generates $14 billion annually in economic activity in the U.S., making it a significant industry comparable in revenue to the streaming music industry.
As law enforcement and politicians equated sex trafficking with sex work, journalists followed suit. A study from the University of Minnesota analyzing 1,500 news articles from 1995 to 2014 found a significant increase in the media’s use of “sex trafficking” instead of “prostitution.” This trend has not reversed. Local news reports often exaggerate standard prostitution busts as part of “sweeping sex trafficking investigations,” even when no trafficking is involved.
In August 2010, 17 attorneys general pressured Craigslist to remove its adult ads, leading to the rise of Backpage as the leading platform for adult ads. Backpage’s revenue surged from $11.7 million to $78 million in a few years, turning it into the world’s internet brothel. The owners, Michael Lacey and James Larkin, believed they could withstand scrutiny due to their background in alt-weekly publishing.
Political Opportunism
As the largest platform for adult ads, Backpage faced intense scrutiny and sensational claims of promoting child sexual exploitation. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof led the charge with articles accusing Backpage of facilitating sex trafficking. Protestors gathered outside the Village Voice’s office in New York, condemning sex trafficking and exploitation.
The focus on Backpage overshadowed a more complex reality. While Backpage knew that many of its ads were promoting illegal activities using ambiguous language, it profited by pushing the limits of First Amendment protections and internet laws. Despite this, one of the company’s executives had been recognized by the FBI for collaborating with law enforcement. Internal memos at the Justice Department advised against pursuing criminal charges against Backpage after determining that the company was genuinely trying to remove child prostitution from its site. However, politicians like then-Attorney General of California Kamala Harris and Sen. John McCain saw an opportunity to make headlines by going after the company.
Harris filed charges against Backpage’s owners while running for Senate in 2016, but most of the charges were dismissed shortly after her election. The McCain Institute also focused on human trafficking, with Cindy McCain becoming an expert on the subject. The McCains had a history with Backpage’s owners, which may have influenced their efforts against the company.
Amid political pressure, the Justice Department seized Backpage in 2018 and filed charges related to money laundering and facilitating prostitution. Despite the lack of sex trafficking charges, federal prosecutors repeatedly mentioned it during the trial, leading to a mistrial. Eventually, Backpage’s principals were convicted in a second trial, with Lacey facing sentencing and Larkin taking his own life.
The media environment in 2016, fueled by political agendas and sensational reports, contributed to widespread beliefs about child sex trafficking. This environment also gave rise to conspiracy theories like Pizzagate and QAnon, linking prominent figures to sex trafficking rings. These theories were further fueled by sensationalist coverage of Backpage. QAnon promoters and right-wing influencers believe that child trafficking rings have been a longstanding issue, with only Trump being brave and unconnected enough to tackle the problem. On Telegram, Q promoters discussed the cabal relocating their trafficking operations after Trump shut down Backpage in 2018.
The QAnon beliefs stem from cryptic online messages known as Q drops, supposedly written by a government insider detailing child sex trafficking and Trump’s efforts to combat it. One Q drop tied the seizure of Backpage to Trump’s fight against sex traffickers.
After the Justice Department seized Backpage, Trump signed the FOSTA-SESTA bill into law to target online platforms promoting prostitution. While the law initially reduced reports of online child sex trafficking, smaller Backpage-like sites have emerged, evading U.S. law enforcement.
Despite claims that Trump eradicated child sex trafficking, a Government Accountability Office report revealed that shutting down Backpage hindered law enforcement efforts. The nation’s preoccupation with child sex trafficking has led to misinformation, with conspiracy theories like QAnon gaining traction.
The obsession with child sex trafficking has culminated in alarming trends, such as the success of movies like “Sound of Freedom” and political figures misconstruing facts to fit their narratives. The fear-mongering surrounding child sex trafficking has fueled fantastical conspiracy claims that have seeped into American politics.
Ultimately, conspiracy theories like QAnon are a byproduct of political manipulation and fear-mongering by elected officials, exploiting concerns about child safety for their own gain. Please rewrite the following sentence:
Original: “The company is experiencing a decline in sales due to the economic downturn.”
Rewritten: “The company’s sales are decreasing as a result of the economic downturn.”
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