A lot of political votes – at the local, state and federal level – are heavily influenced by what your future opponent will say about your vote in some future election.

Part of that is good – accountability.

Other parts of this are bad because it forces politicos to vote against something they really like (or vice-versa). Especially hot-button issues: race, religion, sexuality, drugs and so on.

Support shorter terms for white-crime, first-time offenders to cut prisoner costs? Soft on crime!

For gay marriage? Against the centuries-old institution of marriage!

Support a path for citizenship to illegals living here for X years? Pushing for amnesty!

And so on.

Such realities also exist in the court of popular opinion, where – for example – Apple was forced to do something about the iPhone 4’s antenna issue when it became an internet firestorm (free bumper cases to fix potentially lowered connectivity when held “wrong”). I’m not going to go into the merits of Apple’s/Apple nay-sayer’s arguments; the end result is that Apple caved because it – from a PR point of view – had to. To keep the issue alive is just too expensive (dollars and goodwill costs, among others); so cut and run.

Craigslist, sadly, is caving in a similar manner: They are just dropping their Adult (formerly Erotic, I believe) services section in response to pressure from a number of state’s attorneys general.

Wow, I guess this means prostitution in the US will evaporate! (Not.)

I understand the push to get these listings eliminated – prostitution is illegal in the bulk of the US. But does anyone really think these ads, masked/modified, won’t be published in some other section of Craigslist or on some other sites? I mean, really. Of course not; it’s just political theater (for the most part – human trafficking is real and needs to be addressed).

And I know that Craigslist made a point of saying how they manually screened each Adult listing, worked with police and so on. Whether they really did or not and to what degree I’m not privy to, but I don’t read about any other site listing adult ads saying anything like this.

This’ll just drive the ads further underground, and make it more difficult for law enforcement (and johns, yes!) to find the true prostitutes, especially the human-trafficked individuals.

Also, it’s – to a degree – a turning point in the internet. I said this when Craigslist changed from Erotic to Adult services (the Wild West mentality was gone), and it was true then and now. This is the net gentrified, mainstream. Perhaps not all bad, but still not the net I’ve been on since before the Web.

Update 9/8: Danah Boyd – an activist attempting to end violence against women and children – backs up what I’ve said above, with more eloquence and veracity: How Censoring Craigslist Helps Pimps, Child Traffickers and Other Abusive Scumbags.