Goodbye Craigslist Personals: Section Shuts Down After Senate Passes FOSTA

Craigslist Personals section comes to an end after the Senate passed the H.R.1865 bill commonly known as FOSTA (Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act). Craigslist posted this public message on its website:

US Congress just 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 are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline. Hopefully we can bring them back some day.

To the millions of spouses, partners, and couples who met through craigslist, we wish you every happiness!

The section could be abused by posting ads that promote prostitution. The company said keeping the section open in the U.S. was too much of a risk.