1.) Person chooses to work as a prostitute despite knowing its illegal;
2.) Person (either directly or through an agent) posts ads on Backpage offering their “services”;
3.) Person profits from their illegal conduct;
4.) After some period of time, Person chooses to stop working as a prostitute;
5.) Lacking any better idea to earn a living, Person says: “Gee, I need some income but don’t really have any legitimate income ideas. I KNOW! I am going to sue Backpage (and the people who run it) because they “allowed” me to advertise my illegal services on their website! That makes perfect sense!

The fact that some (or any) judges are endorsing this scheme rather than sanctioning the lawyers who bring these cases blows my mind. What happened to common sense? Are we seriously going to reward prostitutes with hefty cash awards because Backpage didn’t stop them sooner?

I am willing to be any amount of money that when the dust settles, the facts of these cases will all be pretty much the same:
— The only person who actually broke the law was the plaintiff
— Despite suing the principals of Backpage individually for “harming” the plaintiff, the evidence will show the principals had never heard of any of these plaintiffs, never saw their ads, and had no knowledge of their dire (but self-imposed) circumstances.
— Judges who don’t like Section 230 will do everything within their power to keep these frivolous cases alive as long as possible. After all, it doesn’t really matter if the plaintiff wins — as long as Backpage is punished with the cost of litigation.