This crossed my path today:
A civil rights group is suing classifieds website Craigslist for publishing what it calls discriminatory housing ads. Lawyers say some of the offending listings called for “no minorities,” or “no children.”
Other listings were more specific, “African Americans and Arabs…won’t work out,” or, “requirements: Clean Godly Christian male.”
Newspapers clearly cannot publish ads that discriminate. But Craiglist says while it asks people to read and understand the law, it cannot be responsible for ads that break that law.
Ultimately the question seems to be whether Craigslist is a publisher or a service provider. One’s protected, the other isn’t. I’d be surprised if CL doesn’t end up having to make some changes in how housing ads get posted to the site, but time will tell.
Side note — We’ve never found the Craiglist housing ads particularly helpful. All three of the places we’ve ended up renting in the Bay Area have come from other sources — the first was via a paid service, the second from the SF Chronicle ads, the third from the San Mateo Chamber of Commerce.