If you’ve been living in a cave, Craigslist is a place where people can post free classified ads that are immediately viewable on the Internet.
Because one man is accused (not yet convicted) of using Craigslist to meet women for sex and then robbing them (and possibly killing one), the politicians see an opportunity to “regulate” Craiglist (and similar sites like Facebook and MySpace) and making them responsible for what people do using their service. “We must protect the children” and the innocent prostitutes from danger, of course.
Newspapers will be particularly anxious to jump on this Fear Mongering bandwagon. One of the reasons so many papers are going broke is that Craigslist has destroyed sales of classified ads printed and distributed on dead trees.