Former Backpage Owners Claim to Be Victims of "Moral Panic" About Sex Work

Former Backpage Owners Claim to Be Victims of "Moral Panic" About Sex Work

PHOENIX — Former Backpage owner Michael Lacey, who appeared alongside business partner Jim Larkin at a Libertarian gathering in Phoenix last Friday, claimed that the political/legal campaign to shut down the popular classifieds website was fueled by a "moral panic, based on a false premise [and it] has put sex workers in danger’s way.”

The false premise, as XBIZ today explored in an extensive op-ed was the deliberate conflation, by politicians like Kamala Harris (D) and Anne Wagner (R), of consensual sex work among adults with "human trafficking" or deliberate "pimping" of minors.

As journalist Stephen Lemons reported today for Front Page Confidential magazine, Lacey and Larkin appeared in front of a crowd of Arizona Libertarians who had donated at least $1,000 last year to the Reason Foundation.

Speaking at a panel at the swanky Arizona Biltmore while wearing mandatory ankle monitors, Lacey and Larkin regaled the crowd with tales about their career as newspapermen, alt-weekly moguls and their battles with local and national authorities, including former Maricopa County's sheriff and presidentially pardoned misdemeanant Joe Arpaio, over issues of censorship and free speech.

But the pugnatious former publishers, who built up a tiny campus paper into the Phoenix-based Village Voice Media alt-weekly empire before selling it in 2012 to concentrate on a lucrative side-business of classifieds called Backpage, terrified the government-skeptic Libertarian crowd with details of their ongoing legal nightmare.

Current California Senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris spearheaded a 2016 crusade, strategically timed around that year’s national election, to punish Lacey, Larkin and Backpage CEO Marc Ferrer for refusing to shut down Backpage.

After the passage of FOSTA in 2018, the legislation that deliberately targeted the free speech provisions of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the FBI arrested Lacey, Larkin and Ferrer, and seized all their assets, including Backpage.com.

The Feds replaced the webpage’s content with a stern message announcing the seizure of the site.

As the XBIZ op-ed noted, many sex workers “eloquently argued that shutting down Backpage would harm their lives and livelihoods, but Harris ignored her critics.”

At the Reason Foundation event, panel moderator and Reason editor-at-large Matt Welch said “at the very least, [Lacey and Larkin] are taking it on the chin for the media industry and for the First Amendment, and they deserve our respect. […] They’re facing an incredible trial and a bunch of seizures of their assets over their role at Backpage.com, which was the main target of the kind of anti-sex-trafficking legal panic.”

“As it turns out,” explained co-moderator Elizabeth Nolan Brown, the author of last year’s excellent story on the case for Reason magazine, “there’s been a huge concerted effort over the past two decades to deliberately conflate all prostitution or all sex work in general with sex trafficking.”

Harris’ much publicized Feb. 26 interview with The Root website, where she explained she was in favor of “decriminalization” of sex work, before erroneously defining it as a version of the “Nordic Model,” where people buying sex are penalized and the advertising of sexual services is often conflated with “pimping,” continued her attack on Backpage.

During that interview, Harris mischaracterized Backpage as a hub “for the sale of children, of minors."

Copyright © 2025 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More News

2025 XBIZ Amsterdam Website Launches With Call for Speakers

XBIZ is pleased to announce that the website for its annual European conference, XBIZ Amsterdam, is now live.

NC Governor Vetoes Bill Targeting Adult, Could Face Override

North Carolina Governor Josh Stein today vetoed a bill imposing new regulations that adult industry observers have warned could push adult websites and platforms to ban most adult creators and content.

25,000 Sign Petition to Legalize Pornography in Ukraine

An OnlyFans model’s petition to decriminalize pornography in Ukraine has amassed the 25,000 signatures required for official consideration by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

WannaCollab Joins Pineapple Support as Supporter-Level Sponsor

WannaCollab has joined the ranks of over 70 adult businesses and organizations committing funds and resources to Pineapple Support.

FSC Unpacks SCOTUS Age Verification Ruling in Webinar

The Free Speech Coalition conducted a public webinar Tuesday to help adult industry stakeholders understand the Supreme Court’s recent decision in FSC v. Paxton, and its potential implications.

UK Lawmaker Calls for Appointment of 'Porn Minister'

Baroness Gabrielle Bertin, the Conservative member of Parliament who recently convened a new anti-pornography task force, is calling for the appointment of a “minister for porn,” according to British news outlet The Guardian.

FSC Toasts Jeffrey Douglas for 30 Years of Service

n the very same evening when the adult industry was hit hard by the Supreme Court ruling supporting Texas’ controversial age verification law, HB 1181, members of the Free Speech Coalition board, staff and supporters gathered to celebrate Jeffrey Douglas’ 30 years as board chair — a fitting reflection of his reputation as an eternal optimist.

TTS Opens UK Testing Location

Talent Testing Service (TTS) has opened a new U.K. location in Ware, Hertfordshire.

FSC: Age-Verification Laws Go Into Effect in South Dakota, Georgia, Wyoming on July 1

The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) has published a statement regarding new age verification laws set to go into effect tomorrow in South Dakota, Georgia, and Wyoming.

FSC Responds to Supreme Court Decision on Texas AV Law

The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) has released a statement responding to last week's Supreme Court decision on FSC v. Paxton, the Texas age verification law.

Show More