Save The Date

June 20, 2012
5:00 – 7: 00 PM

Protest Backpage.com’s Facilitation of Sex Trafficking In Front of Its New York City Office!

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) in partnership with Prostitution Research and Education (PRE) and other co-sponsors will hold our second protest in front of the Village Voice building at the New York City office of Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC (VVM), owner of Backpage.com.  This protest will bring attention to Backpage’s ongoing facilitation of and profiting from sex trafficking.

 
“VVM mainstreams online pimping by providing a vehicle for sex traffickers to reach buyers of human beings for prostituted sex,” says Norma Ramos, Executive Director of CATW.  Since August 2011, 51 Attorneys General have called upon Backpage to cease its facilitation of sex trafficking, citing more than 50 cases across 22 states in the past three years that involve Backpage’s facilitation of sex trafficking.  Recently, corporations including T-Mobile, Starbucks, Barnes & Nobles, and Macy’s have pulled their advertisements from VVM in protest of Backpage.com’s facilitation of sex trafficking.

Backpage generates an estimated $2 million per month largely by functioning as a virtual red light district for pimps/traffickers and johns in the U.S. and in 10 other countries.

Join us as we hold VVM accountable for its role in facilitating the rank exploitation of others.  We call upon Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC to engage in corporate responsibility by ceasing to host ads that facilitate sex trafficking on Backpage.

When: Wednesday, June 20, 2012, 5:00 – 7: 00 PM (rain or shine)

Where: The Village Voice, 36 Cooper Square, Manhattan - Take N/R trains to 8th Street or 6 train to Astor Place

Contact: SAndar@catwinternational.org
For protest updates:
“Like” Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) on Facebook
and follow @CATWIntl on Twitter.
www.catwinternational.org