“Backpage was viewed in law enforcement as the most cooperative site,” said Bruce Feder, the attorney for former executive vice-president Spear. But under Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer, the standards used to screen for potential prostitution ads were not clear, attorney David Eisenberg said. Prosecutors say Backpage’s operators ignored warnings to stop running prostitution ads, some involving children. Authorities say Backpage employees would aggregate more users by identifying prostitutes through Google searches, then call and offer them a free ad. Backpage’s operators said they never allowed ads for sex and used people and automated tools to try to delete such ads.

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Persons: —, Backpage.com, Scott Spear, Andrew Padilla, Joye Vaught, “ Backpage, ”, Bruce Feder, Spear, ” Joy Bertrand, Vaught “, Vaught, Bertrand, ” Bertrand, Carl Ferrer, David Eisenberg, ” Eisenberg, “, Michael Lacey, John Brunst, Lacey, James Larkin, Larkin, Ferrer, Backpage Organizations: PHOENIX, Phoenix . Defense, Phoenix New Times, Voice, Prosecutors, Authorities Locations: Phoenix, Dallas, Arizona, California