Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster has just responded on his blog to a letter (actually an ad) that appeared in The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle, from two young prostitutes who beseeched Craigslist to close down its lucrative adult services section. Read the Craigslist CEO’s post in its entirety below.

First, however, read this excellent coverage by WashPost , and do open the CNN video link, which shows Craig Newmark being stumped for response.

Clearly, Newmark is more comfortable talking about the birds outside his window than the “birds and the bees,” but his less-than-polished response to controversy doesn’t make Craigslist the villain here. In fact, it would seem Craigslist is an ongoing victim of publicity-seeking public officials.

Here’s Buckmaster’s response to MC and Ak,  in its entirety:

To AK and MC:

We saw your recent half-page newspaper advertisements in the Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle.

Hearing your accounts of being victimized by criminals who you mention also misused our site, we are anxious to know that the perpetrators are behind bars. Would you or the advocacy groups who placed the ads please let us know where the police reports were filed? We have been unable thus far to identify police reports matching the crimes you describe. If craigslist was misused, we want to learn more so we can improve our preventative measures. If anyone committing such crimes has not yet been apprehended and prosecuted, we want to do everything in our power to assist the police in making that happen. You can send the information to legal@craigslist.org. We work with law enforcement to bring to justice any criminals foolish enough to incriminate themselves by misusing our site, and want to make sure everything possible has been done in your cases.

craigslist is used by more than 50 million Americans to facilitate billions of interactions each month, and criminal misuse of the site is quite rare. We are dedicated to eliminating it entirely however, and in this regard we have been working for years to ensure that craigslist is very much part of the solution to crimes such as trafficking and exploitation of minors. In November 2008, we issued a Joint Statement with 40 Attorneys General and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, describing an array of measures to prevent misuse of craigslist. In May 2009 we went beyond those measures and implemented manual screening of each adult services ad. Based on the time period mentioned in your newspaper ads, it appears the events you describe may have occurred before manual screening was implemented.

craigslist is one of the few bright spots and success stories in the critical fight against trafficking and child exploitation. We’ve been told as much by experts on the front lines, many of whom we have met with in person, and many of whom have shared helpful suggestions we have incorporated in our approach. Even politicians looking to advance their careers by publicly criticizing us grudgingly admit (when pressed) that we have made giant strides, and that craigslist is virtually alone among advertising venues in vigorously combating exploitation and trafficking.

For example, to our knowledge only craigslist, out of countless venues, takes any of the following measures, let alone all of them:

• educating and encouraging users to report trafficking/exploitation
• prominently featuring anti-trafficking/exploitation resources
• creating specialized victim search interfaces for law enforcement
• actively participating in NCMEC’s cybertipline program
• leading all awareness efforts for the National Trafficking Hotline
• meeting regularly with experts at nonprofits and in law enforcement
• manually reviewing every adult service ad prior to posting
• requiring phone verification for every adult service ad
• implementing the PICS content labeling system

We are not content however, and are committed to making further progress. Specific information about the outrageous misuse of our site you describe in your advertisements will help prevent such crimes in the future.