TAG / MICHAEL LACEY

Two centuries ago, US Congress banned the slave trade. Against that backdrop, Tony Ortega’s defense of Backpage child sex trafficking shows how exploitation evolves—and enablers evade accountability.

Amid the collapse of careers over even distant ties to Jeffrey Epstein, Tony Ortega’s public contempt for efforts to expose predators set the stage for a lifetime of defending the sexual exploitation of kids. 

As the UN champions global efforts against modern-day slavery, scrutiny is mounting over whether its attorney’s financial support of her husband—who long defended the world’s largest child sex trafficking marketplace—undermines the institution’s human rights mandate.

The owners were jailed and the website assets confiscated, but the role of Tony Ortega—Backpage’s notorious sex trafficking champion—remains to be fully explored.

Backpage was seized and shut down by the government, its founder jailed (after another committed suicide). So why are reporters standing up for the site and its sex trafficking?

After years of legal battles over Backpage’s role in prostitution and exploitation of minors, a federal judge sentenced co-owners Michael Lacey, Scott Spear and John Brunst to prison.

The trial of former Backpage.com owners Michael Lacey, James Larkin and five others began September 1 in an Arizona court, in a case that could have repercussions for media and the ethical guidelines it follows to govern its content.

How an online hub of sex trafficking weaves a web of lies to keep profits flowing, at untold cost to children’s lives.

How an online hub of sex trafficking weaves a web of lies to keep profits flowing, at untold cost to children’s lives.

How an online hub of sex trafficking weaves a web of lies to keep profits flowing, at untold cost to children’s lives.