(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push(["_mgc.load"])})(window,"_mgq");The pair claim that G.G. fell into the hands of sex traffickers after she ran away from home at the age of 13. The traffickers then used photos of the girl in advertisements for escorts on the now-defunct Backpage.com. The mother later found her daughter's image on the website.
Backpage is accused of failing to remove the ad soliciting sex with underage girls and instead referring the mother to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Writing for the majority opinion, Judge David Hamilton highlighted Salesforce’s business relationship with Backpage, which consisted of helping the latter company develop its marketing technology and software. The plaintiffs allege that this business relationship, which began in 2013, helped Backstage grow “to become the dominant force in online sex trafficking.”
“Salesforce's job was, in part, to help Backpage reach more customers, both in the form of sex traffickers and purchasers of commercial sex,” Hamilton wrote. “In a sense, Salesforce helped Backpage find more sex-trafficking contractors.”
According to the suit, since 2008, Backpage “had been publicly identified by law enforcement, United States Attorneys General, and every state Governor as the biggest and most notorious sex trafficking and pimping website in the United States.”
The suit also noted that in 2010, the National Association of Attorneys General publicly described Backpage as a “hub” of human trafficking, “especially the trafficking of minors.” In October 2016, Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer was arrested for pimping minors.
Salesforce’s profits grew as Backpage’s business expanded, according to the suit, with the latter company’s profits totaling $46 million from the start of 2008 to the end of 2010. From January 2013 through May 2015, Backpage’s revenue reached approximately $346 million, with $340 million of those profits coming from adult advertising.
