A front-page article is one of the most prominent stories in a newspaper, featuring big headlines and eye-catching pictures. The front page of a newspaper often gives us clues about the paper’s attitudes toward news — for example, tabloid papers will usually include celebrity gossip and serious papers will focus on national and international politics. A website can have a front-page too — it’s the page that greets visitors and directs them to content they are looking for.
In 2014, three Jane Does who were sex trafficked as minors sued Backpage in federal court, alleging that their traffickers used the site to post ads selling them for sex. The district court ruled against the plaintiffs, but on appeal, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Backpage performed “traditional publisher functions” in respect to third-party content, and thus should be shielded under CDA Section 230. This was the third time the court had struck down state laws attempting to legislate Backpage out of existence.[57] Earlier decisions had struck down similar state laws in Washington state and Tennessee.
