Craigslist Personals sections have shut in response to Congress passing the HR 1865, FOSTA (Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act) legislation.

Even the platonic, find-a-friend sections are gone.

While this may seem extreme based on a bill simply meant to stop online sex trafficking, monitoring what people say and do online is not easy, and can cripple even the largest of companies. Just ask YouTube.

Craigslist put out this statement as to their reasoning behind the decision:

“US Congress just passed HR 1865, “FOSTA”, seeking to subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully.

Any tool or service can be misused. We can’t take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, so we are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline. Hopefully, we can bring them back someday.

To the millions of spouses, partners, and couples who met through Craigslist, we wish you every happiness!”

If you're an innocent when it comes to dating, hooking up or just plain hooking on Craigslist, you've missed out on some truly good times.

For instance, Craigslist's list to clue you in on what ads really say:

Any reference to 420 means pot/mary jane. Most (not all) references to skiing/snow... think of a drug that resembles snow, hmm?

Tall can mean anything from 5'7 and up. Men always lie about their height.

If there are dollar signs anywhere in the post title, someone's willing to pay or wants to be paid for sex.

Sex and Craigslist are so synonymous, even the New York Times interviewed site users on their encounters back in 2009 after a couple murders happened in association with meet-ups.

Of course, Redditors have already started conspiracy theories about the shut down:

Comment from discussion Craigslist just took their ENTIRE personals section offline, citing concerns over HR 1865 FOSTA.
Comment from discussion Craigslist just took their ENTIRE personals section offline, citing concerns over HR 1865 FOSTA.

Worst case, you can move to Canada, so they say, since 95 percent of Craigslist's traffic is from the United States:

Comment from discussion Craigslist just took their ENTIRE personals section offline, citing concerns over HR 1865 FOSTA.

Craigslist does have a lot more to offer than just sex friends and true love. Jobs, places to live, stuff to buy, pets, rideshares and more are available to find on the site.

What do you think about the Craigslist personals being shut down?