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Is Facebook The Best Place To Meet A NYC Hooker?
By
Ben Yakas
Published Feb 27, 2011
Modified Feb 27, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Feb 27, 2011
Modified Feb 27, 2011
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We already knew that Facebook is the best way for ambitious women to meet jocks, but it's quickly becoming the best way to meet prostitutes! The Daily News discovered Sudhir Venkatesh's month-old (but still compelling) look at the changing face of NYC's sex trade in Wired, which we already noted at the start of the month. But it's never a bad time to learn that 83 percent of the 290 NYC-based prostitutes he interviewed have a Facebook page!
Venkatesh argues that Facebook allows hookers to take "control of their image, set their prices, and sidestep some of the pimps, madams, and other intermediaries who once took a share of the revenue." NYPD spokesman Paul Browne sounded unimpressed: "Everybody is using the internet." The News also spoke to a 32-year-old prostitute who thinks Facebook is too innocent for such digital temptations: "It's a place for teenagers to socialize, to play games, to meet friends - not a place for some dumb ass to find a piece of ass." So...the elephant in the room: has anyone met a lady of the night on Facebook? Or do you prefer doing it the old fashioned way—at happy-ending parlors?
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prostitute
sex workers
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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