In your hypothetical the site admins would have to be aware of the ads, profiting from them, laundering the profits, etc. In that case yes, burn HN down and scatter the ashes. Of course thst isn’t what they’d do, is it? They’d report the ad, delete it, and try to prevent any more such ads from appearing, which is the polar opposite of the actions taken. by Backpage. I’d also like a citation on your numbers, and how you can tell the difference between “legit prostitution” and someone being trafficked or pimped.
I’d add that if you actually care about broader issues of censorship, you could not be doing a worse and more counterproductive job of promulgating those beliefs if you tried.
What about forums sites like reddit/8chan/4chan who don't have enough admins to monitor the thousands of forums that are created on a periodic basis....
What about if the admins wanted to take a week off?
There's no doubt this gives the govt massive censorship power and forces a beauracratic burden on sites to hire more admins.
You're cool with throwing away our liberties and free internet all over something so statistically miniscule in comparison to the rest of the web.
I’d add that if you actually care about broader issues of censorship, you could not be doing a worse and more counterproductive job of promulgating those beliefs if you tried.