Message from the Office of Consumer Protection, Office of the Attorney General to Elected Prosecutors

Dear Commonwealth’s and County Attorneys:

On February 12th, Attorney General Jack Conway and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced that their offices had contacted Topix.com to seek details about the website’s business practices dealing with abusive online posts.  http://migration.kentucky.gov/Newsroom/ag/topixletter.htm  This Office has received dozens of complaints and calls to this office about abusive, vulgar and offensive posts on Topix.com, many directed towards children.   Among the complaints are that posts are not removed and that Topix charges $19.99 for “expedited review” of posts which violate Topix’ Terms of Service.  

We continue to receive complaints from citizens who have questions about how to remove offensive posts.  We have developed a set of instructions which have proven to be effective at having posts which violate Topix’ Terms of Service  removed within 48 hours for free and are providing a copy which you can share.  We also have a dedicated an e-mail address for complaints  topixcomplaints@ag.ky.gov    Feel free to share this e-mail address as well.  Our office has had success working with MySpace, Facebook and Craigslist to make those sites safer and it is our hope that Topix will also work with us to address legitimate issues in a cooperative manner.  Should you have any questions feel free to contact Todd E. Leatherman at todd.leatherman@ag.ky.gov or (502) 696-5384.

Office of Consumer Protection
Office of the Attorney General
1024 Capital Center Drive
Frankfort, KY 40601
(502) 696-5300
(502) 573-8317 (Facsimile)