NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Craigslist, the do-it-yourself online classified listing that many investors hope will soar to Google-like proportions if it ever gets around to issuing stock, is being sued for discriminatory housing ads and asked to police its content the same way newspapers must, according to a report Thursday.

The Web site, where users can post free, unlimited-length ads for anything from apartments and jobs to activity partners and dates, is being sued by the Chicago fair housing group for violating the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the New York Times reported.

Power slacking on the job Survey: Workers waste more time than employers expect, costing companies $759 billion a year.(full story) See other Internet uses • Online dating feeling less attractive • Stealing your neighbor's Net • Keep your money safe on the Internet For corporate Web stories • CBS expanding Internet news site • News Corp.'s bold online bet • Internet stocks: Great expectations

Ads the housing group cited contain language such as "African-Americans and Arabians tend to clash with me" and "No kids allowed," the Times said. Others were screening tenants with phrases like "single occupancy only" or "no minorities."

"We would like Craigslist to be under the same obligations and resulting factors as all other publishers, be they newspapers or magazines, that they do what is necessary and appropriate to make sure that classified ads comply with the Fair Housing Act," Stephen Libowsky, a lawyer for Howrey, the law firm in Chicago that is assisting the group with the lawsuit, told the Times.

But Craigslist chief executive Jim Buckmaster told the paper that monitoring two million free housing ads each month, a number he said was greater than that received by all U.S. newspapers combined, would be counterproductive.

"Craigslist is absolutely a different animal," Buckmaster told the Times. "It's a user-controlled commons where users submit, at this point, eight million ads of unlimited length. So when the lawyers group says they want Craigslist treated exactly as if it were a newspaper, on the face of it, that doesn't make any sense."

The Times said Craigslist has a staff of 19 employees.

But its popularity is growing and it has taken a big chunk of advertising dollars from traditional newspaper classifieds, the article said. A victory for the housing group would likely be good news for newspapers, and it was unclear how exactly Craigslist would comply with such a demand or how it would impact its business model.

_______________________________

Wanted: Some hope for newspapers -- Mind-bogglingly small, and mind-bogglingly profitable, Craigslist is about to make more money. Click here