January 27, 2021

USA: Twitter Sued By Child Sex Trafficking Victim Alleging It Knowingly Hosted Content Depicting Abuse. Twitter Reply: We "Didn't Find A Violation Of Our Policies." Refused To Remove Explicit Video.

Rebel News
written by Staff
Thursday January 21, 2021

A boy who was solicited and recruited for sex trafficking as a minor, and endured continued victimization after Twitter refused to remove material depicting his sexual abuse, has sued the social media company.

According to the lawsuit, the claimant, who is still a minor and is referred to as John Doe, “seeks to shine a light on how Twitter has enabled and profited from CSAM (child sexual abuse material) on its platform, choosing profits over people, money over the safety of children, and wealth at the expense of human freedom and human dignity.”

“Twitter is not a passive, inactive, intermediary in the distribution of this harmful material; rather, Twitter has adopted an active role in the dissemination and knowing promotion and distribution of this harmful material. Twitter’s own policies, practices, business model, and technology architecture encourage and profit from the distribution of sexual exploitation material,” the lawsuit continues.

According to the claimant, Twitter refused to remove material depicting the plaintiff’s abuse, even after it was reported to the platform. The offending material received upwards of 167,000 views before the Department of Homeland Security forced Twitter into action.

The lawsuit states that Twitter ignored the claimant’s plea and was eventually forced to act after a mutual contact was able to connect with a DHS agent. The agent initiated contact with Twitter and requested the removal of the offending material.

“Only after this take-down demand from a federal agent did Twitter suspend the user accounts that were distributing the CSAM and report the CSAM to the National Center on Missing and Exploited Children (“NCMEC”). This is directly in contrast to what their automated reply message and User Agreement state they will do to protect children,” reads the lawsuit.

Doe is suing Twitter for damages for its failure to report child sexual abuse material as is mandated by law and its own terms of service agreement. The claimant alleges that Twitter “knowingly hosted sexual exploitation material, including child sex abuse material (referred to in some instances as child pornography), and allowed human trafficking and the dissemination of child sexual abuse material to continue on its platform, therefore profiting from the harmful and exploitive material and the traffic it draws.”

“Defendant has benefited financially and/or received something of value from participation in one or more sex trafficking ventures by allowing Twitter to become a safe haven and a refuge for, ‘minor-attracted people,’ human traffickers, and discussion of ‘child sexual exploitation as a phenomenon,’ to include trade and dissemination of sexual abuse material,” the lawsuit continues.

The lawsuit argues that Twitter already possesses a variety of tools to moderate content on its platform, including algorithms that limit the spread of offensive content, and has the ability to 'shadowban' or suspend users for violating the site’s terms of service. The lawsuit claims that Twitter did not use the means at its disposal to deal with the CSAM in a timely fashion.

“Notwithstanding its stated policy, Twitter permits large amounts of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation material on its platform, despite having both the ability to monitor it, and actual and/or constructive knowledge of its posting on the platform,” the lawsuit alleges. “Twitter also contains significant pornographic content, including illegal child sexual abuse content. Twitter permits numerous profiles, posts, comments, and other content either advertising, soliciting, or depicting CSAM.”
RedState.com
written by Nick Arama
Thursday January 21, 2021

We’ve been reporting a lot on Twitter seeming failure to apply terms of service in a fair and balanced manner.

Obviously, we see that a lot in how they go after right-leaning accounts for no real reasons while leaving what would normally be violations for left-wing accounts alone for obvious violations.

That’s harmful enough.

But one case that was just revealed in a federal suit against Twitter is pretty disturbing and a pretty egregious failure, according to the NY Post. Sex traffickers tricked a 13 year old into providing them with sexually explicit pictures and videos including him performing sex acts. The videos then subsequently showed up on Twitter in 2019 under two accounts that shared child sex material.

The child became aware of the videos in January as did his classmates, and he became the subject of teasing, harassment, vicious bullying and led him to become suicidal.

The child and his family filed multiple complaints with Twitter asking that they remove the material which was child pornography or sexual abuse.

But Twitter ignored them for almost a month, apart from asking the child for an id.

Finally, they responded saying that the child sex/porn didn’t violate their policies, so they wouldn’t take it down. It had already accumulated over 167,000 views and 2,223 retweets.
“Thanks for reaching out. We’ve reviewed the content, and didn’t find a violation of our policies, so no action will be taken at this time,” the response reads, according to the lawsuit.

“If you believe there’s a potential copyright infringement, please start a new report. If the content is hosted on a third-party website, you’ll need to contact that website’s support team to report it. Your safety is the most important thing, and if you believe you are in danger, we encourage you to contact your local authorities.”
If child porn doesn’t violate their policies, why do they have any policies at all?

The child explained to Twitter again that he was a minor as was the other child on the video and that it was the subject of a legal criminal investigation, but Twitter still refused to take it down.

It wasn’t until law enforcement intervened on Jan. 30, 2020 that they finally took the video down.

The child and his mother have now filed a federal law suit against Twitter in California saying Twitter made money off the child porn videos and refused to take them down while they were racking up views. The suit accuses Twitter of allowing people to exchange child porn material and profits from it by including ads interspersed between tweets advertising or requesting the material.

Twitter told the NY Post that they had zero tolerance for child sex abuse and were dedicated in removing it.

But it sure doesn’t look like it in this case, especially if they had to essentially get the police to make them do it. There’s no excuse for this.
I took this screenshot above to prove what Twitter allows to permeate its social media website. This was nothing compare to the other pornography I saw last night on Twitter. When I checked this Twitter account using my desktop computer it reads "this account doesn't exist". However, when I used my android Twitter cell phone app to check this Twitter account I was able to see all of their pornographic posts I saw last night. I shared the image so you can feel the shock I felt when I was scrolling down these Twitter account feeds. I don't care if this is your thing. But children have public access to Twitter and can easily find their way to these hardcore porn videos. (emphasis mine)
UPDATE 1/28/21 at 2:34pm: Added info below.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 5:18 PM

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