WASHINGTON, DC (April 29, 2022) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) has called on Elon Musk, whose offer to purchase Twitter has been accepted by its Board of Directors, to use his new role should he buy the company to ensure that Twitter finally stops hosting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and facilitating sex trafficking. Twitter is on the 2022 Dirty Dozen List of mainstream contributors to sexual exploitation.
“Twitter is rampant with child sexual abuse material, non-consensually shared/recorded pornography, and other illegal material, despite having policies on paper against them. We call on Elon Musk to ensure Twitter adequately enforce its policies and prevent, detect, and immediately remove illegal content. Twitter enabled too much trauma and abuse, leading to extensive victimization and trauma of countless children and adults,” said Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
NCOSE’s research has found the following:
- Pedophiles and other predators go to Twitter to trade in criminal content such as child sexual abuse and non-consensually shared/recorded pornography.
- The platform hosts child-, rape-, and incest-themed pornography.
- The platform is rampant with accounts and posts functioning as advertisements for commercial sex—including prostitution.
- Twitter fails to adequately respond to its victims, claiming it cannot be held accountable for disseminating illegal material. Twitter has even flatly refused to remove verified child sex abuse material from its site when asked by victims.
“Twitter must prioritize implementing robust and proactive efforts to remove sexual exploitation and abuse from its platform. If Musk has free speech as his goal for purchasing Twitter, he must understand that child sex abuse material, prostitution advertising, and obscenity is not protected speech and must be confronted,” Hawkins said.
