When John Doe was thirteen, a sex trafficker posing as a sixteen-year-old girl had groomed John and his friend into sending sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves (i.e. child sexual abuse material, or “child pornography”). A compilation of these videos was consequently posted to Twitter. There, it gathered 167,000 views and was retweeted more than 2,000 times. It was also passed around by people in John’s school, eventually driving John to contemplate ending his life.  

John and his mother contacted Twitter multiple times, begging the company to take the child sexual abuse material down and even sending photos of John’s ID, proving he was a minor. Only to be met with this chilling response:  

“We’ve reviewed the content, and didn’t find a violation of our policies, so no action will be taken at this time.” 

The NCOSE Law Center and The Haba Law Firm are representing John Doe and his friend in a lawsuit against Twitter. The case, John Doe #1 and John Doe #2 v. Twitter, argues that the company’s conduct in the above story violated numerous laws, including knowingly benefiting from the sex trafficking of the plaintiffs, possessing child sexual abuse material, knowingly distributing child sexual abuse material (“CSAM”), and other offences.  

Learn more below about this and other cases of exploitation on Twitter. Survivors deserve justice! 

Will Elon Musk Make Good on His Promise to Prioritize Addressing Child Sexual Exploitation? 

When Elon Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, he declared that “removing child exploitation is priority #1.” While this was a heartening statement, Musk has taken many alarming actions since which give reason for extreme skepticism. In fact, most experts agree that Musk’s actions since purchasing Twitter have so far served to make the crime of child sexual exploitation worse.  

A devastating case of a boy who was recently kidnapped and sexually assaulted multiple times after being groomed “in public view” on Twitter would indicate the experts are sadly right. The boy’s mother says that “Twitter and law enforcement failed to effectively intervene despite an abundance of information posted online. They’re demanding answers.” 

Musk cut the Twitter Inc. team dedicated to handling child sexual exploitation to half its former size. He also stopped paying Thorn, the child protection agency which provided the software Twitter relies on to detect child sexual abuse material, and stopped working with Thorn to improve this technology.  

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) also reported that, following Musk taking over the company, Twitter declined to report the hundreds of thousands of accounts it suspended for claiming to sell CSAM without directly posting it. A Twitter spokesperson stated that they did this because such accounts did not meet the threshold for “high confidence that the person is knowingly transmitting” CSAM. However, NCMEC disagrees with that interpretation of the rules and asserts that tech companies are also legally required to report users that only claim to sell or solicit CSAM.  

In the John Doe #1 and John Doe #2 v. Twitter case, the company continues to claim 100% legal immunity for its actions in facilitating the child sexual exploitation of John Doe and his friends. Is this Musk’s stance? How will he proceed to make good on his promise to address child sexual exploitation on Twitter, as “priority #1”?   

NCOSE is watching.