A federal judge has ruled a lawsuit against Twitter for allowing sexually exploitative videos of children on their platform can move forward. The lawsuit, filed in January, claims Twitter refused to take down a video of a 13-year-old boy and another minor despite repeated attempts by the mother to have it removed.
The video accumulated thousands of Retweets and hundreds of thousands of views before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intervened.
Reports are coming in on Twitter from filmmaker Mike Cernovich and human trafficking survivor advocate Eliza Bleu:
"The Court finds… an ongoing pattern of conduct amounting to a tacit agreement with the perpetrators…"
Damning for Twitter. pic.twitter.com/GnrrtSZdQg
— Eliza (@elizableu) August 19, 2021
Twitter had been trying to have the lawsuit tossed through their Section 230 protections. According to the ruling, “the Court finds that Plaintiffs have stated a claim for civil liability under the TVPRA … the claim falls within the exemption to Section 230…”
Twitter got a devastating ruling against it in a lawsuit brought by an underage sex trafficking victim.
“the Court finds that Plaintiffs have stated a claim for civil liability under the TVPRA … the claim falls within the exemption to Section 230….” pic.twitter.com/LIycNGlsnW
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) August 19, 2021
The lawsuit alleges one or multiple traffickers tricked the boy into providing explicit images to a Snapchat account he was led to believe belonged to a 16-year-old girl. After obtaining the explicit content, the traffickers allegedly blackmailed the boy into providing the video that ultimately spread on Twitter.
“Plaintiff John Doe was solicited and recruited for sex trafficking as a minor,” reads the lawsuit brought in part by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE). “After John Doe escaped from the manipulation, child sexual abuse material depicting John Doe was disseminated on Twitter. When Twitter was first alerted to this fact and John Doe’s age, Twitter refused to remove the illegal material and instead continued to promote and profit from the sexual abuse of this child.”
According to a statement from Bleu:
Minor survivors are our most vulnerable and often overlooked. Twitter knowingly profits off of child sexual exploitation and makes the crime difficult to report and remove for minor victims and survivors.
Twitter has no problem creating new features and reporting systems. They are testing new reporting systems in markets as of this week for tweets that include “misinformation.” Why do minor survivors not have the same options of reporting and removing?
I applaud the bravery of John Doe 1 & John Doe 2 for not only standing up for themselves, but for taking a stand for all minor victims of Twitter from around the globe. Their willingness to relive one of the darkest periods in their life in order to create change is truly heroic.
My statement about the Twitter case:
Minor survivors are our most vulnerable and often overlooked. Twitter knowingly profits off of child sexual exploitation and makes the crime difficult to report and remove for minor victims and survivors.
— Eliza (@elizableu) August 19, 2021
I applaud the bravery of John Doe 1 & John Doe 2 for not only standing up for themselves, but for taking a stand for all minor victims of Twitter from around the globe. Their willingness to relive one of the darkest periods in their life in order to create change is truly heroic.
— Eliza (@elizableu) August 19, 2021
Cernovich and his free speech attorney, Marc J. Randazza, believe this ruling is devastating for Twitter.
I’m reading this ruling and checked with my own free speech lawyer @marcorandazza to make sure I get the a story right.
It’s a devastating ruling against Twitter. https://t.co/FKQFl037Gi
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) August 19, 2021
Twitter bans Trump but amplifies Taliban terrorists. They censor conservatives while embracing progressives. But their worst crimes are now being revealed. Will the courts finally hold them accountable for their protection of child sexual exploitation?
