Judge allows lawsuit against Twitter for failing to take down child porn

A federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit against Twitter can proceed after the web company failed to take down child porn.

In a 53-page ruling that also dismissed several other claims, U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero found that Twitter could face liability under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act based on claims it “knew, or was in reckless disregard of the fact, that through monetization and providing, obtaining, and maintaining [child sexual abuse material (‘CSM’)] on its platform, Twitter and Twitter users received something of value for the video depicting sex acts of John Doe #1 and Jone Doe #2 as minors.”

The case was brought by two men who charged they were manipulated into sharing sexually explicit videos of themselves while they were minors – and then years later they found the videos posted on Twitter.

“Two 18-year-old plaintiffs suing under the pseudonyms John Doe #1 and John Doe #2 say they were 13 years old when a sex trafficker posing as a 16-year-old girl tricked them into sending pornographic videos of themselves through the social media app Snapchat. A few years later when they were in high school, links to those videos began appearing on Twitter in January 2020,” according to Courthouse News.

President Trump had taken action against the posting of child porn, with the signing of the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act in 2018. That created an exception to a 1996 law that generally shields internet platforms from lawsuits over content posted by their users.

The report explained the law was meant to discourage platforms from making it easy for sex traffickers to advertise and sell the services of their victims online.

The two boys who were victimized charge that they asked laws enforcement to help get the videos removed by Twitter, which refused – until nine days later when a Department of Homeland Security agent contacted the company.

But by then the videos had had 2,223 retweets and 167,000 views.

Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, online companies generally are immune from lawsuits over user-posted content. But FOSTA carved out an exception that establishes liability for violations of TVPRA.

Spero concluded the lawsuit sufficiently alleged the sexually explicit tweets were monetized to generate ad revenue for Twitter. Spero noted the thousands of views as making that claim plausible.

“The court finds that these allegations are sufficient to allege an ongoing pattern of conduct amounting to a tacit agreement with the perpetrators in this case to allow them to post videos and photographs it knew or should have known were related to sex trafficking without blocking their accounts or the videos,” Spero found.

Peter Gentala, a lawyer for the two men, told Courthouse News, “This historic ruling is the first breakthrough for an online trafficking survivor in any court where Twitter has alleged CDA immunity.”

In its statement, Twitter said it doesn’t tolerate “child sexual exploitation.”

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